Doggy Serendipity

Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.  ~ Lawrence Block

Gentle Readers,

This is another dog story.  Rowdy went all serendipitous this fall and I’m going to try to describe it.  I’ll ramble a bit, hang with me.

Bird dogs come in two basic varieties.  Hunting retrievers and pointers.  Rowdy by virtue of his Golden Retriever and Standard Poodle parents is a retriever.  The retrievers de-emphasize quarry location and emphasize the retrieve.  Especially if we are discussing water fowling where the human strongly desires to avoid immersion in the cold, smelly swamp. 

Pointers emphasize the hunt itself.  Generations of breeding and training have resulted in dogs that freeze when they sense a bird.  For extra style points, they can strike the cliched raised front leg straight-tail pose but that’s not important.  What’s important is that they get as close to the bird as their instinct and training allow without flushing it and face toward it.  

The hunter’s job is to note when the pointer has stopped quartering and started pointing.  The hunter then uses the dog’s point, the wind, the landscape and their experience to walk to where the bird probably is and then the hunter flushes the bird.  The well-trained pointer holds the point until released to retrieve the bird or continue the hunt if there is a miss.   

Hunters with pointers can relax and watch the dog work waiting for the point. 

Hunters with retrievers have to remain constantly on edge to take the shot because the retrievers blindly quarter within gun range of the hunter and bluntly flush the bird. Which is how Rowdy and I have been hunting until October this year rolled around.

A little aside about dogs, breeding and intelligence.  Standard Poodles, Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers score very high on the doggy intelligence scale.  The Labs though, are bred and trained for focus, intensity and enthusiasm.  When you send a Lab on a retrieve, they are going to go to the mark and retrieve with single minded fervor.  If they are quartering for birds, that is what they do.  No distractions. 

Rowdy is different.  He’s really smart, but he’s also a late maturing doodle.  He’s goofy at times, focuses on the wrong thing often and notices a lot of what is going on around him.  I am constantly calling him off of squirrels, deer and - once a skunk.  Which he still smells like when he gets wet.  (If you ever find yourself in need of deskunkifaction, here’s a recipe.) 

If I fire a shotgun near him, he’s focused on where the bird went.  He loves him some gunshots. 

Fireworks and thunder are different.  He’s decided that those are the focus of evil in the world. 

I’ve seen him stop in the middle of a water retrieve to ogle a frog.  

What I’m saying is Rowdy is a bit of a free thinker.

Finally, here’s the serendipity I promised.  Out of nowhere, he started pointing birds this fall.  I’ve seen him do it now around 20 times, it's not a one-off.  If the bird doesn’t flush, he stops, freezes and focuses on it.  His eyes dart back and forth from me to the bird as if to say: “Reff, it’s right there!  Shoot it!”   He has without any attempt at training on my part voluntarily moved out of the retriever circle on the Pointer/Retriever Venn Diagram and into the intersection between them.  I like to think it is a measurement of his intelligence and eagerness to work with me. But I could be all hubristic on this....

At risk of going all Jack London dog novel on you, it is a great gift from the best dog I’ve ever had. 

On that note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

Ps, no, I don’t haven any pictures of it happening.  I was still so surprised by the whole development, I totally forgot to get the phone out.

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