![]() ![]() It's old school, just
like turkey dogs. It began before viewers were forced to
view 8 X 10" pictures on a little phone. Phones aren't
conducive to this. These 55 long pages listed at the
bottom of each page would take ~1,000 pages to view on a
phone. Pictures are 4 times bigger on a computer.
100% of turkeys prefer to be hunted in Fall, by a dog. |
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Hunting turkeys with a dog is one of the
few methods of non-consumptive hunting. Very similar to
catch-and-release fishing. The ultimate goal is not the
harvest of turkeys, but the enjoyment gained listening and
interacting with the magnificent bird, and the dogs during
their training and pursuit. Then we make the ultimate
choice, as C.H. Kit Shaffer said so well, directly below: |
Turkey Dogs featured in the Sept/Oct. 2021 issue of Turkey Call
magazine - pps. 54, 96, 104, 112.![]() ![]() "To me the ultimate in
wild turkey autumn hunting, which will provide the
individual with more thrills and personal satisfaction,
is utilizing the old fashioned dog-blind-calling
techniques. It is my conviction that to harvest a wild
turkey without calling the birds within shooting range
is a complete waste of a resource; and the hunter
unknowingly is deprived of one of nature's most exciting
experiences! The skillful luring of a magnificent trophy
close enough to make the ultimate choice of either
pulling the trigger, or granting life to the big bird
is, to me, the greatest challenge." C.H.
'Kit' Shaffer
|
![]() ![]() About TurkeyDog.Org The Turkey Dog News - published at random Buying a puppy (members only). Join here. Paintings David Wright |
![]() ![]() Turkey dog flushing a flock. We run these dogs once or twice a day, for 3 months in the Spring. → ← Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library & Archives. Image has been altered from the original. |
![]() ![]() The best companion is a dog. The best places are in CT, OH, KY, MD, MI, NY, PA, TN, VA, WI, WV and Ontario. The best time to make a reservation is now. |
![]() ![]() Turkey hunting with dogs: Keeping the tradition alive. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Now available with front and back printing on t-shirts and sweatshirts. Children's sweatshirts and t-shirts by request. |
300 years ago, there were
stone age people and their dogs living here,
hunting turkeys on foot by calling with their voice, using
wooden bows with sinew strings, arrowwood shafts with
turkey wing feather vanes, and stone arrowheads.![]() ![]() Researchers said hunting turkeys during the breeding and nesting season, and killing the best specimens when they're blinded by hormones, is detrimental to the population. Alabama reduced the spring limit from 5 to 4 (and no decoys the first 10 days, tragic)! Georgia proposed going from 3 to 2, and not open the season until a few weeks later! Maybe they should hunt them the old-fashioned way, during the traditional Fall season, when big toms don't come blindly running to hen yelps, when the vast majority get away! |
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This problem ain't nothing, compared to the "Canary in the Coal Mine" birds missing since 1970. |
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#2 reason for population decline caught on
film: One. Two.
Three! The #1 reason? After an 8 year study in 4 States, researchers suggest if hunters stop killing so many gobblers in the Spring we'd have more turkeys. What if we had to chase turkeys away with a dog before you could kill any? What if we only hunted turkeys in Fall, instead of Spring? |
![]() ![]() Best pictures of 2024 in Wisconsin. You never saw sweet sounding turkey calls like these. Members Only Ol' Red found a new way to do it! The two things different about Turkey Dogs. A turkey dog in Georgia 100 years ago. 1929 dogs got Santee Swamp SC birds for a Parker, VA preserve. Parker Whedon in 1979 and 2020. Think your dog is fast? These guys run down the turkeys. Training a dog to sit while you call. Members Only Using Turkey Dogs in the Spring. Old turkey dog photo - G. Mixon. Stone message - Jon Freis |
Carroll
Gathright Breeder of the Year Award. |
![]() ![]() Members can read the remarkable story of how the wild turkeys saved Le Sier de Boisrondet. |
![]() ![]() Gun Dog mag. at newstand hunt WI turkey with dog Drones w/FLIR save turkeys from harvesters. Surprised photo compliments of Humane Watch - WATCH LAWYERS IN CAGES. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Take the Fall Turkey
Challenge by
Dan Small
November 2015 WISCONSIN SPORTSMAN magazine. Take the Wisconsin Slam. |
![]() ![]() The following explains (partly), why it's easier to kill a male turkey in the spring, than a hen turkey in the fall or winter. Also, an indication of what your dog is after. If the birds run off and are reluctant to fly, your dog is likely after a jake & gobbler gang: "The broad, rounded wings are very large, but the ratio of body weight to wing area in males is still one of the highest of any bird. As a result, turkeys are generally reluctant to fly unless absolutely necessary. Females, however, are only half the weight of males, and do usually take to the air to escape danger." Plus new genetic research in avian olfaction suggests most birds have a good sense of smell, with some being highly developed. The World of Birds by Jonathan Elphick |
