For the Setter Guys

[Keith Doty]

At one point years ago I had a pair of Labs I hunted together. One a giant slobbering 100# monster and his mate, a 65# assassin! They'd clean up the birds from a 3 or 4 man volley quickly. I had spent hundreds of hours training from puppies and both "steered" quite well by hand sign. The female frequently would fetch 2 birds in a single trip. The big dog could whip any wounded snow crow in short order and did the deep salt marsh mud effortlessly. Neither worth a damn on quail, wanted to jump right in the middle of a covey. They DID find birds the pointers had a hard time finding. It's very common for our handlers in this area to carry a Lab for finding the "lost" ones.

[mobirdhunter]

There's nothing quite like a brace of setters (yes, even English or Irish). I've had 4 over the years, but my current pups don't work well together, and I have a deposit on a pup for next year to become what I hope to be my brace of the future. I don't hunt a brace for grouse or woodcock. It's too hard to keep track of the dogs in the thick stuff, and I like to have a close and farther reaching dog braced together -- not a good combo in the grouse woods, but a heckofa combination on the prairie.

I like the idea of having a flushing dog to put up birds that the pointers have found. I just don't think I want to be the handler in that case.

Still, a good solid dog on point gets my heart to thumping, even if it doesn't even have a feathered tail.