Training to find & pick woodcock

[Cass]

As far as I remember nobody said that!

Very first post the OP asked if they should just accept that the dog cannot scent woodcock.....

[trekmoor]

So far I've never eaten a possum . My list of edibles is fairly extensive however. When I was a teenager and was going through a wild man of the woods phase I ate a grey squirrel and a hedgehog . The hedgehog was cooked in the way I was told gypsies did it and it did taste quite nice. I have also eaten whale meat, this used to be available for dog food but I couldn't resist trying a big juicy chunk of it. I bought kangaroo meat once and the dog didn't get all of that either ! I have eaten curlew and I once tried eating a scaup duck which sort of committed suicide back when I was a marsh cowboy in my youth. The scaup was 'orrible to eat , it can stay on the protected species list as far as I am concerned.

In an Edinburgh restaurant that dishes up exotic meats I wanted to try crocodile and a few other delicacies but my Mrs. voted against it.

Wullie

[crackerd]

Bill ye adventurous lad of yesteryear, to revive your eating habits from your "salad days," may have to send you over some armadillo on the half shell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xVq-hesLpo - hey, if they won't retrieve woodcock, you can always charbroil them from the bottom up for a gustatory fete.

MG

[Springfield Pointers]

...or the occasional catching up to them by gundogs that raises the mortality rate...

Steadiness obviously not a huge factor in those remarkable Yankee dogs then?

[Cass]

Cass, cutting to the chase, the litmus test for picking fur or feather, alive or dead, would have to be this creature -

Glad we don't have any of those where I am. Nasty looking creatures. Raccoons are bad enough! Mind you I did have an orphaned one when I was younger that I was quite fond of until it grew up and turned nasty like every other raccoon in history lmao. Cute little buggers though but wouldn't want the poor dog to come across one. We seem to have a lot of porcupines this year, they're everywhere. I was away at the deer camp last week and when I was dogging the one run we do one of the beagles got into one... not a pleasant experience for either of us. I saw 2 fishers as well, luckily none of the hounds did lol.

[crackerd]

Cass, possums ain't got the aggressive mojo of fishers or 'coons - actually they're rather bashful (and nocturnal) animals that only look the part of the fierce creature because they've got more teeth than just about any mammal afoot - 50 of 'em in all. But they only use their teeth ordinarily to "grin" at their good fortune of finding road kill for delectation before I do. Thus the "playing dead" for predators rather than defending their turf. Quite fond of them, myself.

MG

[Cass]

I like listening to The Possum but that's about it lol. Step right up.... come on in.....

[4Pawsmagraw]

Success, out on Monday my ESS put up a few woodcock and I even managed to down 1 Sent her for the retrieve and after a short while she returned with it.

Seems as though the dummy training with a woodcock wing did the trick... Unless it was just cos it was -1 and there was snow on the ground the scent stayed with the bird enabling her to find it.

Anyway, what's all this possum crap they taste rank...

[Springfield Pointers]

Success, out on Monday my ESS put up a few woodcock and I even managed to down 1 Sent her for the retrieve and after a short while she returned with it.

Seems as though the dummy training with a woodcock wing did the trick... Unless it was just cos it was -1 and there was snow on the ground the scent stayed with the bird enabling her to find it.

Anyway, what's all this possum crap they taste rank...

Well done. You see that whole "hand scent" issue is not as critical as people think once birds start falling from the sky.