Actually, a couple weeks ago, we were out there and his dog got a face full of quills and paws too.
No kidding about the birds holding tight this time! We were getting really discouraged, until the afternoon the dog spooked that pheasant out of the cattails. He was out of range, though and landed in some other batch of cattails, and we went in after him, and I flushed him up, (took forever to find it after I shot it, the dog finally smelled it, it was almost under my brothers feet, he couldn't see it.) The quail did not want to move, either.
A lot of hard work and hiking around for a few birds! We had a blast, can't wait to get out three again!