Springfield Pointers wrote:Can someone tell me the use of a bell on a dog? I have heard of people putting them on cats to prevent them from catching birds. But why on earth would anyone want a dog to wear one?
In places where you have a high density of wild boars (= almost all of Italy) and roe deer, the first usually being hunted by packs of hounds with a bell on the collar, many hunters I know of use the bell on pointing dogs, too, to avoid that while working in the woods the dogs happen on a wild boar that is unaware of their approach and might attack at once. Hearing the dogs already from a distance the boar is more likely to move deeper into the thick (and very prickly) juniper bushes where a pointing dog won't hunt.
So it's not just about knowing your dog's position, but a warning signal to "undesired" game.
I don't know if tiny bells on cats work, but birds like quails and woodcocks don't seem to mind the sound of a bell - or the noise of the beep from a pointing dog.
Springfield Pointers wrote:Can someone tell me the use of a bell on a dog? I have heard of people putting them on cats to prevent them from catching birds. But why on earth would anyone want a dog to wear one?
Naj wrote:If you're hunting a pointing dog through woodland or heavier cover then the bell helps you keep tabs of the progress of the dog when it is unsighted. If it stops ringing then you know it's on point & roughly where it might be. Not perfect but goes back to the days before Bleeper & GPS collars & still common in Europe.
SP, why, Naj, he don't know what's he's on about with bells, especially on our side - where it's obvious that they're worn for polyphonic harmonizing with American pointing dog handlers' magnificent "vocal sessions" afield. A tradition that may even be spreading to Le France - can't wait to hear them "on song" with the Singing Nun's "Dominique" accompanied by the ringing of le setters' le cloches! Of course, over there they may just have the handlers trilling away while the bells are rung in the campaniles instead of in the dogs' ears...
I used to wonder what the American pointing dog handlers meant when they mentioned "singing out to the dog" so I asked why and was told it is done to urge a dog on as it hunts while at the same time letting the dog know where it's handler is. Apparently it sounds a bit like yodelling ?
What I find strange is that some of these folk don't like to use whistles ............coz they make too much noise ! Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
Wullie
If at first you don't succeed .....find out if there is a booby prize !
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Don't do what doesn't work - do what does.
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crackerd wrote:Yes, Wullie - and I would take 10 belled dogs in front of me over one yodeler with whom I might unwillingly become part of a most unfortunate "duet."
MG
Well if your American Chanteurs don't finish you off for such derogatory remarks then LA France surely will be the ending of you!!
SP, lighten up - I'm well past it, even if my ears aren't (and may never recover). Furthermore I agree with you and Wullie that the "singing" is nonsense, even if Wullie was diplomatic enough to call it different strokes for different horses and courses or something like that.
Naj wrote:...if your American Chanteurs don't finish you off for such derogatory remarks then LA France surely will be the ending of you!!
OK, Naj - I surrender: If they braced me and my dog with Serge Gainsbourg and his, or Edith Piaf and hers, all is forgiven.
Well if your American Chanteurs don't finish you off for such derogatory remarks then LA France surely will be the ending of you!!