First Rate Turkey Dog

[BirdHunter]

I was up near Baldwin last weekend working on some property I have purchased when I decided to take Bosco (my 13 month old yellow lab) for a little walk through a clearcut attached to my property. I have been training Bosco at a pheasant preserve for the past three months, and he has been doing a great job on quail and chukars, so I wanted to get him out and see if we could find some grouse or woodcock. About 5 minutes into the walk Bosco got birdy. The next thing I knew a covey of grouse sized turkeys took off (there were at least 50 of them). Bosco didn't know what to do he was so excited. After he calmed down a little bit he started working the singles that were left and flushed 3 or 4 more. Now that I know he has this talent I have to figure out a way to turkey hunt with him in the fall!

[Neapolis]

I had a similar experience with my Molly (12 month old Golden at the time) last June on the White. I was at the rivers edge and my wife was walking with the dog. A turkey walked out of the brush and came eye to eye with Molly. My wife said it was hard to tell who was more surprised, the turkey or the dog. After the shock wore off, the chase was on. All I could hear was the dog barking and my wife yelling at the pup. She said the chase lasted for a few minutes, but it was like a rabbit, the turkey kept circling the area. Finally the turkey flew up into a tree and they were staring at each other when I arrived.

I figured Molly would tell me where to stick the pigeons we were using for training after that, but she got over it.

She was on her first Grouse hunt last fall in Southern Ohio and we saw some Turkeys while we were driving back to our camp.. There was an overlap between fall Turkey and Grouse last year here in Ohio, I have to check if it will be that way this year. I never thought about it but you may be onto something.