THE HUNTING ETHIC CONTINUED: WATCHING THE DOG

BUDDY, AN ENGLISH POINTER

DAUGHTER GRETA'S LABRADOR RETRIEVER PUP CIOOPER

Friday, 8:30 AM.  44 degrees F at the ferry dock, 41 on the back porch.  Wind SW, light.  The sky is mostly cloudy, the humidity 72%.  The barometer is rising, now at 29.25".  The high today will be in the mid 40's, with rain showers. Tomorrow will be significantly cooler with mixed skies, continuing into the coming week.
   To me hunting means little if it doesn't involve a dog.  When I was a youngster I could sit for hours squirrel hunting, and later sit in a stand hunting deer, but neither was in any way as thrilling or interesting as hunting birds with a pointing dog.  Once I had Pepper, my first pointer, a German shorthair-English pointer mix, I was hooked.
   I could have as much fun working the dog on pheasants or a covey of partridge without a gun as with one.  Seeing the eagerness of the dog, and all its senses and instincts focused on tracking the quary and alerting the hunter with a solid point became the primary objective.  Bagging the bird is a necessary climax, but the hunting is the most important part of the story.
   Pointers can also be taught to retrieve, but that is not their main job.  Retriever breeds are instinctual retrievers, and are a thrill to watch and hunt with in their own way, and well bred and trained can find and retrieve downed birds (usually waterfowl) that otherwise would be irretrievably lost.  That is as much a thrill and satisfaction for the goose or duck hunter as the killing shot itself.
   Trailing hounds are another type of gun dog that have a specific instinct that is very satisfying to utilize, whether it is a beagle bringing a rabbit around in a circle to be bagged by the hunter, or a bloodhound or blue tick hound trailing and treeing a racoon or a bear.
   To me hunting is not much fun unless it involves dogs.  Dogs get beat up hunting, sometimes get badly hurt or even killed. But they love it.  They were born and bred for the chase and are really happy only when hunting (until like their masters they get old and worn out, and then will just as readily lay by the fire in their retirement).
   Dogs and humans are both predators, hunting in packs that have a social hierarchy, and each species has instincts and talents that the other lacks, so mutual cooperation and sharing of the thrills and spoils of the hunt became natural as the two species co-evolved over many thousands of years.  Dogs evolved from the wolf, a process which probably began with humans raising wolf pups, selecting those which took to domestication.   This may well have occurred at multiple times and in different places around the world.
   Canines have much shorter life spans than humans, so the dog evolved far faster than the human, its evolution was manipulated by the longer lived species, and the dog necessarily became subservient to the human.  To say that dogs are of themselves free spirits and should not be controlled by humans is foolishness that denies their evolution, domestication and dependence upon us.
   I often hear folks complain about the so-called abuse of sled dogs, who will literally run themselves to death if not properly controlled.  Probably few of those detractors have witnessed the absolute joy of a dog team running a race on a cold winter's morning when the snow conditions make the sled fly as though it had wings, and the dogs are so eager to run that they can hardly be constrained at the starting gate.
   And then there are the anti-hunting folks that decry the sacrifice of the prey to the dogs and the hunters.  Prey animals are also part of the natural cycle of life, and have been bred through natural selection to evade the hunters.  It may be a stretch to say that the animals being hunted also feel the joy of the chase, but they are most alive when avoiding their persuers, and certainly derive satisfaction from outwitting them.
   Several years ago Buddy and I were grouse hunting out in the pine barrens, and while walking down a trail heard baying hounds behind us.  It was bear hunting season so we knew there must be a hunted bear close by.  Suddenly the hounds came bounding past us, and I grabbed Buddy and got out of the way.  Then we heard a vehicle approaching on the trail and as we stepped aside a beat up pickup truck rattled by, several youthful hunters and a couple of dogs hanging on for dear life. The running hounds, the young guys in the truck and their canine passengers were all having a great time.  But where was the bear?  As Buddy and I resumed our interrupted hunt, we heard Bruin picking his way through the underbrush;  he had doubled back on his own trail and the dogs and hunters were now well ahead of him.  If bears could laugh I am sure it would have issued a hearty chuckle at least. Dogs, young hunters, and even the bear were all having a fine time.
   All things in nature play a role in the great drama of life, and each living individual of every species is ordained to excel at its life task to its very best ability,  and pass on any beneficial traits to its progeny;  the continual search for self-perfection is therefore the predestined goal of all living things in God's evolving creation.
   The Old Man in Robert Ruark's "The Old Man And The Boy," says to the boy,  "I can tell you what a man hunts by seeing what he watches. The deer hunter watches the openings.  The waterfowl hunter watches the sky.  The bird hunter watches the dog."
   I watch the dog.