Have you ever stuffed your nose into the breast of a freshly killed woodcock? I doubt if you have, but if you did so you would almost certainly find the bird has a distinctive scent, quite unlike that of a pheasant or partridge. It’s a smell that many gundogs either dislike or find distasteful, with the result that some dogs, encountering a woodcock for the first time, refuse to pick it up. They may spend some time sniffing around it, even nudging it with their nose, but they flatly refuse to put it into their mouth.
Quite why is debatable, but it does seem to be because the dog doesn’t like the smell. You have to remember that a dog’s sense of smell is very different from our own. A dog has around 300million olfactory receptors in its nose, while we have a mere six million. In addition, that section of the dog’s brain that specialises in sorting out scents is, proportionately, many times greater than ours. It’s quite logical that some dogs refuse to pick-up a bird that they don’t like the smell of.
Rare retrieve
My very first sighting of a woodcock was one flushed by my cocker more than half a century ago and I have encountered hundreds since, many put up by my spaniels. All my dogs have hunted them with every bit as much enthusiasm as pheasants or partridges, but they have rarely been asked to retrieve them. I stopped shooting woodcock a long time ago, as I never enjoyed eating them. At the same time, the majority of shoots on which I have picked-up don’t shoot woodcock, so my dogs have rarely had the opportunity to retrieve one.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 04, 2020 من Shooting Times & Country.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 04, 2020 من Shooting Times & Country.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
United we stand
Following United Utilities' decision to end grouse shooting on its land, Lindsay Waddell asks what will happen if we ignore our vital moors
Serious matters
An old gamebook prompts a contemplation on punt-gunning
They're not always as easy as they seem
While coneys of the furry variety don't pose a problem for Blue Zulu, he's left frustrated once again by bolting bunnies of the clay sort
Debutant gundogs
There's lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting
When the going gets rough
Al Gabriel returns to the West London Shooting School to brush up on his rough shooting technique
The Field Guide To British Deer - BDS 60th Anniversary Edition
In this excerpt from the 60th anniversary edition of the BDS's Field Guide To British Deer, Charles Smith-Jones considers the noise they make
A step too far?
Simon Garnham wonders whether a new dog, a new gun and two different fields in need of protection might have been asking too much for one afternoon's work
Two bucks before breakfast
A journey from old South London to rural Hertfordshire to stalk muntjac suggests that the two aren't as far detached as they might seem
Stalking Diary
Stalkers can be a sentimental bunch, and they often carry a huge attachment to their hill
Gamekeeper
Alan Edwards believes unique, private experiences can help keepers become more competent and passionate custodians of the countryside