North American Pudelpointer Society Newsletter
October – December 2021 • Volume 7
Happy New Year!
We wish you and your families all the best in the final weeks of hunting season and the rest of the New Year!
By the time this Newsletter arrives most of us will have made our annual pilgrimages to our favorite hunting spots. I was able to make my annual trip to Kansas along with 5 other great friends. A couple of the others didn’t have Pudelpointers but they were accepted anyway.
One of the guys in our group has been getting, and keeping, access to private land for several years so we had no problem getting into some great bird contact. He takes and sends the property owner gifts throughout the year, honey, Maple syrup, hams etc. The farmers love it and are always happy to see us, and we benefit greatly. Something to keep in mind if you are trying to cultivate a good relationship with landowners. We hunted public land as well and fared well there too.
It was another good year for both pheasant and quail with my friends bagging most of the birds. Although I didn’t kill a lot of birds, I did have a great time introducing 2 young dogs to wild birds. It is amazing and so rewarding to see young dogs transform into real bird dogs right before your eyes. For me that is the reason I make the 16 hour trip each year.
The downside of this year’s trip is that my friend and I picked up Covid there. My friend didn’t suffer quite as much as I did; I was mostly bedridden for nearly 2 weeks. Two others from our group had the same experience the year before. I guess the point is, even though you are vaccinated (both he and I were) the virus can break through, and Kansas probably isn’t the only hunting destination where it can happen. Wear your masks, don’t think you are safe and immune. It is not a pleasant experience.
On the other hand, we can’t let the virus keep us home when we have young dogs to introduce to their joy and lifelong purpose.
Be safe!
Jeff
When upland hunting, choosing whether or not to put a protective vest on your pudelpointer can depend on many factors. I am by no means an expert on the subject, however, I think the main factor in the decision should be the type of upland terrain that you are hunting in, and the potential risks involved therein. Many people avoid using vests on their dogs because they feel that they rub and cause sore spots on the dog, namely in the armpit area. But, I think it’s best to weigh out the risks of the terrain first and foremost; an injury from barbed wire requiring stitches, or life-threatening impalement from a stick are far worse outcomes than sore armpits, in my opinion. Perhaps in more open terrain out west or in the mountains vests may not be needed, but please use your own judgement and weigh the risks for the terrain you hunt. No matter how dense of a coat your dog has, it won’t stop a stick from puncturing through the skin. And though barbed wire may not be life threatening, it goes without saying that I’d rather not have to use my first aid kit in the field if I don’t have to.
I can only speak from my personal experience, but as a Maine native my pudelpointers and I primarily hunt ruffed grouse, woodcock and rabbits in the North Maine Woods and I consider a vest to be a necessity in this type of terrain. There have been many times where I have held my breath watching my dogs jump over downed trees or plow headfirst though thick cover. Impalement is definitely an issue here and I know multiple people who have shared stories of their dogs getting impaled in the woods; some of those dogs have recovered, and some, devastatingly, did not. In fact, just a few weeks ago while hunting, my father’s pudelpointer Raven was saved by her vest as the object she encountered wasn’t able to puncture through and only resulted in an egg shaped hematoma that extended into her chest. The vet said that she was very lucky because the placement was such that if the object had punctured, it would have gone directly into her lung!
The two vests that I have used on my dogs are the Cabela’s and Sylmar vests. They are very similar in style, however the Cabela’s is cheaper in price and it has two reflective strips. The Sylmar is more expensive and seems just a bit more rugged, so it does tend to hold up a bit longer than the Cabela’s in my opinion, but both work very well. I use the Sylmar vest on my puppies as it comes in smaller sizes than the Cabela’s. I find that a medium size in these vests fits my 55lb pudelpointers nicely. Both vests offer good, high coverage in the chest area, and they are open along the dog’s back so the heat is able to dissipate. If you are hunting in areas where there are also deer or bear hunters, as I do, you may also like the fact that these vests come in blaze orange. Some folks prefer to use skid plates on their dogs, however I find that in a lot of brands, there is not as much coverage in the upper part of the chest, but again depending on the cover and the risks involved, a skid plate may be just fine for your purposes.
In addition to safety, an added bonus for using a vest on my dog is that it provides another place where I can write out my contact information. I include my name, full address and a list of phone numbers along with the word “$$ REWARD” in black sharpie marker on the inside of the vest.
