Versatility Part 1: Reporting From Finland
In the gundog world, the term 'versatile' is pretty versatile. In the UK, France, Italy and other European countries, it means a dog that hunts, points and retrieves. In North America, according to NAVHDA, it means a dog that hunts, points, retrieves and tracks on land and water. In Germany and countries to the east, it means a dog that hunts, points, tracks, drives, bays, flushes, kills vermin and protects the house and home.
But even as broad as those definitions are, they still don't cover the full spectrum of how versatile dogs are actually used by hunters in each region. So in this next series of posts, I would like to explore some of the more interesting and unusual ways that versatile dogs are used in different parts of the world. Today's post will look at something called "reporting" done by Finnish hunters, field trialers and their dogs in the vast forests of Finland.
The dog has just done what the Finns call Tiedotus which means 'reporting' or 'announcing'. It is a technique used by Finnish hunters when they hunt grouse and is also a requirement of high-level 'winners class' field trials. Here is a more detailed description of how it works:
1. The dog, while hunting out of sight of the handler, sticks a point.
2. After a while, if the handler doesn't show up, the dog leaves the point to go get the handler OR, the handler, not seeing the dog and assuming it is on point somewhere over yonder whistles for it to come back in so that the dog can lead him back to the original scene of the point.
3. If it is done during a trial, the handler must tell the judge that his dog is reporting. He/she cannot say "I think the dog might be reporting" or "I think I should whistle him to see if he will report", it has to be a solid declaration. The handler must say something like "Judge, my dog is reporting" or "I am going to whistle to make my dog report".
4. Once the reporting is "declared", the judge starts evaluating how well the dog cooperates with the handler, specifically how well the dog keeps contact with the handler while returning to the point. Ideally, the dog should return quickly to the handler, but while going back to the scene of the point it should go more cautiously, keep close contact with the handler and work in silence.
5. Once the dog is back on point, with the handler close by, and if the situation allows, the handler or shooter may shoot the bird if given permission by the judge.
So there you have it, a pretty cool hunting technique if you ask me. But one has to wonder how and why the Finns came up with it. Personally, I have a hunch that it may have been developed because the Finns hunt a lot of Capercaillie, huge black grouse that often sit in trees and/or hold well for points in the forest since they are highly territorial and tend to 'stand their ground', even when facing a dog or a man.
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| Click photo to see a crazy video of a brave Capercaillie in Russia. |
A traditional way of hunting Capercaillie in Finland is with Spitz type dogs that tree them and bark to alert the hunter who then approaches and shoots the grouse with a rifle. Could 'reporting' be a modern versatile dog adaptation of that technique?
If so, how do they train for it? And can breeders actually select for dogs that do it naturally? According to Finnish hunter and breeder of Picardy Spaniels, Jani Rajaniemi, the answer to both questions is 'yes'.
Here is a video showing how to develop Tiedotus in a young dog:
"Reporting is mainly something that some dogs do naturally. Of course you can encourage it through training, but it is almost impossible to teach it to a dog that does not want to do it naturally. There are some breeds and lines that have a lot of natural ability for it, German shorthairs from Finnish and German lines especially."
Here is a video showing how to develop Tiedotus in a young dog:
And here is an older dog:
And here is Tiedotus in a real hunting situation
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This is very interesting. Please keep it coming. More generally, I would like to say that I appreciate how you combine a deep knowledge of hunting with deep analysis of concepts and categories and cultures and histories. In my view, your blog is the best bird dog blog on the web. Thanks so much. David Johnson, Hawaii
ReplyDeleteInteresting article and nice that there is this kind of exchange going on between pointer people.
ReplyDeleteThe most important reason for that we teach reporting to our pointers is the forest where we hunt. It is usually really dense and you cannot see where your dog is. When it does not show up for couple of minutes you know it is pointing but you do not know where! When the dog comes back and shows the way to the bird you have even a slight possibility to pack the bird.
BTW: The most typical bird hunted with pointer in Finland is black grouse, a capercaillie is a jackpot! :-)
Very instructive!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great piece and the great series.
ReplyDeleteDo Finns use beeper collars now? If so, is Tiedotus becoming a dying shill?
Beeper collars make annoying noise. Garmin Astro is more popular, I think. However I don't think "Tiedotus" is not dying, because it is required in every trial in Finnish "winner class" to get any price. ... and you have to obtain 3 times 1st price to become hunting champion. ...And it is pleasure to hunt with dog that keeps contact and does that "tiedotus" in every kind of terrain, in high mountains where dog can run 1 km or in dense forest where dog is lost if it goes 50 meters away and takes point.
ReplyDeleteAs an owner of a West Siberian Laika who was raised seeped in culture of hunting Pointers, Labs and Beagles, I found this very interesting! Thank you for showing.
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ReplyDeleteThanks once again for an interesting article.
ReplyDeleteThe practice of "reporting" will live on - not only because of Finnish field trial rules at the top level - but also since it is a nice way of communicating between dog and owner. The expression on the dog's face is highly individual when reporting. The owner will learn what a particular expression means from a particular dog.
Wow - that's awesome. Thanks for sharing. I hope you're having a good season.
ReplyDeleteGregg
What a great article and videos! I was really interested to learn about this - living in the Yukon Territory, Canada, I have never seen this hunting recreationally and it doesn't exist in AKC/CKC/NAVHDA trials. I could see how it would be really useful in dense cover. Thanks!
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