We are blessed

Our morning hunt was great fun with two very good friends. John, Charlie, and I followed Larsen and his nose around the field at Danny's Circle W. We started at about 9:00am, as the last of the frost burned from the grass.

Larsen flushed 8 of 10 coveys that Danny had laid out that morning.

We stopped the hunt only because of the rising temperatures (about 67 by noon) and to protect Larsen.

We bagged a dozen of the quail, with Larsen himself weighing in with three of them that he trapped and brought in. We harmlessly filled the sky with lead on many of the flushes. Larsen retrieved all of the birds that we shot, including a genuine hunt dead. He responded to instructions, whistled and hand-motioned. Larsen understands that a successful hunt requires teamwork.

I'm grateful to have had some good companions, human and canine, today and grateful for the ability to enjoy a day outdoors on the hunt.

I'll post a hero shot (photo) when Charlie sends it to me.

Ready to go

We have a car full of dog-and-bird stuff, some room for two friends, and 30 quail waiting for us in the field.



Larsen preps for his big day on Saturday.

Looking back

I was preparing to write a review of Dennis Walrod's Grouse Hunter's Guide.

I thought it might be useful to have a photo and recording of a grouse to illustrate the blog-post. I happened upon All About Birds and for fun I click on the bobwhite quail to hear the familiar "bob-white".

Larsen, asleep at my feet, snapped his head up. He looked at me. It was a wide-eyed look of arched and searching surprise each time the bobwhite chirped. Yes, in the brown eyes of your own dog, you can darkly see into the deep and beautiful motivations of these spaniels.

The hunt

On Saturday, Larsen and I will join John G. and Charlie L. on a half-day quail hunt. This is Larsen's coming out party in the sense that he will find, flush, and retrieve the birds for us during the hunt.

I'm very excited but not nervous. Larsen is a trained dog. He will do well.

The trip will broaden his horizons as to what a real hunt can be. Unlike a Hunt Test, this is not two and out. We will stay in the field for three-and-a-half hours. Larsen will learn pacing and patience. I will give him his nose, and tweet him around only when he is outside the box - - outside the range where I think John, Charlie, or I can reasonably shoot the bird.

I'll probably start off without my gun and just run him and let John and Charlie shoot. Later, I may grab my gun and spell one or the other of the guys.

In recent weeks, I've handled my gun over Larsen with Bill T. backing me, or just by myself, and Larsen has done well. John and Charlie are new to him, but I cannot think of two better people for Larsen's real hunting introduction.

The day after

We worked the dogs long and hard yesterday in the field, and they had a ball doing it.

The subtext for the long day was to make sure that the dogs knew that finding, flushing, and retrieving two birds (which is the hunt test standard) is not the end of the day.  Spaniels are very wise when it comes to things that they want to know or do.  The old joke is that if you don't believe a dog can count, just put three treats in your pocket and give him two of them.  You don't want your dog to think that after the second bird he goes back into the crate.

So we went on extended outings, looking for birds, and if we hit too long of a dry spell, we would toss a clip-wing.

The result was after the day, a bath, and some dinner, the dogs simply looked for a place to crash.

Larsen makes himself at home Monday morning.

Dogs and birds

Not just dogs, spaniels.  And not tweety birds, either.  Quail.

Jeanne, MaryAnne, and I did what might be called hunt training.  It was training in the sense that we got our burlap sacks of quail and a patch of broomgrass on the back 40 at Circle W and got left alone.

We set the birds and took turns with the dogs: Larsen , Chance, Millie.  We did our best to plant the birds for the dogs.  We tried to find that balance between a bird that flies off as soon as he hits the ground and a bird that burrows deep into the grass never to be seen again. 

We trained and had fun at the same time.  If a bird flew to the far end of the field, we treked off to see if we could find it.  We walked to the edge of the field and then into the treeline.  Larsen was happily snuffling in the same brambles that grabbed at me, went through my jeans, wrapped around my wrist.  He stopped and rooted around, and I thought he was about to pull out a big nasty piece of road kill.  But, no, it was not a dead possum.  It was a live quail that had headed south as deep into the brush as a bird could go.  I had my gun open, and probably unloaded, and just watched as bird and dog took off.  Off went the hunting party trailing after that dog and bird.

The dogs had a grand time.  Chance learned that birds were fun.  Millie found her bird and then scented  into the wind as if watching out for a flying bird - - even though she was standing right on it.  Larsen huffed his way around the field and brought his birds almost, but not quite, to hand.  We all learned something about our dogs today.

Christmas cards

Is it too late to mention this?

I have a stack of Christmas cards in front of me.  We'd collected them from the mantel a while ago, and it's time to toss them.  I thought I'd grab a glass of vino and flip through the cards once more to make sure I hadn't missed any before I threw them away.  The letters and photo-cards, cards fancy and plain: all are beautiful remembrances of the Christmas Season, and we thank you.      

Duck

Larsen licks his lips in anticipation of the duck cooked up for Christmas dinner.

Happily, the duck made its way to the dinner table.

Snow day

Aki and Larsen have some fun shoveling icy snow from the driveway.
 

Larsen supervises Aki's snow removal.

 Time for a break.

