This post was inspired by Holly’s post and subsequent article in one of her local papers.  If you haven’t done so yet, go and check both of them out, and make sure to leave some love to the Bee.  You just don’t find many papers that support their local hunters anymore.

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“Never chase the dogs,” I heard him say.  Of course, since this was my first time hunting rabbits with dogs, I needed the advice.  If not for that advice, I’m sure I would have chased those dogs around the country side for awhile.  “Let them do the work for ya.  They’ll bring the rabbit back to you.”  Really?  They’ll bring ‘em back to me?  So I can just stand here, take in the scenery, and let the dogs do the work?  Count me in.

This wasn’t my first time hunting with dogs, but it was certainly my first time hunting rabbits with dogs.  Normally hunting rabbits is quite a strenuous task, especially when you have to be your own beagle – stomping brush piles, and pushing through thickets.  As I sat there admiring the dogs doing their work, though,  I couldn’t help but start to fall in love with them; and they weren’t even mine.  There is just an unexplainable connection that happens between a hunting dog and the hunters surrounding them.  I think it’s the years of evolution and camaraderie dogs have brought to humans, coupled with the fact that both of us want to accomplish a common goal, that makes the relationship so unique…..or maybe it’s because they do all the work for us.  Whatever it is, it’s a thing of beauty.

I started hunting with dogs when I was a teenager….maybe even before that.  I first hunted with bird dogs, mainly Brittany Spaniels, and from the first few moments with them I was hooked.  The first good bird dog we had, I don’t really remember.  But our best bird dog, Kathy (we didn’t name her, she came with it), I couldn’t forget if I tried.  My dad found her in the paper, and after talking with her owner – who was getting up in years and felt guilty about not being able to take her hunting – we brought her home.

It didn’t take long for the whole family to fall in love with her -  she just had this way about her that you couldn’t help but love – and she was one hell of a bird dog!  She was the type of dog you could let out the back door and not check on for hours;  and when you finally went to find her she’d be laying on the patio, or sunning herself in the backyard.  When  it came to hunting, though, she was all business.  She would even run down wounded birds and bring them back alive.  She was……..amazing!

Anyone who has ever been around a good hunting dog never forgets them.  They tend to become ingrained in us, and become the standard that all of the rest of our dogs are compared to.  I’m a dog lover, and I’ve had, and still have, many dogs as pets, but there is still something different about a hunting dog.  Being involved in hunting, and sharing the same love of hunting, tends to bond a hunter with his four-legged hunting companion.  And years of evolution have only strengthened that bond.

I remember every moment I’ve hunted with a dog – whether it was watching a pheasant take flight behind our faithful friend, Kathy; or listening to the bellowing of the beagles as they hit a “hot” rabbit trail – I remember it like it was yesterday.  I have an abundance of still frames in my mind that chronicle those wonderful hunting moments.

Unfortunately, we have no hunting dogs right now – we haven’t for years honestly.  Hunting dogs take time, and I just don’t have the proper amount of time to give them right now, or the space to house them.  But one day someone in the family will have a hunting dog again, and either we’ll be giving up a day of bowhunting to chase some elusive ringnecks, or we’ll be bundled up trampling through a few inches of fresh snow after cottontails.

Hunting with man’s best friend creates memories that last a lifetime…….and dammit I miss it!

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