Give a dog a Bone

We've mixed things up a bit this week as we have been using the training grounds for the big dogs early in the morning as we are out of the woods until the grouse have hatched and are flying.  We let out some quail and then run three braces of dogs getting a bunch of them ready to run at Mid Coast Maine on the 18th and 19th.  We will most likely be running all the derbies in a restricted shooting dog stake to get then qualified to run in the Grand and any other stakes that require a shooting dog placement.  So, the puppies have been getting their walks later in the morning and have been finding the birds we let out for the big dogs.  All four have pointed quail on their own now for varying lengths of time.  Despite the fact that they are hunting and pointing birds they are still easily distracted by what they find out in the woods.  This morning it was a deer leg bone.  The long winter was a little rough on the deer around here and there were a few that didn't make.  The coyotes and other scavengers pick the bones clean.