Winter is an ideal time to work with your dog on control issues. Whether you have a hunting dog or just a playful house mutt, there comes a time when controlling your dog is critical to either protecting them from harm or becoming a better field partner.

There are two commands that are absolutely essential. The first is “whoa” and the second is “come”. Almost every other direction you will give your dog is built off these two basic ideas.

Rule No. 1: Training must be fun and it has to be done in very short time intervals. The dog should see this training as a game. Dogs, by their very nature, want to please their owners. They seek your approval. By understanding what it is exactly you want your dog to do, there are easy tricks to get them to do exactly that.

Rule No. 2: Consistency is the key to success. Accepting nothing less than perfection on even the littlest points builds confidence in the dog. They need to understand exactly what you want and you must signal that every time you work together. If you are inconsistent or accept less than perfection, they get confused and discouraged. And, as you build to complicated tasks, the very basic steps must be learned completely.

Rule No. 3:  If you are not willing to put in the time, blame only yourself if your dog does not behave the way you want it to. Remember that a dog’s life starts anew about every 15 minutes. Training is a matter of repetition over time. Each repetition builds muscle and brain memory.

The “Whoa” command is probably the most essential command you will ever teach your dog. For the average house dog it can save his life if he is running toward traffic. How can you get him to come if he won’t stop? For bird dogs it is again the most valuable of commands. You want the dog to hold his position and point the moment he smells the bird scent.

To teach this command you need two stakes in the ground about 30 feet apart. To one anchor attach a 15-foot rope. Stretch out the rope toward the second stake and mark on the ground where that rope will end. Attach the end of that cord to the collar of your dog. Then attach a regular leash to the collar as well. Slowly lead your dog to the end of the cord.

Just as you reach the end of the rope, command “whoa” and then take two steps forward and turn toward your dog who has reached the end of the rope. Keep your leash taut. He will probably try to go right, left, backward or lie down. Give the command “whoa” again and force him to remain standing.

Do not holler at the dog or be aggressive with him. Rather, repeat the command with a firm but calm voice. This will tell the dog you are not mad at him but that you are insistent. You should keep physically still. This will show him that you both need to stop. If he moves, gently bring him back to the end spot with the leash.

Do this for about 15 seconds or so. Now lead him back to your starting point and repeat. Do this four or five times. Now, this next step is important. Let him loose to romp and play for a while. He must associate the fact that if he does this one thing for you, he will rewarded with active play. Training must be short, purposeful and then fun.

This first step may have to be repeated for several sessions until he understands that he must stop on the command “Whoa” and stand still. When he stands for you with you directly in front of him, you can now proceed to walk a little to the left and right. Repeat the command “Whoa” and walk to his side a bit. He will turn his head and start toward you.

Gently but firmly return him to his spot. Don’t yank the leash or be rough with him as it will make him afraid. However, be firm and insistent. No movement on the dog’s part is acceptable. This lesson is probably the hardest and may take the longest. Again, make the lessons short but insist on perfection.

The next step is to lead the dog from the stake to the end of the rope an command “Whoa.” By now he should stop and be steady. From the other stake, stretch a rope to the collar and snap it on. The two ropes from each stake should be taut. This will hold the dog in place. Do this gently so the dog will not be afraid.

Now, issue the “Whoa” command and walk down along his side. He will want to turn as you do so. The front rope will stop him from backing up from the spot, but it will not stop him from turning. Anticipate he is going to want to turn to follow your action.

Put your hand down next to his head and your other hand along his back. Keep his head facing forward or in line with the two ropes as you walk around him. The back hand will keep his hind quarters in line. Softly repeat “whoa” as you do this. It is better to teach this keeping him in line with the hands before he actually turns.

Again, do this three or four times, always leading him to the end of the cord, giving the “whoa” command and insist that he hold his position as you walk to his side. Now try it standing erect without the hands gently holding him in line. If everything has gone well to this point, he might not need any correction. However, at any movement, reposition him and repeat the previous steps.

The next step is to do this without the rope. Put a leash on him, walk him forward, command “Whoa” and drop the leash. He should stand there quietly as you walk around him. Be sure to reward him with a treat and/or play when he does what you ask.

Remember that training should be fun for both of you.

Source: GloucesterTimes.com

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Mike Bridges can’t recall a time when there wasn’t a hunting dog around the house.

His grandfather raised fox hounds and beagles, and growing up, Bridges owned a shepherd-collie mix that could tree squirrels with the best of them.

