How a spaniel hunts

Each type of gundog has a particular way of hunting. The fundamental distinction is whether the dog flushes or points.

A pointing dog ranges far and wide in his hunt for the bird. For big running dogs like German Shorthair Pointerse, the hunter might put a GPS on the dog just to find him.

When the pointing dog comes upon a bird, he stops and points. The dog may strike the classic pointing stance: which is front paw raised, nose aimed at the bird, and tail up (if he has an undocked tail). The hunter locates his dog and hikes to him. He then walks up to the bird and the dog, and basically kicks up the bird to shoot it.

(Click on photos to see entire picture.)

A Brittany on point. Photo courtesy of Central New Mexico Brittany Club.

A pointing dog may work for a bird that hunkers down and holds his ground. But some birds, like pheasant, do not hold, they run. In fact, a pheasant, like many galiforms would rather run than fly.

A pheasant hunter wants a close working dog: a dog that hunts within gun range. The dog must aggressively charge into the cover where the bird has hidden itself and give the bird no choice but to fly.

That is what the spaniel does. The spaniel searches the field by quartering in the "halo," or area in front of the hunter that is in reasonable shooting distance. When the flushing spaniel finds the bird, he aggressively attacks and in so doing, sets the bird awing. The dog's snapping jaws provide the incentive for the bird to get out of Dodge.

Stanley demonstrates the spaniel flushing technique.