My pro trainer friend Bob Olson had been raving about the Switchback Dog Blind/Kennel Crate, and when I finally made it up to his place (River Road Kennels in Lena, Wisconsin) for a look, I immediately became a believer.
While the Switchback has a lot to recommend it—it weighs next to nothing, folds flat for easy storage and transport, and features continuous mesh panels that allow your dog to look around and see what’s happening—the thing that really sets it apart from other retriever field blinds is its removable steel gate. It’d be more accurate, in fact, to call this unit the “Switchfront,” although that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue the way Switchback does.
With the gate installed, your dog is completely secure—no worries, in other words, that he might break and foul (fowl?) up your chance at that flock of mallards or Canadas that’s circling your spread. Then, when the smoke has cleared and it’s time to send Buster to retrieve, the gate, under tension from a stout bungee cord, flips up at the touch of a finger. How cool is that?
The gate installs in seconds and can be removed just as quickly. That’s another thing: If your dog is completely trustworthy when the shooting starts, you can leave the gate off and simply go with the zip-on curtain that comes with the unit as a standard accessory.
The Switchback’s functionality doesn’t end when you leave the field, either. It makes a perfect camp, motel, and vehicle crate, too. Plus, the price is right. The last time I checked waterfowljunkie.com, it was selling for around $100—a bargain.
Waterfowl Junkie manufactures another neat product that’s a real time and effort-saver if (A) you have a lot of ducks or geese to clean and (B) you prefer to breast your birds rather than dress them whole. Called the Bird Hitch, it’s designed to attach to your vehicle’s trailer hitch, making it ideal for use in the field or whenever you’re a long way from home (although with the appropriate hardware you can mount it on a table, too).
It’s essentially a rigid, double-edged, stainless-steel cleaver; you impale the bird beneath the wishbone, pull on the wings, and voila!, all the parts you don’t want fall away.
The standard Bird Hitch works fine for ducks (also pheasants), but if you shoot a lot of geese or other larger birds—swans, cranes, even turkeys—you should consider the Bird Hitch H-2, which is equipped with a built-in pry bar for extra cleaving power. This thing looks like a medieval implement of torture, but man, does it do the job.
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