These days, Bridges raises feist dogs, the traditional terrier-type treeing dog of the Southern mountains.

“Feists are people dogs,” Bridges said. “If they don’t like you, they won’t hunt with you.”

Bridges kennels his dogs on a wooded hillside in northern Knox County, close to the Union-Anderson county line. He has 24 dogs in all. His favorite is Tanner, a 26-pound, 5-year-old feist that locates squirrels with pinpoint accuracy.

Bridges hunts squirrels because he enjoys the company of his dogs. He bought Tanner from a kennel in Indiana when Tanner was 6 weeks old, and raised him in the house.

“You can’t just keep a dog in a lot till it’s a year old and expect it to tree,” he said. “You’ve got to fool with them. I usually get them started chasing a squirrel tail as a puppy.”

Feist dogs, as defined by the American Treeing Feist Association, should have smooth coats and weigh no more than 30 pounds. Their ears should be short, their bodies slightly stocky, and their legs can be straight or benched. Most are virtually silent on the track, but bark with abandon when treeing game.

Feist dogs are bred for function, not beauty. Some theorize the breed originated when the early settlers from England crossed their terrier types with the small dogs kept by North American Indians. Horace Kephart mentions feist dogs in his book, “Our Southern Highlanders,” published in 1913, and William Faulkner, the Southern novelist, was a known feist fancier.

Bridges said that while most well-bred feists tree by natural instinct, proper training is often necessary for a pup to reach its full potential.

One of Bridges’ training tools is an elaborate contraption called a squirrel tube that consists of three interconnected wire tubes and a box that temporarily houses a live squirrel.

A 20-foot wire tube on the ground connects to a vertical tube that in turn connects to a 20-foot wire tube stretched horizontally between two trees, 10 feet off the ground. When a pup is still young, say 4 months old, Bridges will let the squirrel run through the ground tube so the pup can get a close look at it. When the pups are a little older, he lets them bark at the squirrel as it runs back and forth along the horizontal tube above their heads.

At first, Bridges trains his feist pups as a group. Once they’re started, he takes them out one at a time, usually accompanied by an older dog.

“A lot of breeds will tree a squirrel,” Bridges said. “What you look for in a feist is that fierce desire to follow the squirrel through the limbs.”

Recently, Bridges worked five dogs on the squirrel tube. With him that day was his friend, Gary Chapman, who brought two feists - an adult named Gracie and a younger female named Precious.

“Gracie taught Precious how to tree,” said Chapman. “All I did was take them to the woods and let them go.”

Bridges uses the squirrel tube sparingly. Too much of it, he said, can spoil a dog and make it less inclined to bark at a squirrel that’s hidden from view.

Squirrel hunting has been on the decline in recent decades as turkey and white-tailed deer hunting have increased in popularity. Bridges likes that with squirrel hunting he can carry on a conversation and walk freely through the woods behind his dogs. He likes the fact that squirrels are plentiful - he eats them fried, with gravy - and he often invites children along on his hunts.

When it comes to training squirrel dogs, he swears by one simple rule.

“It takes a lot of hunting,” he said. “All my dogs, they need to be in the woods. They need it bad.”

Source: KnoxNews.com

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Star-Exponent columnist Hope Smith’s op-ed Friday, “No matter what their purpose, dogs need our respect, too,” was a well written, thoughtful, and compassionate contribution to the opinion pages. Much to her credit, she directly but very diplomatically talked about her concerns over the issue of the mistreatment and neglect of hunting dogs.

Smith kept the tone of her column tip-toed and careful, mildly suggesting that hunting dog neglect is already a current problem here locally and more broadly speaking. The issue is in fact a serious animal welfare issue badly deserving of investigative reporting.

In my and others’ opinions, it has been sadly under reported, irresponsibly so. The mistreatment of hunting dogs has become so unacceptably commonplace that compassionate citizens are beginning to speak out in defense of these good-natured, intelligent and loving dogs.

One other compassionate person speaking out is my own daughter, Allyson, who is a practicing licensed vet tech in the region. She has seen and treated many hunting dogs. I offer her commentary on the issue; these are her unedited words:

“In my experience working as a veterinary technician in Warrenton, there were many occasions where I helped treat sick or injured hounds that were fox hunting dogs. As these dogs are typically kept in kennels outside, often concrete, it was common for them to have decubital ulcers (aka pressure sores) on their under bellies and bony protrusions.

