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Join NowBird-dogging: What Is It and How To Do It
The Basics of Bird-dogging
Bird-dogging is showing up at public appearances of your target and asking them to support your petition. Wherever they go, you’re there, putting them on the spot, insisting on a straight answer. Bird-dogging is a really fun tactic that you can build a team to get involved in.
The term “bird-dogging” in this context is a hunting analogy; the bird dog barks at birds hiding in trees or bushes and flushes them out to where the hunter can get a clear shot. Similarly, this kind of bird-dogging is all about getting a politician to stop hiding on the issues and force them to either commit or look foolish dodging direct questions from constituents.
A good example of effective bird-dogging was in 2018, when activists followed Senator Susan Collins around asking her if she’d confirm a Supreme Court justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade. There were also mobile billboards in 2020 that followed her and eight other Senate Republicans, calling on them to hold Trump accountable during the Senate vote on his impeachment.
Bird-dogging is obviously a fairly pressure-oriented tactic and should be reserved for a phase of the campaign when you’re really looking to turn up the heat and are willing to create some friction with the target.
Step-by-Step: How to Bird-dog
1. Recruit a team of bird-doggers.
Bird-dogging is a lot more effective if you have a team of people who show up at a politician’s public appearances, rather than just one or two people. A small group can bird-dog effectively, but it’s better if you have a team. So it’s smart to start by recruiting a team of 5-10 people or more who are on call, ready to show up to a bird-dogging opportunity on short notice.
2. Research your target’s schedule.
Finding good bird-dogging opportunities can be challenging. If an election isn’t coming up, your target may not be making very many public appearances. Senators in particular can be hard to get to, especially in very large states.
However, if politicians are making public appearances, it’s usually fairly easy to find out. You can start by looking at their website, reading the paper, googling, or even calling their office directly.
For members of Congress, usually the best bird-dogging opportunities arise during congressional recesses. You can find out the recess schedule by calling your representative or checking www.House.gov and www.Senate.gov. (Remember, the House and Senate maintain different schedules, so just because one house is on recess doesn’t necessarily mean that they both are.)
The best bird-dogging opportunities are events where the member will be relatively accessible, so that you can approach them directly. Also, it’s great if events are covered by the media, so that your confrontation of the member will be noticed by them and hopefully covered in the news.
3. Make signs, T-shirts, flyers, and other visibility tools.
You and your team will want to be as visible as possible at your bird-dogging event. Often, your target will try to neutralize your bird-dogging by simply ignoring you, in which case you may need to be so visible that you simply can’t be ignored. It may also help to have a petition or something similar to “deliver” to your target to make your point.
4. Attend the event.
Once you are at the event, do everything you can (within reason) to get your target to answer your questions about where they stand on the issues. You can get several people to ask them directly, hold up signs, get reporters to inquire, etc. The key is to be relentless and highly visible. Also, assign someone to take pictures and/or video of any interactions so that your target’s comments are recorded.
5. Keep going.
Don’t give up or get discouraged. Keep showing up at every public event you can until you get a straight answer.
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