Your Dogs: Jet, The Mighty Hunter

Platypi writes:

My dad turned 56 this week. As is his tradition, he took the morning off and headed out to the country to do some bird hunting with his buddy Jet. Jet is 14, so he doesn’t have many hunts left in him, but when he saw my dad getting out the shotgun and whistle he bounced around like a pup. This year it was cold and rainy in southern Wisconsin, but they still found a few birds. By the time my dad took this photo Jet was tired, wet, and grumpy at the idea of having to sit still for a picture.

Spaniels aren’t really “stealth” hunters. The birds know they’re coming, bell or no bell, but they hunker down in the brush and tend to stay put. The dogs run a short distance ahead, sniff out the birds, and flush them for the shotgunners.

Jet is an English hunting cocker and is smaller than his springer spaniel cousins so he can sometimes get lost in thick brush, the bell helps Dad keep tabs on him.

After the jump, Jet’s son Teddy, a one-eyed cutie.

Teddy will be seven this spring, but last year he had to have an eye removed because of a benign tumor. He’s the happiest dog I know and doesn’t seem to miss it, although he does crash into furniture a bit more frequently and when he runs laps around the yard he only goes in a counter-clockwise direction so the good eye is on the outside.