“The hounds were kept in very thin body condition, whether that was intentional to make them faster and more driven by hunger in pursuit of the fox or due to a degree of neglect, we couldn’t be completely sure. This made their pressure sores much more pronounced on bony sternums, elbows, and hocks.

“Animals that are kenneled, often in close quarters and without much human contact, for the majority of their life have increased stress. Stressful living conditions, in combination with the animals being intact (or not neutered), breeds conflict. The male hounds were kept intact, as there is argument for the animals working or performing better when influenced by excessive testosterone. These conditions made it quite common for the animals to fight and have resulting open wounds or old scars.”

It will be a surprise if columnist Smith and her “call to care” for hunting dogs somehow manage to dodge the proverbial bullets of typically hyper defensive hunters.

Even though she was delicate and nonconfrontational, she may still receive some hot disparagement from local hunters.

I know from experience that tackling the sport-hunting fraternity that any criticism of the “sport” whatsoever, whether the inherent cruelty to animals involved or perhaps the utter failure of regulated hunting to adequately manage healthy wildlife populations, like overpopulating deer for instance, is always met, always, by open hostility.

Source: StarExponent.com

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The phrase “man’s best friend” may never have been so true as it is for turkey hunters — fall turkey hunters, to be precise.

Hunters and dogs have been teaming up on fall turkeys in the mountains of southern Appalachia for generations. Due to a technicality in state statutes that classed wild turkeys as “big game,” it was long illegal to hunt turkeys with dogs in Pennsylvania. A campaign led by John Plowman, turkey dog enthusiast and former Game Commission legislative liaison from Harrisburg, was instrumental in getting the law changed in 2007. The tactic remains rarely used, but Pennsylvania hunters can now know the pleasure, and effectiveness, of hunting with specially trained turkey dogs.

“There’s a certain degree of misconception about turkey hunting dogs,” Plowman said during the legislative push. “There is nothing unsporting or unfair about using these dogs. The dog’s role is finished as soon as it finds and scatters the turkeys. After that, it is still a matter of the hunter’s skill.”

Without dogs, fall turkey hunting is a three-phase process — find, scatter and call. The hunter walks quietly through good habitat looking for scratchings, droppings and other turkey sign. If turkeys are spotted, the accepted tactic is to rush toward the flock, hoping to scatter the birds in all directions. Wild turkeys — especially fall flocks of hens and young birds — are highly social and motivated to reassemble. After the break, the hunter sets up in a concealed position and tries to call the flock back together, taking one of the birds upon its return to the site.

Trained turkey dogs help the hunter with the first two phases of the hunt and are remarkably cooperative in the last. Turkey dogs find a flock by scent, then rush quickly among the birds to flush them, barking to let the hunter know a flock has been scattered.

At that point, turkey dogs adopt a role that some hunters find hard to believe, until they’ve seen it for themselves. As the hunter prepares to call the scattered flock, the dog crawls into a camouflaged burlap bag and lies motionless in the hunter’s lap, sometimes for hours, during the calling phase of the hunt.

Fall turkey hunting with dogs is still so new in Pennsylvania (it was legalized in 2007) that few hunters here have adopted the practice. In addition, the statewide one-bird fall limit cools hunters’ incentive to acquire and keep a dog for limited use.

“I have been an avid turkey dog enthusiast for years,” said nationally known turkey call maker and guide Scott Basehore of Denver, Lancaster County. “For years, I’ve traveled to West Virginia, Virginia and to New York to pursue this sport, but now I can go here at home. Often, I take other people out just for the pleasure of watching my dog work.”

New York isn’t the South, but it is the home of the “northern disciple” of hunting fall turkeys with dogs. Pete Clare operates Turkey Trot Acres (www.turkeytrotacres.com), a hunting lodge in Candor, New York, just north of the Pennsylvania border, that specializes in fall turkey hunts. Basehore takes his dog to Turkey Trot during the fall and works as a guide.

“These dogs add a lot to our operation,” Clare said. “Not everyone can keep up with a flock of turkeys in the woods, and it’s seldom that you can run fast enough to achieve a good, 360-degree scatter–besides, the safety of running with a loaded gun is questionable. We put a dog on fresh sign, and it does the finding and scattering. We just wait to hear the bark, then we go.”

On a recent hunt, Clare’s dog Luke flushed a big flock of turkeys from a cornfield next to a wooded ridge. Six of seven hunters killed turkeys there over the next two days as the birds came to calls.

