Two Quail in a Tree

Great morning in the hills.

As I came around a corner, an hour into our hike, Bailey and Chloe were up ahead as they always are.  When I looked up the rise and over to my right I saw Bailey with his front paws up on a tree trunk staring up into the branches.   

Look at the top left corner of the picture for the quail.

 In the next second, a quail flew out of the branches and Bailey gave chase for a hundred feet or so.
I looked up at the tree and there was the mate to the one that had flown away.  He was still there spying us from his perch.

 

Bailey is quite the bird dog.  I love this boy!

The Braques Francais (French Pointer)

On our walk this morning, in the Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, we came across one person and his unusual hunting dog.  I thought it was a small German Shorthair Pointer, but Steve, the dog's person, told me it was a Braques Francais.

Steve told me that he knew of only two breeders of this breed in the United States. Good looking girl who Steve said is quite the birddog and has done very well with the pheasants they hunt.

Chloe standing next to this beautiful pointer



The female French Pointer was between Bailey and Chloe's size


 

STANDARDS
The American Kennel Club (AKC) does not register Braque Francais. However, the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) recognizes the Braques Francais – Pyrenees. The Club du Braque Francais (CBF), in France, is the official club serving the breed. Working from the CKC and CBF standards, here are breed guidelines for the Braque Francais – Pyrenees:

Height: 18 1/2 to 22 inches (47 to 56 cm), with 19 1⁄2 to 21 3⁄4 inches ideal.

Weight: 38 to 55 pounds.

Hair and Color: Braques have short, straight, easy-care hair on relatively tight skin with little or no dewlap on the neck. Acceptable color combinations are brown, brown and white, heavily spotted brown and white, and mottled.

Appearance: Subjective terms applied to the Braque include noble, well muscled and robust. The tail can be docked, or short at birth. The muzzle isn’t square, but should not be “snipey” or pointy. The nose is brown, not split, with open nostrils. The length of the nose should be just less than that of the skull.

http://www.gundogmag.com/2011/09/09/gun-dog-breeds-the-braques-francais-french-pointer/

Never Criticize a Man's Bird Dog

One of the first things you learned about bird hunting,

 if you grew up in the South, was that you don't criticize another

 man's bird dog.

 "Son," they'd tell you,"You might be in the field with some old boy who spends

 the whole day cussing his dog for busting coveys,

running off, and just generally being sorry.

 But what you need to understand is, probably he loves that dog.

 And no matter how bad that dog behaves, he don't want to hear about it from anyone else. That dog is like family.

 Someday you'll understand the thing between a hunter and his dog. For now, just keep your mouth shut." 

There is a jewel of truth embedded in that advice.

 Hunters feel about their dogs the way the father in the parable felt about the Prodigal Son.

 It is always "Come on home, son. All is forgiven." 

In the view of a true hunter, all gun dogs are special and a few are legends.

 Hunters will sing the songs of those dogs' deeds like the ancient sang the epics of Homer. If it weren't for dogs, conversations between bird hunters wouldn't be anywhere near so long, interesting, or funny as they are.

 Sometime in your hunting career you understand that it is the dogs that are the stars of this movie. When you start out, you just want to shoot birds. As you mature, you want to hunt with style. 

When you attain wisdom, you want to be out with dogs because you understand that they have the gifts and the heart. You are just along to witness their deeds and to tell the tales. 

Geoff Norman