I say white, you say black. I'm in my late 50's. I am acutely aware of barbaric practices used on birdogs, horses and darn near everything else in the good old days. Don't think some of that doesn't go on today. Through all that, many of us raised, coached, and produced birddogs equal to any today. Espousing an alternative to electronic gizmos, does not make one a proponent of the harsh methods of the past. My point all along, has been that it's possible to raise great dogs, who never need a collar, so why buy one that does? I will say it another way, a collar is a crutch, for a lack of either knowledge or time. If you guys are running broke dogs on collars than your dog isn't broke, period. It's broke to the collar but not to you or the bird. A broke dog bumps a bird, and it happens, the broke dog knows the difference and the right and wrong of it. Once even twice is an accident, not a pattern. That dog doesn't need you to light him up, I have always given the dog the benefit of the doubt. If a dog takes steps on the flush or shot, take them back, set them up, whoa re-enforce the stop. Lots of hunters don't want steady to wing because it slows down the dogs pursuit of cripples. It's not as emotionally satisfying maybe, not as instant, but it sure works. I think it's really silly to espouse the fact that a 3 + year old dog needs an e-collar. If it does you either failed trainer 101, paid a heck of a lot to a shade tree trainer, or need a different dog. Seriously, after the derby years, dog training is conditioning and experience, training fundamentals are set in stone, what you have is what you get. That's why I believe that e-collars are basically pacifiers for dog handlers who don't have enough confidence to run or hunt without one. There are dogs who are hard headed, some young dogs are wild and out of control, hell there's a reasonable number of pointing dogs who seem to be born with no natural point, my salient point to all this is WHY mess with them. Go find a dog that will handle, with a nose, with a lot of stop, form a partnership with that dog, you won't need an e-collar. Now if your a pro with 20+ dogs in the string, you really don't have a relationship with any of them, so maybe you need an e-collar to substitute for the natural respect you earn over time in a working relationship. We have to do everything quick these days! I'll leave that one to you. Range which was the original subject, is merely a feature of confidence by the dog in you and you in the dog. You can always tell at a trial, the confident dog/handler, quietly go about the task, in contrast with the whistle blowers, hollerers, frantic scouts trying to keep the dog on the course. while I'm at it, I went to a brittany trial, (espanuel britton), in the south of France, a VDD trial in Germany in the 1980's. Neither were horseback affairs, all foot handled, and gallery a foot, took off across country for miles with dogs searching for huns in France.
VDD spent a lot of time on fur, and tracking. I came to the conclusion then that the european/continental dogs have no business being horseback handled, they aren't bred or intended for it. Sure they can adapt , but why destroy the unique characteristics of a breed by trying to make everything a english pointer? Reality is at the pinacle of the trial game, if all breeds ran together, the e-pointers, with an occasional setter would win consistently. Now if your going to tell me about Billy Bob's fun trial where two shorthairs and a britt won over pointers, I not impressed, I'm talking open all age FDSB, Master's, or a National Championship course at Ames. In those trials a good pointer will beat a great britt, or any other breed. So what do we prove with the various wannabe trials patterned after these, that we have the "big league" and the minors? Like I say, I appreciate a big going dog, want to talk trials and trial accomplishments, go get an all age pointer and get at least day money at an open-all age FDSB Championship. Don't tell me your dog was the AA player of the year in the Pacific coast league. As far as range is concerned in hunting, it's all relative to the terrain, cover, type of gamebird, and experience and capability of the dog. I don't want to trip over a dog, or have one walking on my heels, but if a dog is energetically hunting, staying to the front, covering ground, I'm happy if he's 30 yards out or 1/2mile. It's like art, I may not be able to explain it, but I know it when I see it!