“I grew up with hunting dogs,” Clare said. “We don’t have wild pheasants anymore. Having a turkey dog now, especially with the abundance of wild turkeys, is a real joy. We love taking people out on their first turkey hunt in the fall of the year. Even if we don’t get a bird, people love to see that dog hunt like a raging maniac one minute, then lie down in the bag in my lap. It’s a unique outdoor experience.”

Source: Post-Gazette.com

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After four days of drizzling, misty rain and unseasonably cool weather the first day of the eastern deer season opened as one of those days outdoorsmen dream about.

For the deer hunters who chose to have their hounds chase the deer the conditions couldn’t have been more ideal. It was damp enough that the deer’s scent hung close to the ground and it was cool enough to make it comfortable for both the hunters and the dogs.

That’s why I was surprised to find relatively few deer hunters out there with their dogs on the opening day of the season. Ordinarily we’d see truck after truck loaded with dog boxes, two-way radio antennas, tracking antennas and elevated stands lining the roads in the more rural areas Down east. I started to wonder just what was wrong here.

Some of my fondest memories of deer hunting in the eastern part of North Carolina were when I spent some time hunting on an abandoned railroad track that led through a swamp. Sandy and Leon were two black farmers from the Aurora area that had a couple of accomplished deerhounds and they allowed me to go along with them. I stayed on the old railroad bed to hunt because they were afraid that I’d get lost in the old Bay City pocosin.

These guys would follow the dogs into the thick woods and, in the absence of two-way radios, communicated through blowing bugle-like calls through the barrels of their single shot shotguns. At the end of the hunting day and if the dogs were still in the woods, they’d call their dogs to them by blowing notes on the same gun barrels. It was rare back in the late 1940s to even see many deer and to hunt with these guys was a treat. They were good hunters and good teachers who stressed gun safety as well as sportsmanship.

Asking around in the dog hunting fraternity as to why there were so few hunters on our roads opening day I started to find some answers.

The national economy is playing a large part in having a change in the way deer hunters carry out their sport. This seems to be particularly true in the case of the deer hunters who choose to hunt with the aid of dogs.

Dog owners who formerly owned several trained deer hounds found the price of keeping these dogs was getting really expensive. Between the price of dog food and the medications that keep the dog healthy the hunters simply found themselves in a financial pinch. When it comes down to a choice between feeding and keeping healthy their families versus several large hunting dogs, the families won out.

A morning’s visit with the local hunt-master of the local deer hunting with dogs fraternity supplied even more possible answers to the question of why there were so few hunters on opening day.

Earl Bonner started hunting deer with dogs some 70 years ago and has several hunting dogs himself. He’s now 82 years old and, being fully retired is able to spend a great deal of time looking after his deer hounds, bird dogs, a fine airplane and a loving wife. He does still enjoy hunting deer with his 13 year-old hound, “Bozo” and keeps some of the finest bird dogs in the state.

Earl feels like a lot of the younger deer hunters that used to take the opening day of the eastern deer season off to run their dogs and hunt simply are afraid to take a day off (the major industry in the area runs at full speed 24/7/365) to go hunting. Good jobs are hard to come by these days and to take a sick or vacation day to go out chasing deer isn’t always a good idea. You might not have a job waiting when you come back to work.

A lot of these down-east deer hunters make no apologies about hunting deer from elevated stands mounted on the backs of their trucks. There’s no law prohibiting this in lots of areas of North Carolina and it’s one of the best ways to be able to see well into the thick brush where the deer bed up. Since their trucks need some type of road to run on, you’ll often see these hunters standing on top of their trucks using binoculars to try and spot that big buck trying to stay hidden in the woods.

To many of the “citified Tar Heels” who see hunters with rifles standing on the back of trucks along our public roadways is a bit scary. This practice (again, legal in lots of counties) is surprisingly safe when you think about it. The riflemen are positioned at an elevated angle from their targets and any bullets are directed downward. Secondly, it’s frowned upon to shoot into a road.

Because the price of gasoline is a major factor to many of us, this also may be playing a big part in the declining numbers of deer hunters who depend heavily on mechanized transportation to practice their sport.

The economic situation and the fragmentation of the ownership of the land are real problems to the dog hunting groups in our state.

Where you used to have vast tracts of land that the owners made available to dog hunters, you often find smaller tracts of land where hunting with dogs is permitted on some land and frowned upon on other tracts. Of course the dogs can’t read the signs and when they’re in hot pursuit of a big buck they often charge onto lands where they’re not welcome. This causes some problems with landowners.

