The rule of ten is very interesting Kevin. I’ve heard a lot of theories about how rare excellent grouse dogs are. Based only on my fifty six years of hunting grouse, as a rule, I believe they aren’t rare, at least where grouse are in abundance. The key is experience, in my opinion. If you take a well trained bird dog and shoot a lot of grouse over the dog, it should become wise to grouse and learn to handle them well. I’ve had bird dogs since I was fourteen and I have only had to give two away who didn’t come up to my standards on grouse.
The exception to the rule was Stoney, perhaps my second best grouse dog. I’ve had many dogs that have had more grouse shot over them than Stoney, but still he excelled. I certainly wasn’t averaging my former usual seventy grouse a year when I shot over him (I pull a tail feather from each bird and put them in an envelope for the annual tally). The grouse brought to bag after 1990 or so dropped significantly even though my grouse cover was selectively logged every ten years.
My grandfather used to tell me it took about 25 birds before a dog became proficient on grouse. He had many excellent English setters, but he shot at a time where grouse were super abundant. His grouse dog trainer was "Old Man Smalley". I'll have to find the old picture I have of Old Man Smalley and my grandfather posing with a bunch of grouse on the hood of a Model A Ford.
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