Dog on Fire

Every once in a while one of the dogs will have a very special run.  Today it was Trash.  She started with a pair of grouse, followed by a pair of woodcock, followed by three grouse, followed by a single grouse, and so on and so on until she had racked up ten pointed grouse and the pair of woodcock.  She was definitely a dog on fire -- unfortunately I can not say the same for her owner and his wingman.  I knocked down one of the woodcock but all ten grouse escaped unscathed.

Trash in a workout last spring.

We then ran LJ who reminded my of a couple of things we all sometimes forget.  First this was his fourth day in a row on the ground for at least an hour, and second, yesterday was his half-birthday making him all of 18 months old.  He's had so many remarkable outings this fall -- in trials, in training, and now in hunting that I forget how young he is.  He was just not sharp today, causing 3 of the four grouse he found to flush before we got to him.  And then the one pointed came up well to my right and almost behind me but was in the thick stuff before I could get my gun on it.  I shot (twice) anyway mostly out of frustration.  Tony emptied his gun as well.

G III was the last dog out of the box and got a area we hadn't tried before.  The cover looked great but we only moved one bird and that flushed well ahead of the dog and we only heard it go.  Tonight I plugged in the kennel and bowl heaters as the temperature is predicted to be down in the teens -- our coldest night of the fall.  Chances are we'll get a late start tomorrow.