Another factor that may be coming into play with the declining numbers of dog hunters is the fact that many former dog hunters are turning to still hunting to harvest their deer.

One former dog hunter recently told me that he was “spent-out” on paying the high fees for belonging to hunting clubs that specialized in dog hunting and was turning to still hunting next year to save money. He knew that there were literally thousands of acres of public hunting lands that he could hunt for the price of his hunting license and these lands were some of the best deer country around.

Of course there are conflicts between the dog hunters and the still hunters who value the solitude of sitting in a tree and waiting for the deer to come to them instead of having a dog push the deer in their direction.

Hunting deer with dogs is one of the time-honored southern traditions that’s been around since Europeans came into the New World that’s now called America. I’ve seen many hunters who follow their packs of hounds just to hear the “music” of the dogs as the chase the deer. The hunters sometimes are without a gun and get their sport simply by observing had hearing the chase. This is their sport and it’s a part of living where we live.

Source: GarnerNews.com

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ELK RIVER, ID. - A Worley hunter says three of his hound dogs along with a friend’s dog were killed by a pack of wolves last Thursday near Elk River, Idaho.

Bear hunting is Bill Greenlee’s passion. He’s been doing it for decades and says success boils down to having the right hounds. And he was hunting with his hounds last Thursday in the woods near Elk River.

“We were up there and the dogs struck a bear, they smelled the scent and started barking,” he said.

“I heard them up going over the hill and then suddenly everything went silent. Bill was up there, three of the dogs got in there and then got the hell outta there,” hunter Joseph Melson said.

Four hound dogs came across more than just a bear; Bill and Joseph believe they were killed by a pack of wolves.

“Sis was seven-years-old, Whitey was eight-years-old and Squirt was five-years-old and I raised them from pups,” Greenlee said.

“Annie Oakley got her last winter, she was a gift from my dad,” Melson added.

One lone wolf was seen leaving the area and Bill reported the attack to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

“There was more than one wolf there because three females were killed within a 30 foot circle,” Greenlee said.

Reports of livestock and dog kills aren’t new to the area. Fish and Game reports wolves killed 11 dogs between January and august of this year while last year wolves killed 14 dogs. Wolves are something Greenlee and Melson try and avoid when they’re out looking for game.

“If we go in there and find a wolf track, we go the other way,” Greenlee said.

Now Bill Greenlee’s plan is to invest in new hounds but replacing them won’t come cheap or easy. The dogs he lost were like family.

“It’s hard, oh yeah. I’m trying to keep from crying … it’s hard.”

Source: KXLY.com

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FAIRCHILD - Rod Lein of Chippewa Falls opened a plastic case filled with battered bells. They look liked small, tarnished cow bells. Each had a different tone and a different origin. He picked one from Nova Scotia that Lucy, a 3-year old English pointer, would wear Monday afternoon on a training run.

She is training for a field trial that began Wednesday and ends Saturday in the Eau Claire County forest. She will run against dogs from across the eastern U.S., many with professional handlers.

Lein, a retired postman, technically is an amateur but trains dogs with a fanatical intensity. In August he spent two or three days every week camping in northern Wisconsin, where he could run his dogs on wild sharp-tailed grouse.

The training and the pointing dog field trials are all catch-and-release. After the dog points a bird, the trainer walks in, flushes it and shoots a blank gun.

Lein also hunts with a regular shotgun, but he keeps it unloaded until the dog points a bird, then loads it. He already has been to North Dakota to hunt sharp-tails. He probably will go back in November for pheasants.

He also plans to go to Minnesota for pheasants and probably to southwest Nebraska for quail and pheasants. He also hopes to squeeze in some hunting for ruffed grouse and woodcock in October, sandwiched between a busy field trial schedule.

His dogs did well in their first competition of the fall, a trial on sharp-tails in the Namekagon Barrens. His 5-year-old pointer, Bell, was the champion and Lucy was runner-up.

But Bell is on the disabled list now with a disease that has yet to be diagnosed. She may be back later in the fall, but for now it’s up to Lucy.

On Monday, besides the traditional bell, she wore a GPS unit. If she pointed a bird the bell would stop jingling, and the GPS would help locate her in thick brush.

Lein also wrapped her tail with orange and blue tape, mostly to protect the tail, but this color scheme would help find her in the brush.

