The English Shepherd was developed for classic farm duties such as herding, livestock protection, and vermin eradication, but in this day and age they also excel at all kinds of outdoor activities and dog sports. They can learn anything they put their mind to, or that you put your mind to teaching them.
I don’t know of too many other people that use their English Shepherds for hunting these days. I’m told that ES of yesteryear were commonly used for various kinds of hunting (mostly raccoon and squirrel) by farmers who, rather than keep and feed both farm dogs and hunting dogs, would simply use their all purpose farm dogs for hunting. I feel something of a kinship with these farmers, as I have one ES that I use for a wide range of activities. I’m not going to go too far into the history of hunting with this breed. There are many who are much more qualified to do that than I am. This is primarily an article on my path to hunting with my ES, Moonshine. Come to think of it, she is my second hunting ES. When I was a kid, I had an ES named Butch who would tree squirrels for me, and sometimes would catch and kill them on his own and leave them flayed open on our doorstep. I never figured out how he could catch them, but he did it regularly. His contribution to the food supply I guess. Or maybe (knowing the ES tendency to want to help) since he saw me kill them, he thought I wanted them all dead, that they were vermin he was supposed to be eradicating.
Despite my childhood experience with Butch, I did not get Moonshine with the intention of making her a hunting dog. For 13 years my beloved Brittany Spaniel, Banshee, was my bird dog. When Banshee was on her last legs, I was going through a very busy time in my life and I knew I did not have time to introduce a new gundog pup to birds and spend enough time on training. I knew Banshee wasn’t long for this world, and I can’t be without a dog in the house, so an obedient shepherd who would be a good outdoor companion and family member seemed like the way to go. I figured after a couple of years I would get another Brittany or some other gundog breed as my second dog and get back into bird hunting.
Moonshine was soon going everywhere with me, whether I was hiking, biking, skiing, etc. There is a city park not far from my house where we frequently go for walks and bike rides, and there happens to be a good population of spruce grouse in this park. Before long Moonshine was finding and flushing a lot of grouse. She seemed to have a natural talent for it, so I started thinking about giving her a try as a bird dog.
First I made sure she wasn’t gun shy. I slowly introduced her to gunfire, first from a distance, then gradually worked her closer. I made sure I was always casual during these contacts. There are plenty of places on the web to read more about the proper way to do this, but I will say that it’s best not to rush this process. Gun shyness can be brought on by bad training, and it’s not easy to fix. Fortunately, this all went very smoothly in Moonshine’s case. Like other bird dogs I’ve had, she now gets very excited at the sound of a gunshot and starts looking for birds to fall out of the sky.
When hunting, the recall is very important and the “whoa” command is vital, so that if the dog gets too excited and is getting out of shotgun range you can stop them before they flush the bird, allowing you to get into better position. Being able to direct the dog from a distance by hand signals is also helpful. Moonshine was already solid on these commands before it occurred to me to use her for hunting, and she had a natural talent and desire for flushing gamebirds, so I really had very little additional training to do to get her ready for bird hunting. The main objective at this point was to get her experience on wild birds.
Pretty much anywhere you may live in North America, there is one or more species of gamebird near you. There are seven species of upland gamebirds here in Alaska, inhabiting a variety of habitat types. The sooty grouse of the rainforests in the southeastern panhandle are the largest. Sharp-tailed grouse are found in more open areas in Alaska’s interior. Spruce grouse favor thick cover in the boreal forests in both interior and southcentral Alaska. Then there is the king of gamebirds, the wild-flushing, tasty, ruffed grouse (all these birds are tasty when prepared properly, but ruffs are especially delicious—they’re white meat, while the rest are dark), which prefers young stands of aspen and birch in interior Alaska, and some spots in southcentral. We also have three species of ptarmigan, which are widely distributed across the state in arctic and alpine tundra. Ptarmigan are similar to grouse, are often found in large flocks, and are brown in summer but turn white in winter. In the fall they are often already turning white, so are easier to spot. Willow ptarmigan, the Alaska state bird, are the most commonly encountered. They are usually found at the lowest elevations of the three species, often inhabiting brushy draws in treeless country. Rock ptarmigan are found at higher elevations, and white-tailed ptarmigan are higher still. The beauty of ptarmigan country is hard to overstate.
So far, Moon and I have taken spruce, sharp-tailed, and ruffed grouse together, as well as willow ptarmigan. Her introduction to hunting was with the same bird I first recognized her potential with, the spruce grouse. This is the most common gamebird near where I live in Anchorage and is a great bird to help train a young dog. They tend to hold tight for the dog, not flushing until the last second. When they do flush they often don’t fly far, allowing us another chance if I didn’t get a shot the first time. This allowed me to shoot more birds over her, getting her more experience.
