Every passion has a 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.
Here is the “H” section …
Hack: To over-handle a dog, usually with numerous unnecessary verbal or whistle commands.
Handler: The human who is hunting, training or otherwise working a dog.
Hard mouth: A dog has a hard mouth if it squeezes retrieved birds to the point they are mutilated.
Heel: Command word (and verb) when a dog walks alongside you “at heel,” head no further forward than your knee.
Hie on: A command to urge the dog on, start or resume hunting; used in hunting or in field trials.
Hock: On a dog’s body, the back leg’s “knee.”
Honor: 1) Stopping upon seeing another dog on point. Also “backing”; 2) standing or sitting still while another dog retrieves a shot bird or dummy.
HR: Hunting Retriever, a UKC title.
Hun: Hungarian Partridge.
Hunt dead: Command given to a dog to search a general area for a shot bird, rather than take a straight line to the point where it was known to land.
HRC: Hunting Retriever Club.
Hunting tests: Non-competitive field events for flushing breeds, retrieving breeds, and pointing breeds, where dogs are evaluated against a standard rather than ranked against other dogs as in a field trial.
Hup: Stop and sit at flush or upon command.
(Scott Linden created and hosts Wingshooting USA TV and recently authored the book What the Dogs Taught Me.)