Springfield Pointers wrote:One person writes a piece on "singing to bird dogs" an you think this is how British breed field trials are run as a rule. Seriously, you need to get out more. Your naivety is showing. Your audience may lap up your opinion as gospel, but fortunately there are people who are practical, and have more than a fleeting grasp on reality.
SP, are you petulant and delusional? I've never made the first comment, nor would I have reason to, on a British pointing dog trial (or British retriever trial or British spaniel trial for that matter) - nothing critical a'tall. But you go right on believing it and believing in that one-person aberration who woofs (sings) to his pointer. Who knows, maybe "he" will contact Hugh Masekela and have him offer to give you some help with your'n.
Anyone who "sang out to their dog" in any kind of British trial would soon be having an early bath. I have read the advice to "sing out" to pointing dogs as they hunt a couple of times on U.S. fora but I have no idea how many people actually do that. If I did it I'd be worried that while I was encouraging the dog to hunt, I would, at the same time be scaring off the game it was hunting for.
British trialers, in any kind of trial, try to be as quiet as possible.
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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Apropos MG's revelation on the fabled & much vaunted singing pointer men of America, an offshoot of the American Barber-Shop Quartet movement, they clearly took their lead from our very own & much loved Guy Wallace. In his book, 'The Versatile Gundog', he confesses that ..."when working undulating ground I sing out a musical 'YEE-LOH-HOH' to orientate the dog when it is out of sight". He doesn't divulge which pitch would work best but from the look of him, I would hazard a guess at him being a baritone. Rumour has it that he definitely isn't soprano.
would hazard a guess at him being a baritone. Rumour has it that he definitely isn't soprano.
Naj[/quote]
I can concur with that
I remember reading about singing while working Pointers/GSPs, it was an American forum and the idea wasn't that the handler was singing TO the dog, but as Naj said re Guy Wallace that it was to orientate the dog to the handler.
Springfield Pointers wrote:Hugh Masekela is not a singer.
Exactly - that's why he'd be the perfect choice to help with "singing" to your pointing dog in the American pointing dog trial manner of a capella accompaniment.
Why? Because SP was telling us he'd "heard everything now" when it was broached that American pointing dog trialers sing to their dogs in field trials.