There are two types of bird dogs—pointing dogs and flushing dogs. Pointing dogs range out further than flushers, and when birds are found the dogs freeze in place (this is the “point”), waiting for the hunter to come flush and shoot the bird. Moonshine is a flushing dog, not a pointing dog. She works in a similar fashion to other flushing dogs such as Springer Spaniels and the various retriever breeds—she stays within shotgun range, finds gamebirds, and flushes them. I have never hunted over another flushing dog but from what I can gather through conversations with those who have, Moon is probably a bit more slow and methodical than most of the spaniel breeds, which are known for being pretty energetic and “quartering” back and forth in front of the hunter. I have not taught Moon to quarter. I’m sure I could, but have not seen the need…she finds me plenty of birds without it. Typically, she simply trots in front of me anywhere from 10 to 25 yards, making occasional forays to either side to check out various scents. Gamebirds spend a lot of time on the ground, walking around feeding. Moon will smell them as far as 60 or 80 yards off our path, and will lead me to them—often, she trails them by their scent on the ground but sometimes she seems to be simply air scenting them. I can tell when Moonshine is getting “birdy”, so I have a little warning before the bird takes off—she starts picking up the bird’s scent, getting very excited, running hither and yon puzzling out the scent until she finds the bird and flushes it. Then when I shoot…assuming I hit the bird (not at all a certainty)…she finds and fetches it. This is one of the most important jobs for a gundog. Much grouse cover is very, very thick. It can be difficult to find a dead bird after it falls. Further, occasionally a bird is clipped and is not dead when it hits the ground—it may run, and the dog is invaluable for running down injured birds. Moon doesn’t always grip the bird around the body, as is most commonly seen with gundogs. Sometimes she grips them around the body, but just as often she carries them by the wing or neck. I could teach her differently, but I really don’t care how she carries them, as long as she delivers them. Moon is a “meat dog”—not flashy, not one you would enter into a field trial, but a dog that produces plenty of meat for the table.
Another impression I have is that, because of her extraordinarily obedient nature, Moonshine is easier to control than many of the more classic bird dog breeds. Perhaps a better way to put this is that her training went more quickly. Obedience is her defining trait, and this makes her very much my partner in the field. She is certainly easier to control than Banshee (my Brittany) was. Banshee was a fine dog, we had many great days afield, and she actually had a very strong desire to please…but her extreme desire for birds sometimes warred with the desire to please, and would cause her to follow her nose into trouble. At times she would get almost “drunk” with bird scent, particularly if there were a large number of birds around, and it was almost as if she couldn’t listen to me. It wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle but it did make things tougher and more frustrating, and more time was spent on training. Moon has a lot of desire for birds, but a much stronger desire to please. I have never had to try to overcome the hunting instinct to get her to obey commands—the desire to please and to work cooperatively with me was already stronger. Even if she’s rushing in on a bird I can whoa her until I’m in a better position and then let her drive in for the flush.
At first I thought hunting with a shepherd would be mostly a novelty. I’d take her along when I was hunting, just get out and enjoy the outdoors together. But she’s the real deal, very useful in the woods. I’m not sure how she compares to other flushing dogs in terms of numbers of birds found (I have only hunted over pointing dogs before), but she’s finding me birds I would have walked by, finding dead birds I might not have located (even one that I didn’t think I hit–she dug it out of the brush 60 yards away), fetching them back….everything a gundog is supposed to do.
I don’t want to make this sound simpler than it is. Moonshine is a pleasure to work with, and training was much easier than with pointing dogs I’ve worked with, but there are always little issues to be worked through. For instance, I’m still working on interpreting all of her body language. It’s very important to be keyed in to what the dog is telling you, as you should be able to see when they’re getting birdy. I sometimes can’t tell the difference between when Moon is getting “birdy” or when she’s getting “squirrely”. She would love to hunt squirrels too, but all we have in Alaska are red squirrels, which are very small and not very tasty (I miss hunting gray squirrels down south). She trees them…but I don’t shoot them.
I am not advocating that anyone try to make your English Shepherd into a bird dog if you’re not already a hunter. I had been a bird hunter for many years, so was excited to recognize her potential. I’m also not discouraging anyone, if hunting with your dog is something you would like to try. I would say the most important factors are that your dog have at least some natural hunting instinct and desire, above average obedience, and not be gun shy. An even more important factor is that YOU know what you’re doing in the field. If you are not already a hunter, take a hunter education course, get some training, go out with more experienced hunters, review the hunting regulations…there are a lot of skills to be learned, but it is very doable, and I don’t know of anything that is more rewarding. One excellent program designed specifically for women who want to learn outdoor skills is “Becoming an Outdoors Woman”, which is a national course, typically run by state fish and game agencies.
I’m also not advocating that anyone get an English Shepherd specifically to be a bird dog. I don’t know how many ES would make good hunting dogs…I may have just gotten lucky. Not long ago, I was reflecting on how working with Moon had gotten me back into bird hunting, and how I think she has converted me from pointing dogs to flushing dogs. This is one of my favorite types of hunting, and I thought that someday far, far, far off in the future, when Moonshine is gone, I would probably want another dog I can hunt birds with. I knew the next dog would definitely be another ES (Beth and I are so in love with the breed, that is not even a question), but I worried that we might not get one that was as well suited to bird hunting for one reason or another, and that if that was the case, I might try another flushing breed like a Boykin Spaniel as a second dog. I started to say as much to Beth. “You know, if the next English Shepherd doesn’t turn out to be a good hunter, I might…” She interrupted… “get another English Shepherd and try again.” Her tone brooked no dissension.
Yes dear.
