Bruno's First Woodcock, Fall 2006

This is a photo of me and our GSP Bruno with his first woodcock, which he pointed and retrieved at age 9.75 months. The photo was taken by my wife Christine, who before we got Bruno, acted as my flushing "bird dog". Bruno at first didn't like the "taste" of the woodcock in his mouth and dropped the bird a couple times, but with some gentle encouragement, he finally retrieved it to my hand. Ever since this time he has never dropped a downed woodcock.

NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, Prize I, 212 Points, Perfect Score

Saturday morning, September 9, my wife's birthday, was cold, breezy, and wet, but the weather steadily improved as the day progressed. Friday night Bruno and I camped at the KOA Campgrounds just north of Muskegon, Michigan. We awoke early to arrive at the Michigan Chapter's NAVHDA Test Grounds to compete in the Natural Ability Test for puppies up to 16 months old. Bruno was a mere 8.37 months old at test time. He was scheduled to run at 10:30 a.m. and by that time, the conditions were near perfect for a bird dog to perform his magic. And that he did scoring perfect scores for Use of Nose, Search, Water Ability (swimming to fetch two dummies thrown a ways out from shore), Pointing, Tracking (the part of the test on which most puppies score poorly), Desire to Work, and Cooperation for a perfect total score of 112 and a Prize I award. I was so proud of him!

Bruno overcame several challenges during the Natural Ability Test. During the first 20-minute part of the test, NAVHDA judges Butch Grover, Lisa Pehur, and Michael Garriott observed and evaluated Bruno's use of nose, desire to work, cooperation (obedience to commands), and his searching and pointing abilities in an 80-acre field into which two chukars were released. I became a little concerned after ten minutes into this segment for Bruno hadn't yet found a bird. Shortly after the halfway point of the field portion of the natural ability test, Bruno started to become very birdy, but he couldn't find the bird I knew from his actions was nearby. The judges surprisingly expressed concern that time was running short and encouraged me (I felt they actually pressured me) to move Bruno to a new place to find birds, but I resisted. I could tell that Bruno was working a bird and that it was close by. Within seconds, he nailed the bird with a rock solid point. I walked ahead of Bruno to flush the bird and confirm that his point was true, and in doing so, the three judges and I were very surprised to learn that the bird had been running and hiding in a foot-deep, dry irrigation channel that was completely covered by thick vegetation. This field in was the judge Butch Grover's home chapter training grounds and he said that he had trained in this field for years and never knew that this shallow, narrow irrigation ditch existed!

Well, Bruno wasn't done yet. In the next nine minutes, he proceeded to quickly locate and firmly point six more chukars. Obviously, some of the puppies that field tested earlier in the morning hadn't found all their birds! Bruno's field performance here greatly impressed us all!

The next big challenge Bruno faced was the tracking part of the natural ability test. This is the part that most puppies either fail or perform poorly on. A rooster pheasant has its primary wing feathers pulled so that it cannot fly. A judge then plucks 2-3 breast feathers from the bird and places them on the ground of a closely-cropped field (typically the ground cover in the tracking field is only 2-4 inches high) where the bird is released and driven on foot by the judges across the tracking field 50-80 yards into a new area that offers more dense cover, such as a woods or corn or bean field. The dog handler and puppy are placed behind a barrier so that they cannot see the release of the bird and where the bird runs. After the judges had prepared and released the rooster, they called Bruno and me to come forward to the bird release site that was located forty yards from the blind behind which were instructed to stay. But along the way to the bird release site, we had to travel along a hedge-and-tree row into which Bruno turned suddenly and squarely to point a hiding rooster that had eluded its puppy during an earlier tracking session and somehow sneaked back undetected toward the bird release area.

"Wonderful!" I sighed to the judge who accompanied Bruno and me as we walked from behind the blind to the starting area. "What's this rooster doing here?! This could prove to be a distraction for my pup and keep him from focusing on tracking the released bird."

"Well, do the best you can," he said, as we arrived at the bird release site, where I received even more great news.

"You're going to have a tough track," the judge who released the rooster greeted us. "Upon release, your rooster jumped forward a good eight yards and then another four to six more yards quickly after that." He then proceeded to explain the test, the expectations for the puppy and how the judges evaluate the puppy's performance. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, can we start over and release a new bird?" I asked jokingly to break the tension that presided the release site.

"Good luck."

