Bird dogs and the Pareto Principle

Applying the Paretto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, to grouse hunting: 20% of hunters bag 80% of the birds.

In some recent reading, I came across a reference to the Pareto Principle.

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who, in 1906, discovered an unequal distribution of land ownership in his country:  80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population.

Later discoveries and studies concurred with Pareto’s simple yet crucial finding and suggested this distribution can be applied to many things. It also gained new names:
•    80/20 rule
•    principle of factor sparsity
•    law of the vital few and trivial many

So what does this have to do with bird dogs?  I see several applications—from breeding and competition to hunting.

Breeding
Not only are 20% of the breeding dogs producing 80% of the outstanding puppies, but I think it applies to dog breeders. In other words, about 20% of the breeders are turning out 80% of the high quality dogs.

Competition
How about dogs competing in field trials? Theoretically, every dog entered has a chance to win but usually only a few are truly likely to win. Too, in any given season, a vital few will win a large share of the competitions.

Hunting
In A Passion for Grouse, John Kubisiak, Wisconsin wildlife researcher, conducted intensive grouse studies on the Sandhill Wildlife Area. His concluded that “about 20 percent of the hunters bagged all the grouse.” That’s probably true. While many hunt grouse, few are successful.

Photo above © Chris Mathan, The Sportsman’s Cabinet.