She's a hunter

Spring is here and the squirrels are back.

Eve hunts. She's a bird dog and her focus on birds is amazing, but she is also obsessed with squirrels. It is her duty to keep those little rascals in line (or at least in her line of vision) and so she sits under a tree in the side yard for hours at a time pointing at the squirrels in the trees.

But she doesn't have to be outside to hunt those rascally squirrels. No, not Eve. She keeps an eye out for them even when she's in the house. She doesn't bark and leap and run from window to window like Ivy. No, Eve points. The pictures don't really communicate what a vizsla 'on point' is really like.

She is absolutely still, except for an almost imperceptible trembling in her muscles. She is hyper-aware of her surroundings and yet she does not respond to anything except the squirrel. Normally, when I walk into a room, Eve wags. If I talk to her she gets up and comes to me. But when she has a squirrel in her sights she is completely focused and seemingly unresponsive.

I took these pictures, downloaded them to my computer, uploaded them to Blogger (and you all know how long that takes!) and typed up the paragraphs above. She is still out there, on point, on task, doing her self imposed squirrel duty. She will be there, pointing, until the squirrel finally goes off to tease the collie next door.

She's changed chairs, but she's still on duty.

Related Tags: hunting dog, Vizsla, squirrel, pointer, on point