I took a moment and knelt down beside Bruno who was standing in the heel position, placed my left arm around his front shoulders, and confidently whispered encouragement into his right ear. Then I firmly commanded him aloud,"Find bird. Find!" As I released him I silently prayed for divine guidance and assistance. Bruno and I had trained solidly for three weeks to improve his bird tracking abilities. It was show time now--do or die. After commanding and releasing the puppy to track, find (point), and retrieve the bird, the handler is required to stand completely still and not say anything to his puppy. The emotions that raced through me after releasing Bruno ranged from hopeful optimism and confidence when he seemed to be tracking the bird well to helpless panic and despair when he seemed to momentarily have lost the bird's track and scent. NAVHDA's Natural Ability Tracking Test is as agonizingly tortuous for the handler as it is tremendously challenging for the puppy. The test demands their total concentration. One distraction and the puppy is off-track.

Bruno blew right through the rooster's initial lengthy hops and appeared to be hot on its trail!

"That's it, buddy! Find!" I cheered for him in my mind. Bruno appeared to be tracking the rooster confidently for the first 25 yards, then suddenly he reached an area where he seemed uncertain as to the direction the bird had run. For what seemed to me to be tens of heart-palpitating minutes he searched back and forth across this area for bird scent but in reality after just a few moments of searching caught scent began confidently tracking the bird again.

Seventy yards from the starting point, Bruno crossed a ditch and proceeded into thicker cover where from his appearance I knew he was hot on the bird's trail.

"He's close!" I thought. Then boom! Bruno squared staunchly on point. The rooster was hiding under a thick mat of cover in the ditch. He then raced into the ditch, grabbed the bird and jogged calmly and confidently back to deliver the live rooster to my hand! I was one proud papa!

The judges were so impressed by Bruno's performance on all portions of the natural ability test, they gave Bruno at age 8.37 months a top and perfect score of 112 and Prize I!

Atta a boy, Bruno! Well done! What a birthday present to bring home to my wife!

Bruno's Spring Training 2006 Begins

Here we are at the NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) Northern Michigan Chapter's training grounds near Traverse City. We are training Bruno the command, "Whoa!" on the training table. At home, we trained Bruno to whoa before each meal; food is a great motivator and reward for a young puppy to quickly learn obedience commands. Bruno very quickly learned to obey the command, which we regularly reinforced at mealtimes and training sessions throughout the summer. Sehr gutter Hund, Bruno!

Puppyhood, Spring 2006

Here are several photos of Bruno's first months at our home and property in NW Lower Michigan. These photos capture moments that range from his first bath and bonding with Bruno in our home to his first walks in public in Traverse City.

Bruno's Homecoming, February 5, 2006

SuperBowl Sunday, February 5th, is the day we picked up our beautiful new GSP puppy at the breeder's and brought him home. We told several family members that we had a surprise announcement to make and invited them to our home for a SuperBowl party and dinner. My wife Christine and I both suspected that my parents likely thought that we were going to announce that Christine was pregnant. And my cousin Craig and his wife Lori didn't know what to expect except maybe good food and a good football game on TV.

Were they joyfully surprised when we introduced our new GSP puppy Bruno to them!

No need to write any more; these pictures tell the rest of the story.

Picking Our Pup at the Breeders

For several months I had been searching for Vizsla and German Shorthaired Pointer breeders and was becoming very frustrated with not being able to find a breeder with whose breeding philosophy and practices I could agree and who could provide parents, pedigrees, papers, and puppies that I liked. Finally, out of desperation, I decided to search our local newspapers, so on Saturday morning, January 28, 2006, I purchased a copy of the TC Record-Eagle and searched the classified ads for German Shorthaired Pointer pups. I saw an ad from a GSP breeder that quickly captured my attention. I called immediately and spoke at great length with the breeder, whom, after careful grilling, I liked very much. He is a very serious upland game bird hunter, who has owned, trained, selectively bred, and hunted with GSPs for nearly twenty years. He expressed much concern that any prospective buyer of one of the eight pups in his present litter passed his stringent tests for being able to provide both a proper home and good training environments for his pups. When after I had apparently met Bob's requirements for being a prospective owner of one of his GSP pups, he asked whether I wanted a male or female pup. I told him that I wanted a male, and he said that he has three males, one of which he had already promised to his hunting partner but another male pup that he said has really captured his own attention and would possibly keep himself. He then began to describe it but suddenly stopped and instead invited me to come take a look for myself. So my wife Christine and I scheduled the first appointment since Bob had placed his ad to visit kennel and view the sire, dam, and litter of eight pups the first thing after church services the very next morning. We suspected that others would read the Sunday edition of The Record-Eagle and would want to see the pups asap as well, only we'd get the jump on them and, if we liked a puppy, get second pick of the litter.

We awoke 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning and rapidly prepared for our trip and our 11 a.m. appointment at the breeder's facilities. The morning was quiet and snowy; the snowplows hadn't yet cleared the snow that had fallen on the county roads and highways, but we had no problem driving through the snow in my Ford Explorer. As we drove along the county road through the middle of a cedar swamp a ruffed grouse flew across the road before us.