To remedy the issue of armpit soreness, I have found that a thin strip of black fleece sewn around the edges of the arm holes works perfectly. I use fleece fabric because it doesn’t fray along the cut edges. You can cut a 1.5” wide strip and wrap it around the edges of the arm holes and sew along the edge.
Regardless of what you decide, I hope at the very least I presented some things to consider for keeping your pudelpointer safe on your next upland hunt. As the saying goes: “an ounce of prevention” is indeed worth a “pound of cure” when it comes to deciding what’s best for our beloved pudelpointers.
Otto is an 11 year old male located in Texas.
His previous owner passed and he is currently living with a friend. He is registered with NAVDHA and has been hunted extensively in different areas of the country. He is friendly with children and other pets and has no health concerns that we are aware of. His current family says he is a big goof ball. If you would like more information on Otto please contact us at rehoming@pudelpointersociety.org.
It’s been a busy fall for the Swag Shop. The 2022 Pudelpointer Calendar Contest was a big hit as always. We changed the format around a bit by adding 4 categories. The winners were as follows.
The Pointing/Upland top vote went to
Shore Thing’s Sergeant Cyprus
The Retrieving/Waterfowl top vote went to
Juniper Creek’s Early Season Syrus
The Miscellaneous top vote went to
Pine Ridge’s Smokey Allie
The Puppy/Training/Testing top vote and overall most vote recipient went to
Shore Thing’s Ada
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who participated. We had more entries and votes than ever before. The 2022 version contains 26 awesome representatives of the best breed out there, the Pudelpointer. Calendars are still available to purchase on our website here: https://pudelpointersociety.org/shop/
Once again the members have requested and we attempt to deliver. The newest item available to the shop is a Blaze Orange Beanie with the NAPS Logo embroidered on the front. It’s great looking and will keep you warm on those late season upland hunts.
“The Ultimate Hunting Companion” is a phrase that suits the Pudelpointer to a T so we added that along with some new artwork to our latest additions. We have Military Green and Safety Orange pull over hoodies, long sleeve Sport Grey t-shirts and an Army Heather zip up hoodie. These and other items are available in the NAPS shop and as always ship to you for free.
If you have any ideas or requests for future items feel free to reach out to me anytime. Thanks for supporting NAPS.
Matt Morgan
Swag Manager
The Good Old Days, oh how we remember them so fondly. Many a long after midnight mile on I-70 I’ve been kept awake by those visions that are secured safely away in the hippocampus region of my noggin. Stories have been told by my companions so many times I can probably tell them better than they can by now. Those stories and memories are so much fun though. They are what drive us hunters. They inspire us to train our dogs on 95% humidity, 95 degree August days when an air-conditioned La-Z-Boy and glass of sweet tea would be much more to our liking.
Say what you will about Social Media and all of its negative attributes, it does have a redeeming quality. The Memories section of Facebook profile does a good job when that hippocampus of mine comes up short, especially during hunting season. Verizon and the magical Cloud do misplace things occasionally when I upgrade phones and transfer photos but Facebook Memories has been a nice backup. On-X is only as good as the person using it. There are plenty of waypoints marked but remembering that I’ve done so is another problem. Organization and planning for old and new hunting spots are always key but sometimes that gets overlooked when trying to plan everything else involved in a week long excursion and balance everything else in life. But show me a photo that was taken and it all come back in flash of a synapse.
Those photos show other things as well. First hunting dog, first pheasant, how my hunting vest and I looked 11 years ago, and how beautiful that field of CRP was. Now, too many of those CRP fields and the gentlemen that allowed us access to them are gone. Put under by the plow and cancer. We still ride by them and remember those bygone hunts and conversations.
The drought experienced in the High Plains region of the US this year had a profound impact on our annual trip. The farmer friends we’ve made over the years warned us in advance, birds are scarce and available cover for them is also. One farmer closed his acres down to family only. We understood why but still stopped in for a visit and dropped off a few southern made goodies for him and his family. Hopefully we will have access in future years. Either way we will maintain friendship and memories. Outfitters have leased up other properties we once stomped. Phone calls were made to see ask for access to some of those grounds. Those were denied until late season after the deer hunting was over and we were to be back in Georgia in a wood duck hole.
