Training April 20, 2010

After a wet snowy weekend Tony Bly and I headed over to Jefferson, NH to look at some new cover. Rich Claxton joined us with his derby, Mike, a younger brother of Wild Apple Jack. The new cover is part of an area being managed by WMI to improve woodcock and grouse habit in the area. Although we walked up a pair of grouse just looking around and could hear a couple of drummers off in the distance, we didn't put a dog down in the new area.

Ran some dogs in some of our known covers but it's geting late in the season to find woodcock as most of the hens are on the nest already. We ended the morning with two birdless braces and Tony's Kirby dog with a nice limb find on a woodcock and a snipe pointed on the edge of a field in a wet spot. I don't know of any trials run on snipe, but they are a legal game bird here in New Hampshire and I think I would have given the dog credit for the find in a trial.

It is probably time to work dogs in the bird field until summer when we start training on grouse and woodcock again. Although I checked one area near the house Friday night and heard at least six different woodcock singing. It was interesting, as we started out too early and had to wait until after 7:50 pm for the woodcock to come whistling in to the singing area.

Checkcording on birds and yardwork aren't as much fun as letting the dog run the woods in search of wild birds, but it's a neccesary evil. The two puppies I'm working are a strong reminder as to how different individual dogs can be. They share Wynot Ace as a sire but come out of different bitches. Veronica will be a year old in May and Mariah is acouple month younger. Veronica hardly pulls on the checkcord when we're doing yardwork and comes immediately when called. Mariah is still pulling hard and has to be dragged in to be stroked and fussed over. The first time I put Veronica on the whoa barrel she stood still and let me pose her head and tail. Mariah on the otherhand can not stay still for more than a few seconds before she ends up dangling by her collar. I expect to have both of them ready to go this fall. We'll see . . . I'll keep you posted