Strange Moment in the Grouse Woods

[DogNewbie]

Hello,

Was out hunting grouse this weekend with my 16month old GWP, Briar. He had a blast bumping birds all weekend! Yesterday afternoon, we had an odd situation. Briar was out to my front and left just within bell range when all of a sudden I heard him yelp (not a bark.) I stopped and called his name and then heard a second yelp. My first thought was porcupine, so I handed my gun off to my buddy and started booking it in towards the sound and kept calling for Briar. I think he yelped one more time and then I heard him coming my way so I sat tight and called him into me. I checked him over and he had nothing wrong with him (didn't smell like skunk either) and was in high spirits and was anxious to keep hunting. My thought was that he got his collar stuck on a branch or something, but it seems like pretty low odds of that happening. We where on private land so there aren't any traps that the owners know of (they've owned the property for some time.) Can anyone think of any other possibilities? Never heard him bark at fur before unless he's inside and can't chase it, but again, this was a yelp not a bark. It just seemed a little odd to me and was curious if others had any experience with a similar occurrence and could shed some light on what may have happened. Thanks,

Tim

[SHORTFAT]

Bee's? my old lab got into a hive of wasps once...

[DogNewbie]

That's a thought. Not sure how active bees are when it's 40 degrees out, but I did notice a hive like bump on his belly....that's the only irritation I found...no other swelling anywhere that I saw.

[madmurph]

Could be anything, who knows. My female often lets out yelps like that when she gets poked by a stick.

[Grange]

I've had my lab come back without her collar when hunting in the woods for grouse so the "hooking the collar" idea is possible.

[Ms. Cage]

Could be a grouse had treed and then flow off rhat you didn;t hear. I think Sat. was a windy day on the range. My dogs yelp when a grouse trees.

[campgsp]

Blanket of thorn bushes. A yelp then a yelp and no recall. Like the pup was stuck in there. Just a thought.

[DogNewbie]

Could be a grouse had treed and then flow off rhat you didn;t hear. I think Sat. was a windy day on the range. My dogs yelp when a grouse trees.

This is interesting. Not sure if Briar does that.

Blanket of thorn bushes. A yelp then a yelp and no recall. Like the pup was stuck in there. Just a thought.

This crossed my mind as well.

[AzDoggin]

My dogs yelp when a grouse trees.

That's too funny. "Hey, no fair - you are supposed to stay on the ground!"

[trasmuson3]

Just a thought, but did he know where you were? I know a lot of times when my dads 2 year old dog doesn’t know where we are when hunting, he’ll let out a yelp/high pitched bark to let us know where he is and almost to let us know he is looking for us. Its actually really funny thinking about it. Just a thought, I’m no expert…

[DogNewbie]

Just a thought, but did he know where you were? I know a lot of times when my dads 2 year old dog doesn’t know where we are when hunting, he’ll let out a yelp/high pitched bark to let us know where he is and almost to let us know he is looking for us. Its actually really funny thinking about it. Just a thought, I’m no expert…

I'm pretty sure he knew where I was. I could hear him and me and my buddy weren't exactly being quiet. We were in the middle of a conversation actually (might have something to do with our bird numbers :roll: ) He actually continued to yelp after I was calling him too.

Could be a grouse had treed and then flow off rhat you didn;t hear. I think Sat. was a windy day on the range. My dogs yelp when a grouse trees.

Now that I think about this some more, I don't think this happened. We were in really young poplar with no leaves on the trees. You think a grouse would still tree in that situation? My experience is they flush deep in young open trees and will tree in the thick pines.

Thanks all for entertaining my curiosity btw....obviously there is no way of knowing what truly happened, but I'm enjoying hearing peoples take on it. Kinda a dumb thread