Dual Dogs Serve Dual Purpose

[caption id="attachment_14045" align="alignleft" width="496"] Brittany puppy with big dreams.[/caption]

Host Laura Reeves is joined by Bobby Brian Lewis to talk guided quail hunts in Georgia and how his dual champion Brittanies help create goodwill for purebred dogs and dog breeders generally in this very old Southern tradition.

Lewis has been guiding quail hunts since he was a teenager and his dad is still guiding in his 80s. The vast plantations and preserves of Georgia are a perfect backdrop for these hunts, Lewis said.

“A lot of people we take, they've got the money to do it,” Lewis noted. “So they're influential. I mean I've taken senators, representatives, ex governors, state senators from Tennessee have all hunted with us and that kind of helps promote (purebred) dogs also.

“You kind of get to know them a lot of more. They e-mail me, text me the next day and say ‘hey, where can I get training birds,’ they're involved in our sport now and we've kind of got an advocate on our side.

“Just this year we had some legislation coming through in Georgia on dog breeders. The first thing I did was call a couple representatives I know and go, ‘this is gonna hurt our business here and we're trying to get good purebred dogs that have all the health testing and those type of things. And those are the puppies we're trying to sell. And this is going to kind of hinder this a little bit.’ And they were like, well, ‘tell me more.’”

Lewis also noted that he’s “sold” on the importance of correct conformation in his bird dogs because they are sound and able to hunt well into their older years.

“The conformation means I can hunt them till they're 10, 12, thirteen years old. Doing this type of hunting is very strenuous. We can guide 5-6 days a week. I kept some stats at the end of the season last year, where a dog on the ground retrieved 32 birds in 42 minutes.”

All the birds shot during the hunt are eaten by guests and the family. Lewis even shared some of his favorite quail recipes (if you don't happen to have quail available, cornish game hens are a reasonable substitute.)