5 Bird Dogs

DAW

.. . . continuing from hound dogs..

5) BIRD DOG CLAN:

A) Curly Water Dogs:

Hardware: usually medium to bigger dogs. They have curly coats which keep out the water, and keep them warm. Dogs naturally produce an oil, like the slick oil you wash off your own face.

This oil on a dog's coat, helps repel the water - if you wash the oil off the dogs coat, the dog coat looses the ability to keep the water out. Poodles have been bred to no longer make much of this oil.

Needs to have good eyesight..

Software: varied - strong instinct to swim, all these dogs are birdy (have inherited the desire to go after birds), but vary in their instincts to fetch, point, rush AKA flush (spook into flight).

But they should all be soft-mouthed (have the instinct to handle the bird gently), be able to mark falls (watch where each shot bird lands, remember it's location, and fetch them one by one), and not be gun-shy (not be frightened by the sound of gunfire).

Many of them are more of a generalist than the bird dog specialist listed below..

Bio & Use: used to hunt birds. From a stage similar to Tracking Hounds.

With the instinct to carry things with the mouth. Instincts to like swimming (much like River Hounds)..

B) Spaniels:

Hardware: usually medium or large sized dogs with warm water-tight coats. Must have good eyesight..

Software: birdy (attracted to follow things that flutter or fly), not gun-shy (major switch thrown to make the dog not jumpy even to gunfire a few feet away), desire to carry things in his mouth, a good nose, not a ground tracker - sniffs the air, love of swimming, the instinct quarter a field, to stay in front of the gun, soft mouth instinct, bird sense, biddable.

(Like Pack Hounds but more responsive to commands)..

Use: to spook birds into flight were they can be shot or caught by a bird of prey.

Bio: from a social stage where they are still dependant on food from their parents and older siblings, but where they hunt and stalk small things, look for bird eggs, forever a spring puppy..

C) Duck Retrievers:

Hardware: medium to bigger dogs. Good eyesight, warm waterproof coat..

Software: not gun shy (does NOT startle to loud noise), strong instinct to catch things with his mouth and carry them, unselfish urge to bring back what he has caught, birdy but not hyper, good at marking falls (remembering), instinct to stay by the gun (not to go hunting by himself - to stay near his person, to hunt as a pair), soft mouth instinct..

Use: to wait in a hunter's blind or boat, to swim out and fetch shot ducks..

Bio: a social stage of puppyhood, like where a cub would stay near an adult, but with much tinkering of finer details of instincts. .

D) Pointing Dogs:

Hardware: small to bigger dogs. Good eyesight, keen nose. Waterproof coat..

Software: to creep up to birds without rushing them, to freeze on point, to follow air scents, to ignore ground scents of animals, to quarter a field with energy, to venture away from the gun but not too far away, to be birdy, to not be gun shy; usually to also have a soft mouth, fetch, mark falls, and swim..

Use: to point birds, sometimes to fetch shot birds as well..

Bio: same social stage but a bit older to include beginning to watch the herd that the rest of wolf pack is hunting, but not to burst into the hunt, while still hunting small game near the pack but a bit independent of the pack. Like all the bird dogs, this group is a newer group with much tinkering and fine tuning of instincts. .

E) TOLLER CLAN: (tolling means luring the prey back toward the hunter, included here are dogs that use some herding of the prey towards the hunter)..

Hardware: agility, good eyesight..Software: a series of software that allows the dog to find the prey, tease the prey into charging it, and to retreat toward the hunter. a variety of instincts that vary for dogs that lure birds, hogs, or other hoofed animals..

Use: to lure animals to a hunter or pen..

Bio: a nearly adult stage. Wolf packs have more adult sized members in the winter (the cubs of spring are nearly adults) and so can co-operatively hunt deer better. The snow can give a wolf pack an advantage over deer in some situations.

The baby small animals of spring are grown and harder to catch, the fawns aren't fawns anymore. The tolling stage is the start of the stage where the cubs start to help intelligently help hunt large prey with the adults - not to just chase the prey.

An Autumn stage..The edges of this stage can blend with the next stage too. .Ever notice how much one instinct of field bred Setters have in common one instinct of Border Collies, (and cats)?

They are very different dogs, and make very different kinds of pets, but they both have that eye to watch, and cat like creep forward. The pointing dog is suppose to freeze while he starts to creep, but Border Collies pause in their creep too..

. . . next the herding dogs.