Chapter Four The Real Thing

I kneel down and remove the clip off of Tova’s collar. Immediately she starts to track.

The grass in the field is not very high and I don’t know where these chukars are sitting. I am trying to guess where they may be so I can walk towards them and give her a little heads up.

She is running and circling as she detects bird scent. Some could be old tracks and others could be being carried with the breeze. About fifty-feet into the field she stops and points.

I don’t see any bird there and the grass is not very tall so I am skeptical that she has a bird.

I tell her there’s no bird there but she wouldn’t break point.

I heard you say to move, there’s no bird there. You can’t see it. Don’t make me move. You need to get it out, I’m doing my part.

Slowly and cautiously I approach the area right in front of her. I have to look straight down into the patch of grass. By God, there is a chukar looking straight up at me. It is nestled down so far I couldn’t get a glimpse of it until I looked straight down at it. She located her first bird.

She must have read my mind.

See, I showed you there is one there.

I stepped backwards a foot and kicked the pile of grass. Upwards flew the chukar and Tova got to see her first bird in flight. I let it get out a ways before I fired then she headed right for it.

The next thing surprised me, something I had not thought of. When the bird dropped she went over to it sniffed it and went off to look for another one. I called her back holding the bird in my hand. She returned and sniffed the bird and looked at me.

Yeah, I saw it, what do you want, I found it for you and you shot it, let’s go get another one. Should be more out here.

I placed the chukar in my hunting vest.

The second chukar wasn’t far from where I downed the first bird and it took off just as we were moving around the field. I fired at it but missed. By this time we are half way down the field heading towards the opening in the stone wall to go into the woods. Since the chukar went into the woods I was more interested in going after the roosters that Pam placed.

“Come on Tova, this way, girl. We’ve got some bigger surprises for you than chukars.”

Hey, there’s more space out here we need to check to see if we can find some more before we leave.

She keeps tracking until she sees me heading for the break in the stone wall then she comes running to be alongside of me.

One of Tova’s great attributes is she likes to stay close. She is never more than forty yards off from me. I have a bell on her collar just in case she decides to take off. You never know what a new dog will do when it can become totally distracted with the hunt. She also has a Tri-Tronics electronic collar on her in case she doesn’t respond. I don’t want her getting lost or possibly running across a road and getting hit by a car. The collar and transmitter has a range of a mile.

As we walk through the opening in the stone wall, I am wondering where Pam has placed the roosters.

We walk slowly for awhile without any indication from Tova that she has picked up a scent. As we come out of the tree line to a small meadow she makes a dash for a brush pile and freezes directly in front of it in a solid point.

After what I learned from the chukar she found I was never going to question her nose again.

Slowly, I move closer to her and suddenly the rooster comes up through the brush pile as if he was shot out of cannon. I nailed him about fifty yards away and he tumbled to the ground. She ran after him when he fell and sniffed around him as if she were checking to see if he was still alive. I tried to get her more interested in the dead bird but no dice.

I just praise her to make sure she realizes I am happy. “Good girl! Nice work! Let’s go find the others.”

This is a big bird. He’s a lot bigger than the other one.

I put him in my hunting vest along with the chukar.