16ga.com ~ View topic - The 8-ball hunt- another adventure and photos

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1113

How old is Rusty now? I took my 13 year old GSP on my fall bird hunting trip, but his main issues are loss of hearing and cataracts. The nose still worked great, but once I flushed the birds and shot, he had problems marking the bird down and I sometimes had to lead him to the area where he could use his nose to find the bird. Hunting chukars in steep terrain, I was constantly having to tone him back to me to prevent him getting into trouble with really rugged terrain. At 81 years old I wasn't sure I could rescue him from some of the stuff he was going for. I'll say this for old Bode though, the desire is as strong as ever.

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2126 Location: Hudson,Wy

Rusty turns 10 on Friday. He's largely deaf as well, tone does nothing-been that way for a year...so I use the vibrate mode on his collar. His hearing loss is stronger in the high frequency range, he can hear me if he's less than 20 yard out (10 is a lot better though). He hears me better when I use a deep voice.

His eyes are fine, and of course the nose works great. Not sure he'll hunt into his 15th year like little Kate did though. She went deaf at 12.

I did have to send Rusty in the right direction on a fallen grouse Saturday morning, but once I pointed him the right direction, he found it quickly. He also saved my butt on a bird that had fallen far down the mountain an hour earlier, a bird that towered over the trees several hundred yards away then plummeted out of sight. It was an impossible bird to mark and I had given up hope after considerable searching, then he trailed off as we were hiking out and found the bird about 50 yards above our location. Good little buddy.

Garhart,

My Female Gordon Grouse dog lost her hearing and was so good at what she did that
it was almost a year before I figured out her hearing was completely gone. She was like Rusty very attentive to her master. At this point I suggest you keep a close eye on him when you are out hunting. Penny finally became disorientated and I eventually had to go find her using the Beeper portion of the Dogtra T&B collar. It is amazing how they keep their incredible sense of smell, almost right to the end of their life time.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2126 Location: Hudson,Wy

Rusty actually does a very good job of keeping track of me and responds to hand signals. My biggest difficulty comes in cattails.