A rooster pheasant winged high overhead in the cobalt sky, several blasts from a shotgun interrupted its flight and the bird somersaulted into thick grass. "Back," Libbe Erickson told her hunting dog, ...

FREEMAN, S.D. - Dogs bound through the switchgrass, hunters in orange caps advance in a row behind them. The sun shines, and even if there aren't many pheasants to shoot, all is right with the world.

I know standard poodles were bred as water retrieving dogs for duck hunters but assumed any hunting instinct had been bred out of them over the centuries they have been around. Recently, I have been ...

The best hunting dogs have natural traits and are properly trained. Early exposure to different hunting scenarios is crucial.