Canine Characters I Have Known - "Joe"

     In a blog that I posted earlier, "Canine Characters I Have Known - 'Stenka'," I told the story of the impossible English pointer that we had on Okinawa when Jo and I were first married.  I tried very hard to train that dog, but it was no use.  Either I did not possess the skills and knowledge to train him or he was just impossible.  Some dogs, like their human counterparts, can be very difficult to guide or change their habits.  Some are simply wired that way and like humans, can be psychotic or have issues that go much beyond just bad habits.  Stenka, I believe, was one such dog.  Another dog that I met that had very quirky behavioral problems, was not, I believe, quite as "delinquent" as Stenka.  But nevertheless, he displayed strange and unusual behavior.  Interestingly, like Stenka, he was a lemon and white colored English pointer!
     I met "Joe" the same year that I had my final meeting with Mano-san and his Prince #4.  Unlike Prince #4, Joe was a very good bird finder.  He was a typically energetic English pointer, not quite as big as Stenka, but average size.  Joe belonged to Kanda-san, my uncle's acquaintance who lived in Shizuoka Prefecture and was an avid hunter.  By the early 1980s, he no longer kept bird dogs.  He said that it wasn't worth it since he did not hunt all that much any more.  Instead, he relied on his friends who had bird dogs.  Kanda-san was one of my uncle's friends.  They initially met through All Japan Hunting Association, a national hunting and shooting organization in Japan.  They became friends and hunted together occasionally.  My uncle had quite a reputation in Japan by that time as sort of a "dean of Japanese hunters" and many younger Japanese hunters considered it a privilege to have the opportunity to hunt with him.  Kanda-san was about 15 years younger than my uncle and he appeared to really appreciate the chance to hunt together.
     My uncle called Kanda-san and we met him at a predesignated spot in Shizuoka.  We were after kojiuke (bamboo partridge), a bird the size of a Cornish Game Hen.  In other words, it is a bit under a pound, but a good size bird that is enough for a meal for one person.  My uncle told me that Kanda-san's pointer Joe had a good nose, that he could find birds well, but that he had a "problem."  I asked him what the "problem" was and he chuckled and said, "you'll see when we shoot a bird."
     We hunted in a very pretty area that day, among hills that were covered with thick brush that the kojiuke like so much.  It wasn't long before Joe found some birds and made a very pretty point.  Kanda-san, like the good host that he was, insisted that my uncle and I do the shooting, that he would just handle the dog.  In the typical manner of Japanese, he was bound and determined that we, his "guests," had a good time!  When the birds flushed we managed to drop one bird.  It was difficult shooting in the brush, hard to see, so we ended up "doubling-up" on the same bird.  We could clearly see the bird drop and even heard the resounding "plop" when it hit the ground in a clearing. 
     Joe was off like a shot after the downed bird, and to my surprise, so was Kanda-san!  Kanda-san was screaming at the top of his voice at the dog, "Joe, da-me! Da-me Joe! (Joe no! No Joe!).  It was rather comical to see Kanda-san shouting and desperately trying to reach the bird before the dog.  It was no contest.  Joe was on the bird in a flash and we could clearly see him in the clearing grab the bird and in one move, simply swallow it!  By the time Kanda-san reached the clearing, Joe stood there watching him with an amused expression on his mug, with a couple of small feathers stuck to his lower jaw.  Kanda-san seem to give a huge sigh as his shoulders heaved, then shaking his finger at him, spoke to Joe in a resigned voice.  "Da-me desu, da-me!" (Its bad, bad!).  Joe sort of smiled at him, as dogs smile, and off he went hunting for more birds.
     My uncle burst into laughter and said to me, "I told you, he is a strange one!  Watch it, he'll do this a couple of more times, unless Kanda reaches the bird first!  He'll do this until he has had his fill!"
True to my uncle's words, we hunted more and shot a few more birds.  Each time it was a repeat of what we had seen happen with the first bird.  When a bird dropped, Kanda-san would begin his race with Joe, shouting "da-me, da-me!"  Joe won all the races.  After he had gobbled-up three birds, I guess he was full for he stopped.  He continued to hunt, but did not eat any more birds.  Of course he didn't retrieve either.  When a bird dropped, he simply sniffed at it then went on hunting.
     Kanda-san was very apologetic for his dog's behavior.  He seemed almost on the verge of tears as he apologized and I thought he might commit seppuku (hara-kiri) or something!  But my uncle waved it off and told him not to worry, that we were having a great time, which was true!
     I noticed that Kanda-san did not punish Joe for his bad behavior except to say da-me and shake his finger at the unrepentant pooch.  My uncle said that Kanda-san really loved his weird dog and that despite urgings from some of his friends to get rid of Joe, Kanda-san refused and put up with his misdeeds. My uncle said that everyone referred to Joe as "da-ken" a contraction of two words for bad dog, da-me (bad) and ken (dog) .
     We hunted for only about four hours that day.  We hunted for a couple of hours before noon, took a short coffee and snack break, and hunted two more hours before returning to Tokyo.  We shot a total of six birds, three were gobbled-up by Joe, and we brought three back!  Kanda-san's Joe was one of those interesting canine characters that I have known.  There were many others, but Joe, like Stenka of earlier days on Okinawa, stands out in my memory more than others.