Scott Linden Outdoors

You'd be pooped too, if you'd been in front of a TV camera for two days

Watch any good TV show, and you’ll soon come to the conclusion that pieces are recorded at different times in different places, for different reasons. From Desperate Housewives to well, Wingshooting USA, opportunity, circumstance, timing, and a dozen other reasons come into play when scheduling a shoot.

Which leads to the last couple days, in which Buddy and I were in front of a camera for most of the daylight hours.  We recorded 13 different “Buddy & Me” segments that will be part of the new show. I’m no dog trainer – more of a “trainee,” but that’s the simple way to describe these short features. They are really about what I learn from dogs, and about hunting, and getting better at both while training my wirehair.

I only write about this because the recording session (at Gateway Valley Preserve near Madras, Oregon) went so well because of what I’ve learned from my dog and hopefully will convey in the show. Television is (like so many parodies of the medium) a lot of hurry up and wait. Do-overs, re-takes, alternate angles, all are part of making good TV: which to me is entertaining, informative and easy to watch. So while the total of all 13 segments will be about 26 minutes or so, it took the better part of 15 hours to shoot.

Lucky for me, Buddy’s taught me a lot about communicating with him. In the 85-degree, hectic, stress-filled environment of a video session, he shone as a result.  Hand signals moved him to the right “mark” so the director had him in the background and me in the foreground at just the right angle. Whistles and “whoa” put him just close enough to a bird for the right effect. And just being a good sport who’s earned my trust (and vice-versa) helped Buddy put up with take after take after take of the same line, when his human stumbled on those pesky two-syllable words.

I hope you like the result. I’ll preview a few here once they’re edited.