Recent studies say some Birds are as smart as Apes: The cognitive skills of crows, ravens and other corvids are as sophisticated as those of apes, even though they have a much smaller brain. Wild turkeys skills are close to the corvids |
![]() ![]() By 1750, the Iroquois, Carolinians, French and Virginians had hunted out the virg ![]() That's why the tradition of hunting with a turkey dog was little known west of the Appalachians. By the 1800's, very few hunters knew about turkey dogs, except for those who continued to breed the prized dogs, along with their family members and close friends. Thankfully, someone saved these old lines of special dogs. And the secrets of how to train and hunt them, for the next 400 years. Since the AWTHDA was founded in 2004, hunters and relatives have been sharing stories of these old dogs more and more. Sculpture by John Quincy Adams Ward, Urbana, OH. |
I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. Emily Dickinson |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ← Wisconsin's Fall Gobblers - Where And How To Score. In the Nov. issue of Outdoor Life - Fall Flushers by Michael Pearce Ontario, Canada opening day for Meagan, Lady and Turk → |
![]() ![]() There's a few writers that explain why we love fall turkey hunting with dogs. Steve Hickoff is one. Read the Fall and Winter Turkey Hunter's Handbook by Steve Hickoff. Paintings David Wright |
![]() Beginning in the 1950's,
our state game departments restored the wild turkey by
trapping and transplanting native birds, through the
sportsmen-funded Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration
Act also known as
..............................................
The wild turkey has since proliferated throughout its
original range and beyond. Once again we're able to
enjoy the traditional fall and winter hunt with our dog.
'The fat of the wild turkey is spread throughout the
flesh of the wild bird and renders it considerably more
savory. And the best time to hunt them is in the fall
and winter.'The
Wild
Turkey: Its History and DomesticationIn 29 States and 3 Provinces, science proves hunting turkeys in the Fall and Winter makes you and your dog live longer. ![]() ![]() ![]() Since discovering that turkeys respond to calls that sound like a Rusty Barn Door Hinge , spring and fall turkey hunters have combined their love of dogs, and the call making craft. In spring, hunters might lure love-sick gobblers with a simple cluck or hen yelp. During the fall and winter hunt, good calls are as important as a good dog, especially the keekee, yelp and gobble. Durk Stark contributed the center picture below of his traditional wingbone calls. Each feather and matching wingbone call is from a sub-species of the wild turkey, and the drawing on each bone depicts that particular sub-species' feather. ![]() While some hunters wait
in ambush, shoot flushing birds, or conduct drives, by
far the most exciting method is scattering the flock
with a well trained dog, and then calling a turkey back
in. The wild turkey is capable of out-running a
galloping horse in a short sprint, so hunters rarely
scatter flocks by running at them.
"Every fall you read the same old stories the suburban nimrods write about running toward a flock, trying to scatter them, then calling the young turkeys back. But it is silly, and dangerous, to be out in the woods running with a shotgun in your hands, trying to alarm and break up a group of turkeys." Larry Dablemont 10/1/06 That's where a specially trained dog comes in. There's no more guarantee you'll get a bird. It's just more rewarding, watching your dog work, then trying to call the birds back in, while your dog sits quietly by your side. |
![]() Traditional American Wild Turkey Hunting (McIlhenny) Bronze Walter Matia |
![]() ![]() by Jon L. Freis - Fifth Edition, Revised March 2018. Includes Training a Turkey Dog by Parker Whedon, secrets of the old days, with contributions from 100's of turkey dog hunters. Order here. |
![]() "Very informative, and entertaining too. Great book!" Keith Kharville "Any hunter wishing to get involved with turkey dogs would do well to read it. I wished I had a reference like that when I first started working with my dogs, I could have avoided many mistakes." Gratten Hepler "Your publication on training turkey dogs is really good and I would like more for fellow dog lovers." Carson Quarles "The first paragraph of the book hits the nail on the head. That describes turkey dogs exactly." Ron Meek "That book was so good I only wish it was another 200 pages long." Earl Sechrist Turkey nest photo 2004 Patty Nagle |
Become a member
and get the book included, only $30.00 click here and buy #1.
