Pass Along RJ
May 2010

uh?

No, I mean it – your dog can hurt your shooting percentage in a number of little ways. Let’s take a look.

Let’s face it: We’re dog people. By that, I mean we are always watching the dog out of the corner of our eye to see how he’s reacting – has he stopped to flush? Is he out of the way on a low bird? Is he in a position to see the bird if you drop it to mark it for a retrieve? Is he handling the wind right and heading for the right sort of cover? In the blind, is he going to break? Where’d I put that e-collar transmitter? Those things take our focus, even minutely, off the task at hand, which is to quickly get on the bird before it finds a mate and one of them starts laying eggs.

I think most of us agree that we wouldn’t go into the field without our dogs, and that a good portion of the hunt is spent doing dog-things – whistles and commands, and handling to an objective in the field or a downed duck on the water. The other portion is spent trying to round up what you hope will become Sunday dinner with wild rice. What if the dog isn’t there and you’re hunting with someone else’s dog? The chances are your concentration is better and so is your shooting.

  Here’s an example and maybe some proof. I have a friend who operates a wild bird lodge in South Dakota – thousands of acres and very few clients (purposely). Because he’s also a dog trainer, he promotes the idea of bringing your own dog, and his clients are experienced dog people with years and miles and usually a lot of dogs behind them. Often, when two of his guests hunt together, he suggest using one fellow’s dog in the morning and the other guy’s in the afternoon. He says if one client outshoots the other, invariably, the better shot is the man without his dog down.

I know if I am across the continent somewhere, and I didn’t fly my dog with me, I shoot better than when I have to keep an eye on her. At some level, even though I love watching any good dog work, if the dog screws up, I really don’t care. So, I’m not watching for it, ready to prevent whatever sin the dog has in mind right then. Instead, I’m ready and watching for birds. And it shows in my (admittedly abysmal) shooting percentage.

So if your shooting isn’t what you’d like it to be, do what I do – blame anything except yourself, in this case, the dog – he can take it.

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