He walked Lucy to a starting point. He unleashed her, gave her a command and she was off at full speed.

We followed behind at a brisk walk on a winding trail, slightly wider than a deer trail, through brush and sloughs.

We passed a porcupine poking its nose out of a den in the hollow base of a dead tree - a hazard for a curious dog.

In the trial, the two judges will be on horses, Lein said. Otherwise, going all day in this terrain would wear out the fittest of judges.

For 10 minutes we followed Lucy’s comings and goings through the tingling of her bell. Occasionally she zipped across the trail in front of us and gave a quick glance back.

Then the bell stopped.

With the help of the GPS, we found Lucy standing like a statue, her multicolored tail pointed toward the sky.

As we walked toward her, a grouse flushed off to the side. Lein fired a blank gun. The dog didn’t flinch.

The dogs are required to remain stationary to the flush of the bird and the shot.

Lein tapped Lucy on the back and gave her a command to hunt again. She took a few steps, and a grouse flushed in front of her.

It was a serious miscue for her and Lein and one that would have gotten Lucy ejected from a field trial.

In the complicated etiquette of pointing dogs and pointing dog trials, no sin is more heinous than a dog flushing a bird.

But because we were just training she would run another 40 minutes.

She found another grouse. Then a woodcock.

As of Monday the migrating woodcocks clearly had not arrived yet in the Eau Claire River bottoms, Lein said.

Last year, when there was a flight of woodcock, Lucy pointed 12 birds in an hour - 11 woodcocks and one grouse.

Lein had her swing down to the Eau Claire River for a drink, and on the way a turkey flushed well ahead of us. Lucy stopped and would not move again until Lein tapped her on the back and commanded her to hunt again.

He called that a “stop to flush.” If a bird flushes wild ahead of the dog, the dog is supposed to stop.

Chasing a flying bird also is grounds for being pulled from the trial.

Turkeys don’t count in the field trial. Lein said he preferred that his dogs stayed away from them. He knew of one dog that had its back broken by an adult turkey.

After about an hour in the woods Lein called Lucy in. She was more than willing to continue hunting, but we were running out of daylight.

Also, she needed to rest up for the competition.

Knight can be reached at 830-5835, 800-236-7077 or joe.knight@ecpc.com.

Dog Trials

The Wisconsin Cover Dog Championship, a field trial for pointing dogs in the eastern Eau Claire County Forest, began Wednesday and will run through Saturday. A Derby Stake for younger dogs will be on the weekend.

The dogs will run two at a time on six courses in the forest in search of wild ruffed grouse and woodcock. No birds are shot; only blank guns are used in the trial.

Dog handlers will meet for lunch and dinner at Wilson Park.

About 46 dogs are entered, some from as far away as Pennsylvania and the state of New York.

The field trial has been in the county forest for more than 30 years.

Source: LeaderTelegram.com

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KALKASKA — State authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of two hunting dogs owned by a Kalkaska man.

Jon Otto was hunting on state land in southeast Kalkaska County Saturday afternoon, listening as his seven hounds barked, bayed and chased coyotes through the woods. He heard two gunshots and thought another hunter nabbed the coyotes his dogs were chasing.

But Otto’s dogs turned quiet and when he found them, two were dead. He called authorities and the incident is under state investigation.

“Dogs are protected. They are somebody’s property,” said Lt. Creig Grey, conservation officer with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

DNR officials will continue to probe the shooting and already have suspects.

Otto was able to provide a partial license plate and description of a truck he saw in the woods near the area where his dogs were killed, just south of CCC Bridge in the Pere Marquette State Forest.

A couple of bear hunters in the area who heard about the shooting on a two-way radio also spotted the truck. They supplied part of a license plate and authorities put it together with Otto’s observation to track down the suspects, Grey said. The bear hunters also snapped photographs of the truck and the driver, Grey said.

Authorities interviewed four men from southeast Michigan who were in the truck. At least some of them are suspects, Grey said.

It’s unclear whether the shooting will warrant misdemeanor or felony criminal charges. That won’t be known until the investigation is completed, said Kirk Metzger, chief assistant prosecutor in Kalkaska County.

“This is rare that somebody who is lawfully hunting with their dogs loses them in this manner,” Metzger said.

Otto could not be reached for comment.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Michigan’s poaching hot line at 1-800-292-7800. Tips can be made anonymously, Grey said.

