While pheasant hunting in Nebraska this year I was thrilled with my lab’s performance. Because of the condition she is in from daily roading, and early season grouse and chukar hunting, Allie was a powerhouse. She hit the tall grass CRP fields with leaps and bounds and quartered over every inch of the fields. Best of all, she listened to and followed my quiet commands. She stayed within gun range and put up roosters for me. I was proud of her.
I did, however miss my Drahthaar Aika. This new dog helped me recognized some of the strengths of that old dog; mainly her tracking ability. There was one rooster in particular that drove this point home. We were working a tall grassy edge that ended in a plumb thicket adjacent to a plowed field. All at once about six roosters erupted from the back side of the covert. Five of them flew left and away out of range, but one came up a little closer and crossed to my right over the plowed field. When he cackled from the cover his tail feathers seemed to just keep coming. He was one of the longest tailed birds I have ever seen. I rocked him at about 50 yards with the first barrel and dropped him with the second barrel. He went down hard, but immediately jumped up and sprinted 150 yards across the bare field to a nasty thick field of standing cane. We raced over to where he crossed under the fence and entered the cover and Allie started down his track, but after a short search came back empty. I wanted that bird and worked and worked to find him to with no success.
With Aika, I can honestly say that I didn’t lose many birds. If you put a bird down, that dog would track it down and find it. Looking back now I can see she was an amazing tracker. I remember one pheasant I knocked down in a thick weedy patch of tall corn stubble. I sent her for the bird, certain I had killed it and that it would be a quick retrieve. She hit the area, worked around then headed off down our back trail. I called her back several times and each time she would head off. Soon she was gone. I yelled and whistled for her and she was just gone. I waited probably ten minutes before she reappeared, rooster in her mouth. I couldn’t have been more pleased. To this day I wonder how far she tracked that running Ringneck.
One of the things that I really saw on this pheasant hunt is how individual dogs have different strengths. I appreciated how much energy Allie had and how easy she was to handle and follow my commands. But I also recognized my Drahthaar’s hard headedness and her amazing tracking ability.
