Dog of the Day and other Observations

This is my first attempt at getting a picture of Jack on point this morning.  At least I had the camera pointed in the right direction.   (If you don't know what I'm talking, about see the post in April called "The Lighter Side of Dog Training.)

 This morning it was in the 50s already when we broke away our first brace a little after six.  Jack and Trash were in the first brace and ran in sections one and two.  There first finds were simultaneous within 50 feet of each on other on separate woodcock.  They each had a second woodcock as we came back towards the truck.

The second brace was LJ and Frankie who are turning into quite the dynamic duo.  LJ went deep early in the brace and was rewarded with a grouse find down in swamp that is out beyond our trail system.  He didn't mind not having a trail, I did.  On a nonproductive I dropped my Garmin receiver but fortunately knew where I had it last and realized it was missing before I had gone very far.  While I was looking for it Frankie had a woodcock with LJ backing and Tony handled both dogs.  I finally found the receiver by calling LJ back to me and waiting for it to beep when I whoa'd him.  Frankie had a second find on a woodcock as we made the swing down along the brook in section 3.

Trip and Abby once again drew the short straw and got run in section 4, but this time Trip was not to be denied and got my vote for dog of the day.  she had four finds: three on woodcock and one on a grouse that Abby flushed for her.  One of the woodcock finds was a delayed double and Tony claimed he would have killed the second bird as  it flew directly out to him.  Then he remembered that he almost always shoots twice when a bird goes up and probably would have been empty when the second bird flushed.  It's funny how many shots look easy in the summer when we don't have the long guns.  they seem to get harder after October 1.

Dale Hackett, on the http://maritimecoverdog.com/forum/index.php board, asked if any one was still training without using an e-collar.  When I started doing this the collars weren't that good and we often trained dogs without a collar.  Fortunately I was a lot younger then and could chase a dog down in the woods and give it a correction when needed.  It wasn't fun, but it was doable.  The e-collar has made most of us better trainers with better dogs.  However, I still believe that it is important to get your hands on a dog, especially around birds.  You can do a lot with a e-collar on a dogs belly but I believe the dog needs to know that if it screws up you can correct it even when there isn't a collar strapped around its flank.  I was an early adopter of the bellyband and have used it on many dogs and in many situations but I don't see it as a total substitute for physically setting a dog back when it moves on point.

This isn't the best picture I ever took of Jack but it was the best I could do today.