Source: Record-Eagle.com

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The Pet of the Week at Fannin County Animal Control is a male Plott hound mix with a calm, friendly demeanor.

Animal control officer Jeff Ferguson said he hopes the dog will be reclaimed by its owner, who may live near the Pinetree Drive area in Epworth where the dog was recently found.

“You could say this is a hunting dog hunting a new home,” Ferguson said. “He’s got a good disposition and is very calm.”

The dog’s animal control number is 546-09.

Animal control manager John Drullinger encouraged owners who have lost their pets to take steps to recover it as soon as possible.

“The county animal ordinance requires us to hold a dog for just three days before it’s available to someone other than the owner, so they should check with us right away if they have a pet missing,” Drullinger said.

This hound mix is one of several dogs available for adoption or to be reclaimed by their owners at Fannin County Animal Control on Industrial Park Road in Blue Ridge.

All must receive a rabies vaccination and be spayed or neutered before the adoption process is completed.

For information on any of the dogs at Animal Control, or to check to see if a lost family pet has been picked up, call 706-632-3845.

Dogs currently available may also be viewed on the Internet at www.petfinder.com.

Source: TheNewsObserver.com

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Part of what makes hunting exciting is there are no routine outings. That unpredictability keeps us coming back.

Last weekend for the opening of quail season we brought three puppies of three different breeds on their first hunt of the season.

Throw in two boats, the Snake River and some brushy islands, and you’ve got a hunt that’s part comedy and part chaos.

Our trio consisted of Dave Heimer with Cash, his 9-month-old Chesapeake Bay retriever; Jesse Murphy with Wyatt, his 1-year-old Brittany spaniel; and me with Dusty, a 9-month-old yellow Lab.

The irony of buying a puppy is you get it to make your hunting easier and more effective, but for the first season, you’re a combination of chauffeur and soccer mom minus the juice boxes.

The hunts become more about training the dog than pulling the trigger, but you take great joy in the firsts - a first flush, a first retrieve, a first blind retrieve - all of which will hopefully become routine as the dog gains experience.

The puppies didn’t disappoint on any front last weekend. They were rambunctious and unruly from the start, and three owners trying to keep three puppies under control and loaded in boats is always fertile ground for comedy.

Dusty and Wyatt redecorated the interior of my driftboat in a nice motif of Snake River mud and puppy paw prints and managed to hit every seat in the boat before settling in.

Cash, a male in the midst of an awesome growth spurt, dwarfed his new hunting buddies and seemed to take up half of Dave’s boat all by himself.

We hit the first island and almost immediately got into quail and doves.

After a long offseason, the hunters were as eager as the puppies, and we scattered in different directions chasing birds.

My initial impression after the first volley was typical good news/bad news: My wing shooting skills were rusty, but at least my dog isn’t gun-shy.

In fact, once the puppies got a nose full of birds, their frenetic energy became focused.

A good hunting dog is a combination of good breeding, constant reinforcement and a liberal dose of patience. All three dogs showed promise beyond their ages.

It was beautiful to watch Wyatt work a field. His effortless, gliding gait seemed to levitate him at will above the grass and brush. He was the “veteran” of the group because he got a few days in as a toddler last year.

Wyatt found birds under

difficult conditions. Despite it being opening day, the quail were savvy quarry and either stayed in the thickest brush or immediately flew to it after being flushed. It was tough going for dogs and hunters. Credit to the birds, they beat us fair and square.

The doves were a little more accommodating. They held a little longer and flushed within reasonable gun range. Wyatt retrieved dead birds with the ease of a retriever.

Dusty fetched her first bird, a dove with a terminal case of bad luck that flew within range when I was actually in a position to make the shot.

After a few miscues, she found the small bird in tall grass and brought it to me. I couldn’t have been prouder if it was a 10-pound Canada goose.

Heimer and I chose the Snake River and its islands because it’s where we duck hunt, and we could get a combo upland bird hunt and a field-training day for the upcoming duck season.

It was an opportunity to put our retrievers in actual duck hunting situations and let us focus on the dogs rather than the ducks.

Cash was rock solid in a small boat and stayed that way until released, and tirelessly swam the Snake and its strong currents to fetch dummies thrown by Heimer.

Now that hunting season is here, it’s exciting to usher it in with young dogs eager to hunt and learn.

So if our bag was a few birds lighter than usual, no biggie, we have many hunting days ahead and four-legged buddies to share the experience with us.

Source: MercedSunStar.com

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