Every passion has it’s lexicon. It’s one way to ensure clear communication. But it’s also a way to exclude outsiders, newcomers, competitors. I don’t buy the latter rationale. Instead, let’s level the linguistic playing field and help everyone enjoy our sport, our dogs and the wild places we go.
Work in progress: This glossary will become part of my upcoming book “What the Dogs Taught Me,” and much like the Ultimate Upland Checklist, will be updated and corrected regularly. Much of the input will come from you – so put on your thinking caps and let’s talk in the comments section!
AFC: Amateur Field Champion
AKC: American Kennel Club
AI: Artificial insemination
Air washed: A bird that has recently flown and landed, and thus has yet to leave much scent where it landed.
Alter: spay or neuter a dog. Also “fixed.”
Automatic, semi-automatic: Shotgun with a magazine to hold extra shells, that is reloaded by a mechanical process activated by the recoil of the shot and can shoot another round with each trigger pull.
Avoidance training: Using voice, physical or electric training collar to dissuade a dog from certain behaviors, i.e., approaching snakes.
Back: dog stops upon seeing another dog’s point on game
Barrel: Lying on its side, often used to teach steadiness by placing the dog on the uneven or unsteady rounded side.
Biddable: Willing to take direction, easy to train.
Blinking: Briefly pointing a bird and then leaving it, or upon finding a bird, avoiding retrieving it.
Bob: Bobwhite quail
Brace: 1) Two dogs hunting the same area, often in field trial or hunt tests 2) pair of shot birds
Breakaway: A brace of dogs released simultaneously to begin a field trial run, usually commanded by the judge.
Broke dog: in most definitions, a dog that is steady to flush and will honor a bracemate’s point (back). Other definitions extend to steady-to-fall, or include retrieving.
Bust: To flush a bird or covey, usually done inadvertently by the dog
Bye dog: A dog braced with the dog competing in a hunt test or field trial, but not being judged. Used to ensure fairness as each dog must hunt at least part of the event with another dog.