"That's a good omen!" I expressed gleefully to my wife. Never since our move to the rural countryside five years earlier have we observed a grouse in this area. "It'll be a good day to pick a pup."

Breeder Bob and his wife greeted us warmly and invited us into their spacious log cabin home that was located in the middle of expansive prime grouse habitat. "We are close!" I thought excitedly for immediately upon entering their cabin, I detected fresh puppy scent--it filled the air of their cabin, and I loved it!

Bob guided us back to their indoor puppy-rearing area and showed us the pups and the male pup which his grouse hunting partner had already selected. "I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Just make yourselves at home and mingle with the pups."

But before I mingled with the pups, I wanted to introduce myself to the dam and meet the sire. The dam, Molly, was rightfully protective and attentive of her pups and scrutinized my being and presence, for I was the first outsider to visit her pups in their home environment. I asked Bob for permission to lie down on the floor to conduct my interviews the pups, and he waved approval. I was in heaven! As I carefully lay my body down on the floor, I was immediately surrounded and cheerfully greeted by eight beautiful, bouncing four-weeks-old GSP pups, while mother Molly and my wife watched from the sides. Molly was beautiful, but the sire, Boone, was stunning! I wanted him and asked Bob about Boone. "Boone and Molly are not for sale," smiled Bob. He told me their bios and said that both are outstanding hunters, but Molly was better than Boone.

For the first 15 minutes, I let the pups crawl around and over me. I placed my hand on a few to secure them gently to the floor to observe their reactions to having their freedom of movement being restricted, and I watched them interact among themselves to observe which ones may have dominant tendencies.

During this period and for the next half hour, I subjected each pup to my "tests for nose". Unbeknownst to Bob, I had placed a grouse wing from the 2005 hunting season into my shirt breast pocket and a 2005 woodcock wing inside and up my left shirt sleeve at my wrist before my wife and I had entered their home. I wanted to see which of these pups had the scenting ability to detect and the desire to pull out any of these hidden wings. I felt confident that I could train any pup to be an obedient good bird dog, but I knew that we humans cannot train "nose".

A pup or a dog either has the ability to scent well or it doesn't, and this is my test to determine which of these pups exceled at detecting bird scent among their litter mates.

All of the seven pups [we had removed from the interviewing area the male pup that Bob had promised his hunting partner] acted, well, as puppies typically behave with expected energetic rambunction and enthusiasm, but two of the seven--one male and one gorgeous female--showed exceptional promise and started sniffing inquisitively at my left shirt sleeve's cuff and breast pocket. The male was especially determined to find out what these new, hidden scents were and successfully pulled the grouse wing from my breast pocket and the woodcock wing from my sleeve. He then proudly pranced around the floor among his litter mates and repeatedly back to me with both wings in his mouth showing everyone his "birds". At first, only the gorgeous female pup showed interest; the other five displayed no interest at all. So, I picked up this precocious male and walked several feet away to place him in the middle of the other 4-5 pups on the floor. Then I returned to my original position on the floor and watched. Immediately the precocious male pup, with both bird wings still in his mouth, walked right back to me and crawled up on my chest. "Wow! This is some pup!" I thought to myself. I wanted to give the other pups an honest chance, so I picked up the male from my chest, wings still in his mouth, and returned him to the area where his litter mates played. This time, the gorgeous female pup expressed interest in the wings the precocious male pup still carried in his mouth, and she tried to take them from him as he returned again back to me as I lay on my back on the ground and watched. The male pup carrying the wings refused to surrender the wings to her and to any other pup who later discovered the wonderful scented objects he still carried.

"Okay, I've made my decision." I declared to Bob and my wife Christine. "Honey, now it's your turn to see if you want this one or a different one."

"I don't know. I like the pretty female, but it looks like he's [the precocious pup who carried and defended the wings in his mouth] made his decision, too. He keeps coming back to you!"

We told Bob that we'd take the precocious pup with the very handsomely distinguishing liver-colored round rump and angel-winged shoulder patches.

"That's the puppy I started to tell you about when you called yesterday, but I wanted to see if you would discover him for yourselves. I'm happy to see that you did. He's the one that I want for myself, and for the life of me I'm still wondering why I'm not keeping him and why my hunting partner chose the one he did and not this one. That "nose test" you did with the wings is great. I've never seen anyone do that before. I'm very surprised how well the puppy you selected, the one we both like, behaved and performed. You're going to have a wonderful puppy and hunting dog!"

So, we paid Bob for our pup and scheduled a time and date to pick him up to bring him home. And just as we completed our business with Bob two hours after our arrival, three pickup loads of prospective-puppy purchasers arrived to view Bob's remaining GSP pups.

Have fun selecting your next pup, and give my "nose tests" a try!