Kai, my one-year-old Viszla/German Shorthaired Pointer cross, winded then looked back at me. This was our fifth day of public land bush hunting since we’d completed the Deer Dog Blueprint. We’d already accounted for a Red spiker on our first visit to the Kaimais, and a respectable Sika stag in an area close to where we had been on a previous trip.
We were about an hour into our early winter morning walk deep in the Kaimanawas, along a rich green moss covered bush trail alongside a steep river gully system. “Trust the dog” was something my hunting friends had drilled into me. With that thought in my mind, I encouraged him with a double peep whistle to move and follow the scent. He acknowledged and worked ahead. Ducking under some low pepperwood, I noticed fresh tracks in the mud. We were on.
It was a perfectly still morning, pleasantly cool and overcast. And quiet. With only micro Kai worked the ground scent in front and I allowed him room to move. This is something that I’d taken from the writings of Johnny Bissell and resonated with me, and felt that it suited how my dog worked. It provided a real sense of freedom for us both to relax into the rhythm of the stalk. I’d read that German Shorthaired Pointers were originally bred to work well ahead of their owners and will naturally work in circles to locate game birds. Kai would occasionally work off the ground scent, but circle around and sometimes behind me, to get back on the line of investigation, requiring me to slow down and to stop at times. It let him set the pace.
