NORTHWEST OF ISLAND LAKE _ Phil Johnson had shot the woodcock over his young Brittany's point, and he had seen the bird go down in the popples up ahead. This was several years ago, when Sophie, the Brittany, was about a year old.
Johnson, of Esko, Minn., is a longtime grouse and woodcock hunter, and he knew that some dogs just don't like the taste of a woodcock in their mouths. He wasn't sure whether Sophie would retrieve it.
"I figured I'd better go look for the bird," said Johnson, 68. "So, I went up there and was crawling around on my hands and knees where it had gone down. I looked over, and she was sitting about 10 feet from me with the woodcock in her mouth."
That answered that question.
Now nearly 7, Sophie continues to make grouse and woodcock hunting a joy for Johnson and his son, Nathan Johnson, 44, also of Esko. They own the dog jointly, but Sophie lives at Nathan's home. Neither had owned a pointer before Sophie.
The two were out in the land of young popple on a recent October morning near the Johnson hunting camp north of Duluth. They parked near the log-cabin deer shack that Phil Johnson and his dad, Clifford, had built back in 1977. Nathan strapped a beeper collar on Sophie and attached a bell to her collar as well. Off they marched into stands of teenage popples where both grouse and woodcock feel at home.
