German Chocolate Quail
Posted on February 1, 2012 by bob in OffTheBeatenPath
A German (Shorthair) Chocolate (Lab) on-point.
No, it’s not a new wild game recipe, but it could be the beginning of the next big thing in bird hunting. The story begins more than a year ago with a friend’s German shorthair pointer that was known to wander the neighborhood, and wander he did, right into our backyard when our Chocolate Lab, Bella, was in heat. Puppy love led to an accidental litter of a dozen healthy German Chocolates, one of which stayed with us.
My wife Sally had named Coco, the firstborn of the litter, before she even entered this world. If Bella – who would rather hunt than eat – was “my dog,” early indications were Coco would certainly be Sally’s canine companion, laid back with a tail that even wagged in her sleep. We both laughed at her puppy playfulness, nicknaming her “Coocoo” for her antics.
I worked with Coco on obedience, retrieving and finding dead birds, but I had never trained a pointer and wasn’t sure where to begin. While several of her litter mates had begun pointing by six months, she had yet to point a single bird, either in the backyard or on the dove hunts on which she tagged along. I blamed her lack of pointing on the fact that she lived with a flushing, not pointing, dog. Seems that since pointing is bred into dogs and is instinctual, a dog either points or doesn’t. It can be taught, but it’s easier to build upon instinct than teach a new trait.
Coco made her first point on a walk in the neighborhood. We turned a corner past a hedgerow and she froze, solid as stone, right foot cocked and tail up. A few seconds later, a fat orange house cat flushed from the bushes. At the time Sally and I had a good laugh about our “Alabama cougar hound” and I joked that if the world went to pot, we would at least be able to hunt up a fresh supply of protein. Inside, however, it wasn’t as funny – and a little embarrassing.
On Coco’s first quail hunt, I did not know what to expect. I turned her loose with Bella and the pair tore through the field ahead of us, along a fencerow and down into a shallow ditch, heads down and then up again, noses full of country smells. When they topped the other side of the ditch, a funny thing happened. Coco froze, as she had on our walk when she pointed the cat, and Bella suddenly turned, circling Coco and a patch of brush in front of her. I stiffened, as this was uncharted territory.
As I approached Coco, still solid on point, Bella caught the right scent trail and dove into the brush as a covey of quail erupted from the grass. I was startled but managed a shot, dropping a single bird as my brother-in-law downed another, which Bella had seen fall and which she was after.
Coco had seen my bird drop and bounded through the brush, pausing to pick up the bird and deliver it back to me. I was more surprised than when she pointed that first cat.
We hunted several more coveys that day which Coco pointed solidly, never breaking, and have hunted up many more since. She has the style and gait of a pointer working a field, but will readily retrieve dead birds to hand like a Lab.
Unlike some pointers I’ve hunted over, Coco knows her job is not over once she points the birds and the guns go off.
As her arrival was unplanned, I wasn’t sure what Coco would bring into our lives. As it turns out, she has found her niche just fine, as both Sally’s and my dog.
Niko Corley spends his free time hunting, fishing and enjoying other outdoor activities. He can be contacted at cootfootoutfitters@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @cootfootoutfitters.
