I’ve only hunted birds a couple of times, and that when I was younger, but I remember thinking how cool it would be to have a good bird dog. They are amazing to watch working a field, pointing, and then at the right moment flushing the birds for the hunters to shoot.
We never got a bird dog, but we did have a dog named Buffy that was a bird dog of sorts. Buffy, a Poodle mix was a lap dog who knew something about birds. Buffy survived our sons early years and so was one tough dog. The boys teased each other; of course, but the dog was not left out of the fun. They loved the dog, but they loved teasing him too.
There favorite method was to call the dog and then when they had his attention to flip him off. That’s right they’d give him the finger, a gesture that consists of showing a person the back of your hand with only the middle finger extended. Thrusting your hand toward the sky while extending the finger is a way of adding emphasis to the gesture. They didn’t know it, but they were training him to be a bird dog, and they were providing the bird.
The dog quickly grew tired of the bird the boys used to startle him and would bark whenever he saw the impudent finger. The dog would go after the bird with a vengeance, and the boys would quickly hide the hand with the bird and then return it in petting mode thereby mollifying the dog for a time. But, when he calmed down they would again launch the one finger salute in the dog’s face driving it into a frenzy. After a time they didn’t even have to surprise the dog to illicit the response. A slow methodical raising of the digit would send the dog into attack mode.
One day Gail and the boys were on a shopping trip when Gail cut off a couple of teenagers in a truck. The truck pulled along side the car at the next intersection, and after getting her attention, they flipped her off. It took only seconds for the dog in her lap to rise to the occasion. Buffy launched himself at the window snarling and barking at the boys. Surprised, they lowered their hands and the dog stopped. One could see it in their expressions; they were wondering if the dog was responding to being flipped off. They again raised their digits. This time directed at the dog, and the dog didn’t disappoint. The teenagers started laughing and pointing at the dog, forgetting their anger over being cut off, and enjoying the sight of a good bird dog at work.
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