scott county vizsla
Member
This past Saturday was shotgun opener for deer here in Iowa, so public ground can turn into a bit of mess as I'm sure most of you know. I decided to check a large public area (Lost Grove Lake) near Davenport to see if any of the areas were free of deer hunters and I was lucky to get a large country block to myself. Around two hours into the hunt, with two roosters in the bag, my Vizsla (Rusty) and I are working down a valley with thick cover when he raised his nose and caught some odd scent. All the hair on his neck and back shoots up as he starts to bay/howl into the wind. This goes on for five to ten seconds while I'm calling him trying to figure out what is going on and calm him down. The only time he has ever done anything resembling a howl is when he is in a really playful mood and it sounds like he trying to talk, this was much different. The dog turns toward me and starts circling me at about 5 yards never looking at me and howling away and scanning the grass as he circled me. Rusty does about 5-7 laps and I start thinking about the increased Mountain Lion sightings in the area over the past few years and how I can't see much in this belly high grass... Time to go! I start backing out of the valley the way we came while the dog continues to circle me and howl. After about 100yds we are in the knee high grass and I go to pet the dog to let him know all is well and he isn't having it, he walks back towards the tall stuff a bit and howls again then starts circling me while scanning and howling. I get us moving again and he won't leave my side even though i'm trying to get him back into hunting mode. Around 500 yards from the start of all this he starts to go back to normal and then, with my pickup over the next hill, he finds me my third rooster which of course I miss with both barrels and the hunt is over. I'll admit I was a bit worried for five minutes or so during this and I can't help but think how much more calm the situation would have been if I had another person or two with me with a few more guns just in case. Anyway, that evening I'm at a fundraiser telling some friends/fellow hunters about my experience and all we can come up with is a mountain lion or maybe a bobcat since my dog is familiar all the other Iowa critters:fox, coyote, badger, raccoon, etc. Then one of the guys' wife shoves her phone in my face showing me a report of a 250# male black bear hit and killed on I-80 100 miles west of us two days prior. No way to know for sure what it was but more large predators are spotted in Iowa every year and I think I almost stumbled upon one. Has anybody ever had a similar experience or reaction like this out of a dog? Also I already tried to use this as an angle to get another Vizsla to no avail "but honey if I ever do get attacked its going to take at least two bird dogs, possibly 3, to save me."