Tillamook-area man shot by dog recovering

A 23-year-old man accidentally shot with his 12-gauge shotgun Saturday on the Tillamook Bay isn't upset with the culprit -- his dog.

The bizarre incident sent Matthew Marcum to Portland's Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, where he was recovering Sunday with injuries to his legs and buttocks.

Marcum was standing in the bay Saturday morning, about to tie up an 11-foot open aluminum boat, when his 3-year-old Labrador, Drake, jumped into the boat and set off the gun, his Father, Henry Marcum, said Sunday. The blast blew a hole in the boat before hitting Marcum.

His son was concerned about the dog, Henry Marcum said. "He's a good dog. It's just one of those things. It's an accident."

Matthew and his 20-year-old brother had yet to begin duck hunting when the shooting occurred. Henry Marcum said the safety on the shotgun was set, and he suspects the dog's paw knocked it to the off position.

Good to see that your boyz are bright eyed and bushy tailed!

My "little" Black Lab puppy is now 55 pounds of solid muscle and nervous energy. It's like picking up a brick of lead. But she's turned out very biddable and smart -- got her Started title in 4 straight passes, and passed 3 out of 4 for her Junior Hunter (she twisted a paw on the 4th test -- she runs all out and heedless - and dropped the bird. Very strict judge. Oh, well. There's another AKC test coming up in March.) And her big sister passed a Seasoned test, much to my amazement because she wasn't really trained to that level. I think she'll be ready to ran in Seasoned and Senior in the spring.

Standard poodles haven’t been used as field dogs for a very long time. It would be decades of dedicated breeding before poodles will ever get back up to being a true gun dog again, like the other water retrieving spaniels.

I own a small English Springer Spaniel, field bred. She’s very birdy, which is a shame as she is strictly my companion dog. Squirrels and hares that explore my backyard get a real workout when she bursts out of the back door, though. And our vacation trips to the beach are fun - she spends most of the excursion pointing and flushing seagulls.

Public popularity can be the ruin of hunting breeds, and there are a lot of Labradors that never get a chance to hunt under guns in real field conditions. It was the intelligence factor that destined poodles for circus work, as they are eminently trainable, and they became popular as family dogs. I doubt this will become the fate of Labs and your enthusiasm is a great example why it probably won’t happen to the breed.

You're exactly right. Public popularity is one thing that distorts hunting dog breeding -- and conformation judging is another!

We just had the National Labrador Specialty (which was held in GA this year). It was a week-long show for Labs only, with every kind of conformation and performance event you can think of, and on the day of the hunting tests the club also held a Working Certificate so that the show type Lab folks could test/certify their dogs for retrieving. I put my dogs in the WC because (1) I never miss a chance for them to get their mouths on real ducks; and (2) I was one of the gunners anyhow, shooting the live ducks for the land test.

They had the land test (there's also a water test in the afternoon) set up so that any Lab with a modicum of retrieving ability could pass -- a perfectly flat field with the grass cut pretty short (not quite like somebody's nice front lawn, but close) and the gunners standing about 50 yards from the start line. They pegged down an orange rope at the start line, and so long as your dog by hook or crook got the bird back across the line, you passed.

A lot of these show Labs had obviously never seen a live duck before. They aren't always completely dead by the time the dog gets up to them (especially at 50 yards!), and if the duck so much as twitched a wingtip a lot of the dogs would shy off. And then there were the ones who just barked at it . . . and the ones who decided it looked like a nice meal . . . and the ones who decided they would carry this treasure off and bury it somewhere privately . . . .

And then there were the owners who got down on their hands and knees and begged their dog to please bring back the bird! Sometimes they did, even if they were dragging it by a wingtip . . . .

Since this is our bailiwick, my two dogs (even my young silly one) marched up to the line, sat like angels, departed the line on command, grabbed the duck, and ran back to sit nicely at heel and deliver on command. Even though my older dog's duck was FAR from dead, and flapping and complaining loudly all the way back to the line. All the show people were so astonished that it was embarrassing . . . .

But the show folks had a good chance to laugh at me too, because I put my girls into the Conformation Certificate (they both passed, much to my surprise) and I hadn't the slightest notion how to trot a dog out and back for the judge, or to stand them for examination. The dogs were surprised too at this strange woman opening their mouths and looking inside . . .

At least your Springer gets a chance to get out and point and flush! (You know, it doesn't cost much of anything to join a hunting club . . . I don't know a thing about the bird dog clubs bec. of course retrievers are trained and tested differently, but I bet there's an AKC or UKC club near you. And not all our members train for competition - a lot come out to make their dogs better hunting dogs - and quite a few come out just because their dogs enjoy it.)

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