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 Wild Pheasants and Field Trial Dogs - Good or Bad?? – Part I by Tom Ness Here in North Dakota we have 3.5 million acres of CRP. CRP, for anyone unfamiliar, stands for Conservation Reserve Program. Through CRP, the Federal Agriculture Dept. contracts with farmers to place highly erodable cropland into a set aside program. CRP acres are planted to grass and left out of production for a minimum of ten years. This has created a boon to wildlife of all kinds, especially pheasants. Imagine hundreds of thousands of acres of knee to waist high grass-crawling with wild pheasants, sharp-tail grouse and Hungarian Partridge. Sounds like a dog trainer’s/field trialer’s/hunter’s dream? Well, it is, most of the time. (Continue)
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| | PRO STAFF | Teaching Backing by George Hickox In the world of fine pointing dogs, a gentleman’s shooting dog is expected to back, or honor, the point of its brace mates. A dog that fails to back another’s point and rushes in to bust a bird or steal a point is the equivalent of a street urchin eating caviar with his fingers at a black tie affair. Many a re-invite has been forfeited due to an ill-mannered pointing dog that refused to back. (Continue)
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| | | | ARTICLES - HUNTING DOG TRAINING
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Establishing a Solid Quartering Pattern - An Interview with David Lauber by Geoffrey A. English Last issue we spent time talking with David Lauber, regarding the introduction of young dogs to gunfire during fieldwork. This issue we will continue our talk, but step back a bit and talk about establishing a strong quartering pattern before shooting over the dog and eventually steadying a young spaniel. (Continue)
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