Well you might not believe this.
The believable part is that I've had good luck hunting grouse with my Brown Bess carbine...limit here is three per day, so we have limited out a few times.
Now this dog story is kind of wild.
I've had black labs all my life, but after the last one died I said no more dogs. Told the wife ABSOLUTELY NO more dogs. Just didn't want to go through that again.
So of course she brings herself home a dog...real girl's dog, a Yorkshire Terrier. To pacify me she says: "oh you can name it", so I name it "Killer" just to get some kind of revenge. Having raised and trained quite a few Black Lab bird dogs, I also take on the training task, because if I have to live with this thing for ten years or more I don't want it to be no spoiled undisciplined house-pooping garbage-raiding little ankle-biter like most "girl dogs".
O.K...dog turns out to be highly intelligent, obedient, and trainable. We have this pet "Love Bird" at the time, and I notice that the little guy is just totally infactuated with getting at the bird, like a cat or something. At any rate, he knows exactly what "bird" means, and even in the yard is alwasy chasing birds.
On walks in the woods I notice he always has his nose to the ground. I put 2+2 together and start training him like a "real" bird dog. From the time he came home I gun-trained him, as guns going off around here is pretty common, and it would be pretty wierd to have any kind of gun-shy dog.
Long story to short: This is one of the best grouse dogs I've EVER seen. Talk about getting in small places. After I knocked the first bird down for him, this guy was hooked. He'll work the brush until he's staggering exhausted, and still obey every command to "go in there, find the bird". If he sees one go up in a tree, he'll actually "tree" it, stand at the bottom of the tree and bark. His nose is so good, and when he gets on hot scent, you'll see his little stub of a tail go into hyper drive, and you know one will flush up soon.
Nope, he can't work bigger birds or even work in high grass, (and high grass to him is not very high) but on the forrest floor he's really something. He's not afraid of water and will swim across small streams. He's a real rough and tumble outside dog.
So if any of you guys have a wife that wants a little dog, I'm not kidding a Yorkie will hunt grouse very well, you just have to train/treat them right like a bigger dog. They have the nose and the hunting instinct, and are very smart. Their "micro" size make them very easy to transport and take care of. If I hadn't seen it I might not believe it.
And that's all I got to say about that.
Rat