We had one private land owner left that granted us permission. There was one caveat though, his best field had been put into the North Dakota PLOTS program. Selfishly we were somewhat disappointed but we had not driven this far not to wear out some boot leather. That new PLOTS field was the first one our restless dogs stretched their legs in on this year’s trip. Man did it pay off. My hunting partner, Doc, and his lab/gsp cross Bella ended up with a three-rooster limit. Syrus and I managed two nice cock pheasants and a bonus sharptail grouse (on only three pulls of the trigger I might add).
Oh the change. This particular piece of property is one that we always had access to but rarely hunted. The cover in it now is much improved, it wasn’t hayed like so many other pieces of ground and was one of the fewer and fewer places a pheasant or grouse could make a home for itself. Public Land Hunting is a buzzword of sorts for folks like me. In our part of the world the overwhelming majority of land is private. Private land is just what I’m used to hunting. Early years of our trip, we had enough spots that we never really thought about hunting public land unless we were bored in the middle of the day and didn’t want to jump into our best golden hour spot. This trip our birds in the gamebag total turned out to be 80% from Public Hunting Land. That is a major change and one I personally was proud of. Land we had taken for granted for so many years was our saving grace this time. Lesson learned.
Back home at the time I’m writing this we are in full swing of whitetail deer rut. Sitting ten feet high on my family farm I see habitat change. My daddy and I don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to trees. He wants more acreage in fields for cultivation and I want more habitat for deer, turkey, and quail. He recently clearcut much of our pine tree and hardwood bottom acreage and stumped those places to put them back into the fields he knew as a young man. His vision for our property and mine are not always exactly aligned.
The closest I’ve come to being a wildlife biologist would be my college courses in Herpetology and Natural History of Vertebrates and reading various articles in PF, QF, NWTF and other conservation focused wildlife journals. “Save the Habitat, Save the Hunt” rings true in my mind where stumping hardwood bottoms does not. But what happens when that cleared land is allowed to grow natural browse full of broomsedge and goldenrod for a couple years? Wild Bobwhite quail happen. This year I’ve seen more wild quail on our family farm than ever before. Their sweet morning calls echo across our land in a way no one has heard my entire hunting life. Probably since the days that daddy was a young man. A byproduct of a changed landscape that I did not want.
How do we hunters continue to pursue these wild birds when the landscape we once knew is no longer familiar to us? We adapt. Those wild pheasant, grouse and quail must adapt and so must we. Whether it be pre-trip planning or adjusting from well-known private spots to public land open to anyone. Good habitat is the key. Maybe my daddy and I can meet with one of those NRCS folks or QF habitat specialists and work out a plan for the future of our family farm and the next up and coming hunting generation. They’ll certainly need a place to wear out some boot leather and run some hunting dogs.
Despite the ongoing concerns about covid, we are still planning to have a hybrid in-person and virtual annual meeting in February 2022! The folks at QHF have again, generously offered the use of their grounds in Palm City, Florida, to host the NAPS Annual Business Meeting. We are planning some fun events for Saturday, some training opportunities for Sunday, and will hold the business meeting on Sunday at 12:00 Eastern. So, mark your calendars for February 26 & 27, 2022 to come out and join us for some fun. There will be more details posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages as well as in the Q4 newsletter as we get closer to the meeting.
You can register and read more details about the annual meeting at our website here.
The Board has decided to extend the deadline for motion and discussion topic submissions to Saturday, January 15th, 2022 at 11:59 PM EST in order to give those who would like to submit a little more time after the busy holidays. You can submit a motion by clicking here. You can submit a discussion topic by clicking here.
We will post any submissions on the main Annual Meeting registration page as well as on our Members Only Facebook page.
Once you register, you will be sent an email with details on hotel and meal options for the weekend.
The NAPS Board of Directors has openings for the below Board appointed positions
Marketing Director – This position is responsible for the organization, development and operation of all marketing programs. Duties also include helping with the Facebook and Instragram postings, managing our website updates, and other marketing and public relations related activities, as needed.
Publications Director – This position is responsible for the organization, operation and distribution of all club publications, such as the quarterly newsletter and other email distributions, as well as other marketing and public relations related activities, as needed.
Interested parties may contact NAPS at contact@pudelpointersociety.org.