Sometimes You Just Have to Roll in the Grass

It's not all work at Wild Apple Kennel.  I like to give the puppies some playtime everyday as well as our more formal walks.  Last evening their father wanted to play to.

Off the Flow

Hunting is a natural instinct in well bred bird dog puppies but you have to nourish it with experience.  When I first introduce the pups to quail we go right to the pen and let a few out for them to mostly chase.  Once the birds have flown off into the woods we go hunt for them.  After they've done this a few times I take the pen out of the equation and make sure there's some quail in the woods that we pas through on our morning walks.  I don't stand around and wait for them to find the birds.  We move through the woods just like we will when they start hunting for wild birds.  Most of the time the older puppies find some of the quail off the flow of the walk.  Occasionally we also find a grouse on our walks.  The Jack X Belle puppies have already had a number of grouse contacts.   This morning the littler Moon X Mariah puppies had their first grouse encounter when they went to explore under a big field spruce.  I don't know who was more surprised -- me or the puppies.  I do know that they thought it was pretty exciting and were in hot pursuit when it flushed.  They are still puppies and carry sticks around, stopping and smelling the deer droppings (and also give it the taste test), but they are also learning every time we go out.  They are also getting great exercise as we spend more and more time in the woods instead of the fields.  They are becoming fearless and navigate all the obstacles that we have to cross.  I hardly ever speak to them on these walks -- just occasionally alerting them to changes in direction as I vary the route everyday.  It won't be long before they know all the routes and figure they can find their way without my guidance.  Then we'll start going different places and doing more hands on training.

There was a quail here a moment ago!

They had just flushed a grouse from under this spruce tree!

Trying to sort out all the different scents in the woods.

Sometimes You Have to Stop and Smell the Flowers

You have to watch the whole video to understand the title of the post.  These are the two female pups out of the Jack X Belle litter during their evening playtime in the yard.




Tony and I spent some time today checking out some potential new covers.  The two we walked into looked promising and I even walked up a woodcock in one of them.  Got up and flew quite a ways so was probably a male on the edge of an opening.  Moved some grouse and another woodcock in a couple other spots we hunted last fall.  Tony also got to due some MOOSE avoidance training with the Little Thudster today as he almost got run over by a big moose on a 4-wheeler trail and then thought it might be interesting to see where the large beast was headed.  You couldn't have set up a training situation any better even if you had a pet moose.

First Grouse Point

I walk pups every morning and the walks get a little longer and a little harder to negotiate for the pups as they get a little bigger.  Today was the first time, I took the remaining two Jack X Belle pups up on the hill behind the house.  One grouse flushed wild without the pups knowing it, then a little further on one of the pups locked-up in front of me in the trail and then rushed into the woods flushing a grouse.  It always amazing to see that kind of instinct kick in.  Exposure to birds is always the best teacher for young pups.

Puppy Playtime @ Wild Apple Kennel

Tim K. let the pups play with his hat for awhile on this mornings walk.  Life is good for puppies.