Upland Bird Hunts
| In all cases of the information we provide in this website we strive to develop reasonable expectation of the hunt quality we offer. Our experience has show to raise as discussion topics a range of interests greater than ours to allow for better hunt quality agreement from those with varied backgrounds than our own. This discussion on quail dog power is such a case. Quail dog power is that which describes a dog's ability to first find quail and then allow the hunter a shot opportunity. Refinements such as retrieving, honoring, steady to wing, shot and drop are not part of this quail dog power discussion. We rather will focus on one aspect why some quail hunters of seemingly good bird dogs do not experience the same quail hunting success on the same leases as other self guided quail hunters. That self guided aspect is another topic beyond the scope of this article (meaning hunters who pass by good quail habitat for lack of eye calibration) being a big discriminator as well as the dog itself. The quail hunting community largely evaluated by field trials have made great point of conditioning a dog's field or hunt pattern largely composed of having a dog that "quarters" being a better quail finding dog. A quartering dog or one that swings like a pendulum across the front of the the hunter is very effective covering uniform and widely spaced cover habitat and poorly experienced at hunting the central mid-west's primary quail cover of the linear edge. Linear edge nature of our quail habitat requires a dog that can run its edge on the downwind side, select where to penetrate that edge cover and not spend energy on less productive field or interior to the wooded cover habitat. Essentially, a dog that runs circles as is often a case of a dog conditioned to quarter when on linear habitat will spend half his time on far less productive cover. A local adage to describe such a dog is one that covers half as much ground in twice the time of a good or high-power quail dog. When it comes down to the upland bird hunting trilogy of the hunter's willingness to walk, shooting ability and dog power there are those that easily possess two of the three. Those that have the most success on quail always have the third and most important aspect of dog power suited to linear edge quail habitat.
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