A Jack of his trade
A very nice story in the Dallas Morning News this weekend about bird hunting and a special dog named Jack. If you don’t like the idea of hunting or guns in general, you probably won’t like the story. If, however, you appreciate bird dogs and what they do, I think you will enjoy it.
Jack is a Setter, but the writer doesn’t specify what kind of Setter (and there are four breeds and several strains). We don’t have a picture either. I would hazard a guess that Jack is a field English Setter or a Llewellyn (Llewellyns being one of the old strains of English Setters). Unlike my English Setters, which are mostly used for hunting with a hunter on foot, field English Setters and Llewellyns generally excel with a hunter on horseback, where the dog can hunt a field far and wide. The hunter needs a little horsepower to keep up with the dog.
I won’t lie to you: the real hardcore hunter will probably prefer the Llewellyn or field English Setter. They have tons of drive, intensity and style when hunting. They do look different from the English Setters I have and that you see in the show ring. They’re smaller, they have less coat, they’re built stockier, and they have a more wedge-shaped face. But they still have the same sweet, soft dispositions. My dad hunted with them and I have fostered them for English Setter rescue. They can be very sweet dogs and make wonderful pets.
I’ve said before that English Setter rescue is always faced with numbers of these dogs who are turned into shelters. Sometimes the dogs end up gun shy or the owner is a bad trainer or doesn’t have time to hunt. For whatever reason, they are dumped at local dog shelters and English Setter rescue tries to pull every one they hear about all over the country to save their lives. They always need help with foster homes and transportation to get dogs from one part of the country to their new homes. If you’re interested in helping or in learning more about these dogs, you can contact the English Setter Association of America’s Rescue Chairperson, Jeanne A. Deeming, at epointer@aol.com; Another Chance for English Setters; or Bonnie Girard at Above and Beyond English Setter Rescue.
They’re great dogs.
A Jack of his trade
Top dog makes horseback hunt quite an experience
10:37 PM CST on Saturday, December 15, 2007
BIG SPRING, Texas – Watching Jack the setter look for quail is like watching Tony Parker streak past defenders for an easy basket. It’s like watching Michael Young, with an 0-2 count, deliver another game-winning hit. How do they do it? I don’t know, but it’s sure fun to watch.Jack is the king of John Cox’s impressive string of bird dogs. He even barks orders to subordinates as they’re loaded from the kennel into Cox’s big horse/dog trailer.
Cox is a throwback, one of the few hunting outfitters in America who offer horseback quail hunts. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Cox believes horses and dogs go together like peas and carrots.
“I don’t know what it is about Jack that makes him different,” said Cox, who knows more about his dogs than most hunters. He logs methodical daily records detailing which dogs find the most birds.
“Jack has it all – brains, nose, athleticism and the drive to excel. He’s the best I’ve ever seen at finding and working birds.”
In addition to myself and his owner, Jack’s admiring audience on the Big Spring hunt included Ben Parham and Greg Penaluna. Parham is a throwback in his own right, a soft-spoken southern gentleman from LaGrange, Ga.
“I started walking behind bird dogs with my daddy when I was about seven years old,” said Parham, 64, a custom builder. “It’s the only hobby I’ve never gotten tired of. In those days, there were plenty of quail in Georgia, but they’re mostly gone today, except on the exclusive plantations.”
Penaluna is a wrangler who works for Cox. He’s a fast study in bird dogs and horses, and trained the horse he was riding. We’ve got another dog on the ground, a former field trial pointer named Chub, but all eyes are on Jack. At times, I suspect even Chub is watching Jack.
“I have mixed emotions about which dogs to run with Jack,” Cox said. “No matter which dog I pair him with, Jack will find most of the birds. I don’t know if dogs have any self-confidence issues, but I don’t want to discourage them. Chub is a good dog. If he hadn’t broken his tail, he would still be competing in field trials.”
You can tell by the way he hunts that Chub is a good dog, but the 90-minute brace is another lopsided win for Jack, the Michael Jordan of bird dogs. Jack pinpoints six coveys on the round, Chub finds none.
Despite abundant spring and summer rainfall and a mild summer, quail do not seem to be as abundant in west Texas as hunters hoped they would be. The area around Big Spring holds a mix of bobwhite and blue quail.
Bird dog fans generally curse blue quail because they prefer very open cover and usually run, rather than flying from danger. The rains produced cover that’s much denser than usual, however. The dogs often pushed through broomweed that was belly high to Cox’s Tennessee walking horses.
In thick cover, blue quail act more like bobs, frequently holding for the dogs. We had several close-range shots at blue quail covey rises and the singles held tight, just like bobwhites. If you marked where the singles settled in after the initial flush, you could often find them right there.
A slow quail hunt enforces Cox’s basic philosophy about quail hunting. He often hunts in Oklahoma, where the daily bag limit is 10 birds. The Texas daily bag limit is 15 birds.
“Even when I hunt in Texas, I restrict my hunters to a limit of 10 quail daily,” Cox said. “We work hard to put them in a situation where they can shoot 10 birds, but we’re really selling the total experience – good dogs and good horses. Many of my clients have been with me for 20 years. They don’t need to kill more than 10 birds to have an enjoyable hunt.”
Cox has another philosophy. Dogs that make his team get a full-ride scholarship. The next day, Cox releases Babe, a 15-year-old pointer that still covers ground like a dog half her age. Babe is 105 in human years and has been deaf for several years. She pays more attention to the hunters than most dogs. It keeps her from getting lost. Her ears don’t work, but her nose is just fine. Babe points a nice covey of bobwhites in an open grassy area.
At his home kennel, Cox has another senior citizen that can no longer run. Many pro hunters would have the dog put down, just to free up the kennel space for a younger replacement.
“I can’t bring myself to do that,” Cox said. “The dog made the team and hunted hard for me. I owe him a retirement package.”
Information is available at www.hunting-texoma.com.
