Well, heck.... I guess that when I joined this forum last year, I completely forgot to introduce myself. Dummy! My name is Joel, and I live in NW Iowa, USA. My first Lab was a black pointing Lab named Deacon, that I got in January of 2000. My millennium puppy! Hands down, the best dog I've ever had. At the time, I had been thinking about getting a hunting dog, and I'll be forever grateful to my cousin, who convinced me to get a Lab, instead of a Beagle. I bonded with him the first day I had him. I trained him for pheasant hunting, and we had many seasons of hunting the wily ringnecks. Sadly, he crossed the bridge in April of 2012. Oh, how I miss that boy. Before him, I never knew it was possible to bond so closely with a dog. Letting him go was the hardest thing I've ever done. Thankfully, I didn't have to go home to an empty house that day. I already had his protege, Diesel, a fox red yellow male. During the two years they were both with me, I discovered the joys of having two Labs in my home, and decided that I didn't want that big of an age gap again. So, two years ago last April, I brought home Dozer, my little black boy. Who isn't so little anymore, seeing as how he outweighs his big brother. I pheasant hunt every year with my boys. Both of them are pointing Labs, as was Deacon. They may not point like the pointing breeds do, but they do sometimes give me a bit more time to walk up and get closer for the shot. Diesel is 7 now, and is a highly experienced gundog. He's aces at chasing down running, crippled birds. Honestly, I've never seen another dog as good at that as he is. Dozer is 2 now, and well on his way to learning what this is all about. I'm also training him to hunt dove and waterfowl. He'll be better at this I think, since he has a much calmer temperament. Well, I guess that's about it. I'm happy to be a member of this forum. There's a lot of good info here, and maybe I'll be able to contribute some more.
Hi @D Bros. , good to read your post and to hear about your boys. This a good forum to be on, I joined last year when my puppy Cassie was tiny, she's 16 months now and a typical people loving bouncy Lab, quite spirited at times, but growing into a lovely dog. She's primarily my mate and friend, but I do gun dog training with which we both enjoy.
Hi there, and it's good to hear your backstory! Nice to hear all about Deacon, Diesel and Dozer; they sound like great dogs.
Hello and welcome from me and my couch potato Lilly! although I am being unfair to Lilly, she loves a little free range deer hunting I haven't heard of dove hunting before....is this something commonly done? Not a UK game bird for sure, but I am aware of different countries having different bird populations of course! jac
Well, many thanks for the warm welcome, folks. Glad to be here, even though I've been lurking for some time. As for the dove hunting, Iowa started that season in 2011, joining many other states that already had a season. Our season starts tomorrow, and I plan on going out Saturday morning with a friend and possibly Dozer. Doves are a migratory bird, like ducks, and you hunt them the same way. In an article I read, the dove population here in the states numbers about 425 million, and 30 to 70 million are harvested every year. Like I said, you hunt them like you would waterfowl. We'll be wearing camouflage head to toe, and I'll have a decoy spread out in front of us. I've got clip on decoys, feeder decoys on motion stakes, and 2 Mojo spinning wing decoys that attract them from a distance. Plus I have a dove call that I'll be trying for the first time this year. Shooting hours start 1/2 hour before sunrise, so at that point we'll turn on the Mojos and load the guns. Then wait and see what comes in. Like duck hunting, you have to scout locations ahead of time, and go where the birds are. Well, probably more info than you really wanted, but that's how it works. Honestly, my main love is pheasant hunting. We'll see how Dozer does with the doves. I may have to leash him to a stake next to me, to keep him from bolting out into the field. With pheasant hunting, I walk through the cover while my boys do what they love, which is to range through the cover out in front of us using those noses to find and flush the birds. Seeing the dogs I've raised from a pup and trained myself, doing what they were born to do... it's a thing of beauty.
There is dove hunting here in where I am in Spain, too. Luckily (for me), hunting is restricted to Thursdays, Sundays and bank holidays. I'm not against the hunting per se, although I disagree entirely with the way many of them treat their dogs and the game here, but on hunting days, I'm wary about letting my dogs off their leads when walking, even on our own land, just in case we get a trigger-happy hunter. There are no trespass laws here, so they can come through our land unimpeded. If we hear them hunting close by, we've been known to let off a few rounds on the dummy launcher (with the dogs in the house) to let them know we're there and to keep away.
Yeah, the only restrictions we've got is when the season runs, and the shooting hours. And the limits on how many you can shoot, of course. I hunt public ground, that has food plots or lots of seed plants, like sunflowers. As a sportsman, I only hunt private ground if I have permission, which is more for pheasant. I've heard of what you say about the disrespect of the dogs and game, but I've never seen it. I won't hunt with anyone that doesn't share my attitude. I have nothing but respect for the game I hunt and eat. As for the dogs, the same goes. My boys are spoiled. If I'm home, they're in the house with me. They sleep on my bed, too. They're like my kids, really.