The AWTHDA was founded in 2004 when hunting turkey with your dog was only allowed in 21 out of 43 states with a fall season. Today, in a large part because of our efforts, it's 29 out of 43. The new States since 2004: CT, IA, ME, MT, NH, PA, UT and WI. ![]() The 7 states without a fall season (2020): AK, AR, DE, GA, LA, NC, SC |
Traveling with your dog and need to know which
motel or hotel chains are pet-friendly? PetsWelcome.com has the best listing we've found. |
![]() ![]() For some natural, healthy, free range, organic, low fat, gluten free, sustainable food, grown locally, and harvested the old fashioned way, the best is a native wild turkey, from your friends and neighbors at turkeydog.org Photos Views of the Past |
American Gun Dog video at Turkey Trot Acres, Candor NY George LaVanish's "I
Call" poster →→→
|
In British Columbia, the Vancouver Sun
reports that dogs are no match for the wild turkey:
"Those turkeys are smart enough that they almost outrun
the dogs and don't take flight until the dogs are two or
three feet behind them."
Watch Keena's flush and you'll see one turkey on the left not take off until she almost caught it! Turkeys would always rather run than fly, so it takes a good dog to get them all off the ground. Turn up the speakers! Hit the PLAY button over and over! This is truly rare footage. Unless you've tried it, you have no idea how hard it is to capture video like this. Keena barks at her turkeys! Because the turkeys are so wary, and the dog is so fast, the photographer never gets near the flock. 50% of turkeys born in spring don't make it through the next winter. Mississippi statistics show a fall harvest of 5 to 10% of the fall population is acceptable. Now Missouri biologists say: 'the fall kill could be fifty percent of the spring kill, without compromising the population. The spring turkey population is more dependant on bad weather and other factors, than the fall kill.' "A mean life expectancy of 1.3 to 1.6 years, and average annual mortality rates of 76% (WV) and 60% (FL):" The Wild Turkey: Biology and Management "Only about 15% of the eggs laid live to become poults 2 weeks of age. Only a few birds live to be four years old." Wild Turkey Hunting & Management by Lovett Williams The Wild Turkey is the most vocal of all birds. Learn the 29 calls (in the book above): lovettwilliams.com |
![]() ![]() and the leading organization working to allow fall turkey hunting with your dog. If you're a fall turkey dog hunter, don't be a fence sitter, make a contribution. We are firm believers in fair chase. Click on the IANRC logo at the right to turn in poachers. |
"Thank you for speaking for all of us who hunt with turkey dogs. I too live in Virginia and have hunted turkeys for 25 years. I've been fortunate to have had that 'perfect dog' that everyone looks for. My hunting partner and I had litter mates that were special. I now have a young dog that is showing promise of being very good. With the loss of land to hunt, it s getting more difficult to find places to safely release dogs without offending someone, and avoiding traffic. I ve said many times that if dogs are no longer allowed I ll stop hunting. Watching the dogs develop into mature hunters is like watching your children grow up. There's nothing more gratifying. I spring hunt because I can, but fall hunting with a dog is my passion." Edward McDonald - VA |
![]() ![]() Take the motley mongrel 'Jack', the best leader of 156 dogs, who broke trail for 1300 of the 1400 miles Admiral Byrd made on his Antarctic Expedition, in A Dog's History of America. |
This website honors these dedicated
hunters loyal companions and their pursuit of the grandest of all game birds. |
The
dog scattering the turkeys photos courtesy Chris
Dorsey & Howard L. Harlan.
The vintage box call with the hunter, a dog and a turkey was used by Simon Everitt about 1915, courtesy Jim Casada. Many of the photographs throughout this site compliments of Monte Loomis Wildlife Photography "Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends." Alexander Pope |
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