NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/977334
MAY 2018 • NEBRASKAland 33 Event campgrounds come alive as field trial events begin. Dozens of dogs emerge as handlers unload kennels stacked in pickup beds and trailers. Many spent the night here. Event staffers begin planting disoriented pen-raised quail in the fields, to be replenished throughout the day. Randomly paired, two dogs and their handlers join the horse-mounted judges at the field trial's starting point. Unleashed dogs hit the field like a cannon shot. Often the hunters also ride horses. Dismounting as they near the pointing dog, one hunter holds the reins while the other flushes and shoots. These hunters are not in it for prize winnings – there isn't much to be won unless you reach the national level. But local and regional championships will eventually pay off. Dogs with winning titles have prestige and their puppies bring top prices – one reason so many send their dogs to professional trainers. Jim Douglass of Columbus does it the old fashioned way, training his own dogs and competing in up to 18 field trials per year. Saddling his horse at dawn alongside six raucous, booger- eyed English pointers, he gestures to one dog and cautions, "You can interact with any of these except that one." Hunting is all that Douglass' dogs do and the veterans are superb. His youngsters show promise, but not much more ... a rabbit might be chased. "The pups don't have to do nothin'," Douglass said jokingly. "It's all about potential. A great dog will learn to look where the birds more likely are. If there is a tree line, the dog should hunt all of it. If there are patches of thick cover, they should hit every patch." Douglass, like many others, often straps a GPS tracking collar onto his less dependable dogs in case they run off. "I once tracked a dog six miles in the Sandhills after it took after a deer," he grinned. There is some danger involved when dogs run this hard and wide. Last year, one of Douglass' 5-year-olds died from a heart attack while hunting. "These are high-strung animals," he said. "They run really hard, and there is also the risk of getting hit on the road or caught in a trapper's snare. I kiss my dogs on the head each time they go out because I may not see them again." The line between pet and bird dog can be fuzzy and relationships vary dramatically. Tate Martinsen, Bottom Left: Cowboy, a Deutsch-Drahthaar, warms up with a training dummy. Top Right: Faith, an English setter known for her stylish points, signals the scent of a quail, top left, at the National Shoot to Retrieve Association's field trial near Waverly.