Hunting Moments: The encounter is the most exciting phase of all hunting and living it with your dog is an experience that each time strengthens the atavistic and visceral bond between the two.
You don't often think about it, but the most important moment of hunting is when you finally come face to face with the game. Not that the other moments, of preparation and of reaching the place are not important, but if in those phases some errors are possible, when you have a game in front of you, errors are not allowed and whether they are yours or your dog's, they can send mount a whole day of hunting.
This is precisely the phase during which the collaboration between hound and man is most evident: the pointing dog has followed the track, and has come a few steps from the wild and stops with a statuesque pose of whatever dog it is. His muscles are tense, and at that precise moment he is fighting against his instincts to finish the hunt as a protagonist, but a well-trained dog knows that he is not the handler in that game.
It is a pleasure to see him fully concentrated, with all his sensory organs well awake. At that point, if the dog has acted well, it is time for the hunter to demonstrate what he can do. It must move silently, follow its auxiliary without alarming the wild that most of the time is a rightly suspicious and shrewd creature, very quick in losing its tracks if followed. Throughout this phase the dog is struggling not to throw himself at the rapidly moving animal. Opt for a short guided tour and a new stop, avoiding to make the wild feel pressed; the result would be that of a tragic smoothie that would compromise all the work.
The hunting jargon is full of terms that define the situation, but it is commonly said that at that point the dog is served, the hunter asks his friend to solve it, and the dog snaps while the wild flutters with a flap of wings.
It is a matter of a few seconds full of understanding and pathos between the wild, the dog and the hunter. To trivialize these moments would be madness. Of course, every dog has their own aptitudes and abilities, and when it comes to non-released game, the game gets particularly complicated.
Getting involved with a five-star wild game is a small thing: the dog must know where to look, have sagacity, cunning, intelligence but above all will. He must be tireless and of course he must not be demoralized but show all his olfactory abilities at least if he wants the "meeting" to happen.
It is no coincidence that dogs with instincts are said to have a sense of the wild: they know where to look, and they know how to do it. The style, the speed, the predatory skills that are so rewarded, in some cases are overestimated.
The advice to address to those who have a dog with a sense of the wild next to them is to keep it tight: it is not luck that happens every day.