I point, the bird goes into the air, the hunter shoots — and the hunter misses.
I love to point birds, and whether I raise a front or rear leg and point with my nose and a prolonged fixed stare, the obvious result is I point. For you hoomans who think dogs must point in a certain way, I suggest you get on all fours and try pointing. I’ll get my camera, har har!
I also find, flush and fetch with my focus mostly on birds. A foot note here on me fetching birds, this means Mike and his hunting partners have to shoot the bird from the sky. That is a touchy point, Mike misses a lot. At least many of his friends remember to keep the shotgun barrel moving and they down birds. Let’s move along here, har har!
I admit if things are going slow when afield and birds are scarce, I point at things other than birds. I have grasshoppers (hey, they fly) and rabbits on my list of “All Things Pointed.” I think these are things Mike would like to eat, so I point and wait for him to shoot — or shoot and miss. Ugh.
OK, I do not ever point snakes or porcupines. If Mike sees and shoots those, he is on his own. I have a contract that reads birds but no dangerous items, so birds are my main pointed targets.
A small sidebar: sometimes I get the whiff of a bird, and I go on point. Never mind the bird was there minutes ago, or was resting at that location last night and has moved on. I also often go on point simply because I like to see Mike tense up. If he doesn’t see a bird, he starts mumbling and stomping around trying to flush up a bird. This can be a lot of fun to watch, so I move ahead and watch him try to flush a bird that is not there. Too bad I don’t have a camera to capture him trying to do the job of a bird dog — it’s hilarious!
One of Mike’s friends did question why I sometimes raise my rear leg when pointing a bird. OK, it’s not the classic painting or magazine photo style of a rock steady dog looking ahead with a front leg up and bent. I did not see that whining hunter ever pointing a bird, so how dare him question my pointing techniques. He also followed what has become a standard hunting program: I point, the bird goes into the air, the hunter shoots — and the hunter misses. Ugh, I need to work with new hunters, har har!
Well, you get the point! —Cameron
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