Straight Talk from a Terrierman

I've been working on my book project this weekend and making slow but steady progress on the chapter regarding the concept of purebred dogs and the "sport" of dog shows. Surfing the net for information on the subject, I came across an excellent blog post regarding the AKC and its British counterpart, the Kennel Club.

In it, blogger Patrick Burns lays out a scathing indictment of modern dog breeding practices that are still based on failed genetic theories of the 19th century. He pulls no punches, even going so far as to point out the rather high inbreeding co-efficient in the offspring of Charles Darwin himself. Yet he is careful not to simply accuse dog show enthusiasts of stupidity or deliberate wrong-doing, saying:

" Let me hasten to say that the Kennel Club is not filled with evil people intent on doing harm to dogs. It is, in fact, filled with regular people who are different from the rest of the world only in the degree (and the way) they seek ego-gratification and are status-seeking."

And I agree. Most of the show people I've met are indeed very nice folk. I am sure that they really do care for their dogs and work hard at their "sport". They seem to have good intentions and truly believe that they are "improving" the breed, one dog show at a time. However, when it comes to breeds of dogs whose entire genetic code is supposed to be hardwired for the hunt, putting them in the hands of show breeders is like selecting marines based on their performance in ballet school.

Ballet school is not about training young men to storm a beach and dogs shows are not about dogs. Burns sums it up nicely: "This last point is import: the Kennel Club is not primarily about dogs. Dogs do not care about ribbons, pedigrees, titles, and points. These are human obsessions. The reason a human will drive several hundred miles and stand around all day waiting for 10 minutes in the ring is not because of the dog, but because the human needs that ribbon, that title, and that little bit of extra status that comes from a win."

On the Boob Tube

Recently my dogs and I were featured on a CBC television program called ZigZag. Journalist Denis Chamberlain followed us in the forest as we hunted ruffed grouse on a fine autumn day.

Souris-Manon, my weim bitch and Quell Zum Laubwald, a longhaired weimaraner owned by my friend Sal were the stars of the show. It is always very difficult to get good video footage of bird dogs doing their thing, especially in actual hunting situations with wild birds, but Denis did a great job! There are some really nice scenes in the piece that will hopefully give you an idea of the kind of terrain we hunt in. You will notice that at one point in the video, a woodcock is flushed. There are not many of them in Manitoba, but we do come across one or two each season. They are not a listed as a game bird so we only "shoot" them with a camera.

In the scene, Souris is on point and it looks like Quell is backing her (both dogs are natural backers and a real pleasure to hunt together). Souris is actually pointing a ruffed grouse but Quell was not really backing her, he was pointing another bird..a woodcock! When the grouse flushed, my friend Ross fired and missed. Then, to our surprise, a woodcock flushed. I called out "Bécasse!" (that's French for woodcock) and Denis managed to "shoot" it with the video camera as it flew out of the woods.

You can view the video by clicking HERE (it may take a while to load, just let the download do its thing then view it when it is completely loaded).
Oh, one more thing...it's all in French. But don't worry, the action is pretty easy to understand for non-French speakers.
Enjoy!

AWESOME Photo!

So there we were, deep in the heart of South Dakota pheasant country chasing roosters with our dogs.



We were working a large section of public walk-in land north west of Watertown.



Our good friends, Los Hermanos Castaneda, were working a tree line ahead with their dog Quell.


Souris and I were making our way through a low spot full of cat tails.


Lisa was following along a ridge-line with her camera taking shots of the action.

As we made or way across the field, Lisa heard the sound of something running behind her. At first she thought it was one of the dogs that had somehow doubled back and was now trying to catch up.

When she turned to see which dog it was she was stunned to see a MASSIVE BUCK, running full speed across the plain, between her and the tree line to the south. Her first reaction was to let out a blood curdling scream which stopped everyone in their tracks....everyone except the buck that is. He turned on the afterburners when he heard the deafening squeal. Luckily, Lisa's second reaction was to point the camera at the running beast and squeeze off a burst of shots with the 200mm lens. The buck was running so fast that she only got one good shot before it disappeared into the cattails.


And what an AWESOME shot it was!!
That was back in November. Since then, Lisa has reminded me every day that the most AWESOME photo of the entire season, was her shot of the buck.

Reluctantly, I have to agree.

Please feel free to comment on Lisa's AWESOME photo to let her know just how AWESOME it is.

Felix et Souris au lit

I dusted off a few old negatives this afternoon and ran them through the scanner. This one is of Felix and Souris napping on our bed. Feels like I took it about a hundred years ago.

Felix et Souris au lit

I dusted off a few old negatives this afternoon and ran them through the scanner. This one is of Felix and Souris napping on our bed. Feels like I took it about a hundred years ago.

White Out in December

Most of the 2007 hunting season was fantastic. The August pre-season warm up went very well. September was a treat. October was an exhilarating marathon of friends, fields, grouse and gundogs. November was even better.

Then came December. Snow, cold, more snow and wind put an end to the season very early on. In fact our first hunt of the month ended up being our last....but what a hunt it was!!

I was joined in the field by my friend Francois who recently moved to Manitoba from France. He and his son Xavier, and Xavier's buddy Russel came along for their very first hunt for ruffed grouse over pointing dogs. Francois hunts pheasants and partridges in his native Picardy but had never hunted in Canada and had never seen a ruffed grouse. Xavier and Russel, teenagers still learning the ropes, were also eager to participate.

Also with us that day was a friend of mine, a very talented young photographer named Dustin Leader. A graduate of my photography school, Dustin is quickly gaining a national reputation for his reportage style of photography. He mainly covers social issues for major newspapers but also finds time to shoot personal projects. One of those projects is a body of work he calls "Point and Shoot". It is an exploration of hunters, dogs and their relationship to nature. Dustin has followed me and other hunters in the field on several occasions and has take some of the most interesting and creative images of the hunt that I have ever seen. His unique style, his genuine curiosity and above all, his brutally honest approach to the issues can be seen in his images.

We all met in an area I call Liliwoods. It is named after my wife Lisa who has fond memories of hunting there with Felix, our first dog . It usually holds a few birds, but being so late in the season, I was not very optimistic that we would see many. Nevertheless, we knew that we would have a nice day afield, and I knew that Dustin would get some great shots.

Well, it turned out that it was not just a nice day in the field, it was a GREAT day in the field. In less than two hours, Souris pointed 11 ruffed grouse! The birds were in tight cover, shots were tough, but we did managed to bag a couple ruffies. And sure enough, Dustin got some fantastic images in his unique style.

And that, in essence, was the sum total of the hunting we managed to do in December; one very memorable hunt, captured by a very sharp eye.

I've posted a gallery of recent images from the ongoing project "Point and Shoot". The first half are shots of Jean Francois Behro and his braque de l'Ariege and of Christophe Oriou and his Weimaraner. The photos in the second half of the gallery, images 25 and on, are from the hunt at Liliwoods described above.

Enjoy!