Tough morning in the Barn

It was already approaching 70 and very humid when we arrived in our training cover this morning and as you can see by the picture I have finally figured out a way to keep track of Tony when we're running dogs together. Now, if I could just get him to wear a shock collar I wouldn't have to listen to the same stories over and over and over . . . All kidding aside, the use of the Garmin at this time of year is really helpful. However, sometimes it gives you a little too much information. This morning we ran the "A" team (Ginger and Jack) together. I was listening to Jack's bell when I heard it stop. Just then Tony's Astro beeped indicating that Ginger was on point followed a couple of seconds later by my Astro indicating Jack had stopped when we went in you might have called it either way if you hadn't heard the beeps -- I shot and tried to claim the find but Tony wouldn't buy it. The Garmin doesn't lie.

After finding nine woodcock and two grouse on Wednesday morning, the first two braces went birdless. It took the seasoned veterans to dig out four woodcock on a course that we had already run.

July 14

Back out in the woods again this morning. Rain overnight improved conditions despite the fact that Tony and I were both soaked within a couple of minutes of leaving the truck as Stokely's Ginger B took a couple of relocations in a dense spruce stand before we finally got an adult grouse in the air. She ran with my first year dog, Wild Apple Trey, who ended up backing this seasoned veteran as she had another grouse and four woodcock. Trey did manage a woodcock on his own.

The second brace saw Wild Apple Jack and stokely's Ab B running in a section of the cover that had no birds on Monday -- they each had one woodcock find. Jack was so buried in the cover that I walked right past him -- only his nose was sticking out of the cover into one of our trails and the woodcock was on the other side of the trail.

The final brace of the morning saw Trip and Ker B down together. On Monday Trip had taken a road to the point that the Garmin switched to miles instead of yards. Today when she headed out down the road she only got about 100 yards before she felt the juice and then came back and stayed with me. Kirby had two finds and I brought Trip in on both. Although two she doesn't know woods and wild birds yet -- Hunting season was over when we bought her last fall primarily with the thought of bringing more Guardrail blood into the kennel (she's by Guardrail). The puppies here get started in the woods almost as soon as they are weaned and the difference is amazing as far as how they attack the cover.

Yesterday afternoon we worked some of the young dogs in the bird field. The air was still, hot, and humid and those with superior noses were able to point a bird. Tony brought over the Beast, a puppy he got from Kevin Klein. She had never seen a quail but wheeled and roaded right into the first one she smelled. All the training in the world can't put that into them.

Training Season has begun

At the end of May the dogs go on vacation for awhile while we wait for the native grouse and woodcock to grow and establish themselves in our training covers. We usually get started around the first of July but a number of factors, especially the high temps and humidity (which is unusual for us), have kept us out of the woods. So this morning Tony Bly and I met a 6:30 am to get some dog work in before the temperature climbed up near 90. The extremely dry weather of late has limited the number of birds we found this morning (around half a dozen woodcock) but as the summer progresses and the dogs get back in form the numbers will definitely increase. The grouse hatch is looking good -- one of my neighbors called to say he saw a brood where the seven chicks were almost as big as the hen, and in another location he saw a brood where the chicks were about half size. Other broods we have seen have been on the medium to large size. There have been bad years when broods were small (1-4) chicks and great years when the broods were all approaching double digits -- this year looks to be somewhere inbetween. We'll have a better idea in a couple of weeks. Now that we're back in the woods, I'll keep you updated.