Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/554642
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 9 6 old. "The best way to develop grouse dogs," he says, "is to expose them to grouse scent at a very early age and give them the opportunity to handle as many grouse as possible. Most dogs simply don't handle enough grouse to reach their potential." Something else Prawdzik likes to do is drag a grouse wing, or better yet, a mesh bag filled with grouse body feathers, through tall grass and let the pup work out the scent. He's also a firm believer in running puppies with older dogs; by essentially leading the pups to birds, the older dogs teach the pups where to look for grouse and how to handle them. It all sounds so simple when Tom's doing the talking. The hard part, of course, is putting these simple- sounding principles into practice. I'm reminded of the old saying: It's easy—when you know how. read, or been told; it slaps it silly. Grouse dogs are supposed to run with a high head and sift the air for "body scent," period. Nothing else is acceptable…is it? "Dogs that run with a high head all the time," Prawdzik explains, "are more apt to bump grouse when scenting conditions are poor. They need to put their noses where the scent is." The ability to consistently point grouse under poor scenting conditions, he argues, is what separates great grouse dogs from merely good ones— and Prawdzik's best dogs have all displayed this propensity to carefully "trail out" moving birds. Don't get the idea that Prawdzik's setters snuffle around like blood- hounds, though. On the contrary, they're fast and snappy. You'd be hard-pressed to detect what makes them different—but the proof is in the pudding. He starts them young, too, taking them for walks in the woods beginning when they're eight weeks dog holds its tail on point, that's completely immaterial to him. The important thing is what's going on somewhere out in front of the other end of the dog. O n the subject of how dogs should work grouse scent, Prawdzik's views become downright heretical. Yes, they should point at the first whiff of scent, and yes, they need to exercise extreme caution when working a running bird so as not to trigger a wild flush. Nothing new or surprising there. But listen to this: It's Prawdzik's unshakable conviction, backed up by more than 50 years of detailed records and tens of thousands of dog-grouse encounters, that the most productive, efficient grouse dogs are those with the strongest inclination to put their noses to the ground and trail grouse scent. The italics are mine, and no, that is not a misprint. This doesn't just fly in the face of pretty much everything we've heard, om Prawdzik (left) and his son, Dave, with Abby on a grouse hunt in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. T