False points

It is called unproductive by those of us who have had such dogs. Most of mine have except my second one called Cookie. It was 60 years ago on a meadow lark, in a pasture near Port Lava, south of the highway. You should have seen the expression on her face. I could walk to that spot today. You?

Ever have on that pointed skunks. My friend ET had a brace of red setters got skunked several times.

My older pointer seldom does it. Usually I’ll see it from the others when there are very few birds. They get bored and start pointing non game bird scent, or rats.

I lived in New Orleans for three years. I fell in with a dairy farmer north of the lake. He had two dogs. He would get bored a hup them. They would start backing each other. It was fun to watch.

At a field trial mine went on point right on the edge of the road at the beginning of the bird field. My dog was on point, but seemed like he was iffy about it. It was just too easy. Still, being planted birds, I called the point. There was no bird. He had pointed on a neat ball of quail feathers in the grass. I heard a man off behind me who had been out there as an observer while they were placing birds comment that there must have been a hawk out there just before we started. I looked up and it was a relative of my competition and he was smiling. I also realized at that moment that the handler of the other dog had directed her dog over just before reaching that area. I did not say a word about it and it certainly could have been a hawk eating a bird there just before we started. Duped or not, it was my fault. I should have paid attention to what was going on around me, read my dog better, and gone with my gut. I never should have called that point and my dog should not have pointed it.

I had one pointer that once pointed then heeled a pig. Took it all the way to the ground.

I've had two retrieve piglets. One point and owl eating a skunk. Lots of unpro points on younger dogs, especaily late season when birds learn to run out on the dogs

I had a dog point a porcupine last year. By the time I got there, her was full of quills.

I had one once point a turtle, never did after that, was a young dog

I had a couple that would pick them up and carry them around.

Daisy pointed several sounders of hogs over her almost 16 years. I could read that girl like a book and called it pretty much every time.

A buddy of mine, years ago, had a dog with a thing for skunks.
Dolly was a GSP with a great nose and plenty of go but she hated skunks with a passion. Kent told me later that she killed cats and skunks with equal compassion. But cats don’t stink.

One day, we were hunting out near the airport in Albany and Dolly locks up on a patch of prickly pear.
I said “Kent, Dolly’s got a point”
He looks over and says “That doesn’t look like a bird point.”

Then all hell broke loose. She stuck her face down in that cactus and pulls out a pole cat, which she starts shaking like a rag doll.
Skunk pizz is flying everywhere, Kent is screaming “no, Dolly, NO!!!”…all the while laying on the collar.

She finally dropped the skunk but the damage was done.
We had to stay upwind the rest of the afternoon.

Good old Dolly kept finding and pointing birds through that skunk pizz. That was remarkable.

Turtles?

Yep. Queen was bad about that.

The more you hunt with a dog the better you get to know its idiosyncrasies. My late dad had a wonderful lemon & white English Pointer called Liza. If Liza went on solid point - stiff tail - it was definitely a gamebird or hare. If it was a guinea-fowl she would crouch lower while on point than other game-birds. If she pointed but there was a slight wag in her tail then there was something there other than a gamebird. It would normally turn out to be an owl but she also pointed a hedgehog, cane-rat and feral cats. Duiker and steenbuck do not normally sit tight for a point but often flush when you are 20-30m from them. The dogs would often false-point the spot where the little antelope had been bedded down.

A friend of mine's GSP pointed and got into a scrap with a serval.

My pudelpointer hates porkys with a passion. If he goes on point with the tail ever so slightly flagging and then his hackles go up it is a porcupine. If I see it happen before he engages and recall him he will jackknife off them. If he is out of sight he will kill or try to kill it and it is ugly. F’n hate porkys.

That is why they call them all purpose.

A little too all purpose in the case of porkys.... Otherwise the versatility suits me.

My Brittany, Junior, would point turtles too.

June would bring me box turtles, when we were out in the field.
Her and her half sister Lucy were skunk killers too.
Them dang girls had to kill 2-3 of them every year.
Cash only went after a skunk once, and learned his lesson.
Ranger would point coyotes. You always knew when it was a coyote point, by the hair standing up across his back.
Jasper is known to false point, if he's not finding game birds.

All those dogs with the exception of Jasper, have passed away in the last 5 years.