Committee hears House Bill 450 to require bird‑dog trainers to list number of dogs on licenses

The House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee on May 20 heard testimony on House Bill 450, a department bill that would require bird‑dog license applicants to report the number of dogs they intend to train and print that number on the license.

The bill sponsor opened the hearing saying, "4 50 is a bill from the department, and what it does is regulates non mainly nonresident license holders for dog training, where the applicants have to put the number of dogs on. And it's gonna be printed and issued by the department." Emily Cooper, licensing bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told the committee that HB 450 "amends 87 3 6 0 2 by adding the requirement of bird dog license holders to report the number of dogs that they're training when purchasing their license." Cooper said the department recommends a do‑pass.

Why it matters: proponents argued the change would give resource managers and wardens basic data…