Fly away

Tomorrow we will return to Circle W for some practice with quail and chukar.  We will practice fly aways. 

A fly away occurs when the dog flushes the bird and the gunner either misses the shot or does not get a shot off at all - - a very common occurrence in hunting.  You do not want the dog to chase a fly-away to the ends of the earth and disturbing all of the birds and wildlife between you and the horizon.  For a dog that is not steady at the flush (i.e., does not sit when he flushes a bird), the next best thing is to call the dog off the fly-away and return him to his line where he can start working the ground close to, and within gun range, of you. 

Larsen will chase a fly-away forever, confident (and well-founded confidence) that he can track down the bird wherever it lands, grab it, and bring it back.  It's remarkable to watch, of course, but this long-range solo performance is not the type of hunting that the upland hunter ordered up when he grabbed his gun.  Our goal, therefore, will be to break Larsen off of the chase and return him to the field.

What we will do is let him find a quail or chukar and let it get up and shoot with the intention of missing.  Bird and dog will take off.  There will be a point of inflexion where dog slows from his insane dash to a more measured run.  At that point, I will hit the whistle and wave a clip-wing quail over my head.  If need be, I will release the bird and let it flutter about.  Anything to grab his attention and get him to head back to me.

The AKC Hunt Test permits a Junior dog to chase for a bit, provided he comes back.  This is at odds with some of the British-style training books such as Kenneth Roebuck's Gun Dog Training Spaniels and Retrievers  which counsels that the dog should be steady to wing and shot early on.  We've followed the AKC approach, and so are beginning the steadying process with our fly-away work.
 

The best bird bag

Too bad Christmas is over, because here is a gift idea for that hard-to-please spaniel owner.

This is the bird bag from Cabela's, the well-known outdoor and hunting emporium.  The bag is $19.99 and is the best one around.  It is mesh, which keeps the birds cool.  It will hold 5 chukar easily.  It has an opening that is perfectly sized - - not so large as to let birds escape when you are loading or extracting one, and not so small as to cause snags or otherwise make ingress and egress impossible.

Our WSSCA club has given these birds as favors to judges and as premiums in raffles, and they are always welcomed.    

Bird planting

In training and in Hunt Test events, you may be called upon to plant a bird for the spaniel to find.

In planting, you will want to find the balance between having the bird immediately fly away upon being placed on the ground and planting a bird so firmly that it never finds its way into the air and is then trapped by the dog.  A bird that gets up in the air quickly and firmly when found by the dog gives the gunners the best chance to shoot the bird safely away from the dog, thereby minimizing fly-aways. 

I'll talk about pheasant in a separate post. My method for quail and chukar is as follows:

1. Grab the bird from the bird bag anyway you can without letting the other birds out.
2. After closing the bag, manipulate the bird-in-hand until you have him upside down and held by his legs.
3. Hold him behind your back and let him flap while you walk to a good spot.  You may sway the bird a little, but not too much.  An overly dizzied bird will not fly.
4. Find a nice spot for the plant.  On a very sunny day, find a spot in the shade, even if the shade is simply some taller grass.  Make sure that the spot is not too dense with growth, or else the bird will burrow in and will not fly.  A flatter spot, in the open, is better than a dense patch, although now you risk a flyaway.
5. When the bird is no longer flapping, bring him from behind your back and aim him nose-down into the spot that you've chosen.  As his nose touches the grass, you can sway him back and forth just a touch - - once or twice - - so he is nestled in and nice and comfy.  If the spot is not too dense, this will not result in a burrowed-in bird.
6. Let go and immediately and quietly back away - - tiptoe away - - without looking back at the bird.  If you make eye contact that bird will fly.   

Don't traipse through the hunting field as you plant birds.  Stick to the outskirts of the field, to the left or right of the gunners, dodge in for the plant, and then dodge back out to the edge to resume walking up for the next plant.  This will minimize your scent in the field and make the dog hunt the bird instead of simply following your scent. 

You can also refer to Kenneth Roebuck's approach to bird planting, which this method is based on, although he appears to emphasize the swirling and dizzying. 

I don't recommend the throw-the-bird on the ground approach because it is too variable.  If the bird hits a firm spot, you can conk it out or even kill it and if it hits a very soft spot, it may not stay at all.  I think the approach I've outlined gives you the most control over the situation.  The bird tells you when it is done trying to escape, and you control the ground where you put the bird.

Hunt training

Larsen and I enjoyed a lively spaniel hunting practice with some friends and their dogs on a cold but pretty Sunday in Alabama.  For Larsen, I set out two quail and a chukar each time for some land work.  We played a few toss-and fetch games.  I later set up and ran him in a hunt dead, where I set the bird out myself.  I ran him not-so-blind water retrieve.  He watched me toss the bird across the waterway and into the thickets, and on command he went to find and retrieve it.  Larsen looked good on Sunday, although he ran the bank once or twice before finally plunging in for the blind water retrieve.

I am not trying to get ahead of the game.  I know that Larsen has not completed his JH, and is not Senior-ready right now.  However, in our mindset and in our approach we have to start making the adjustment to the higher level.

Here is the outline of what we need to accomplish.  Our goal in the next few weeks is to design exercises that contain the core features of these requirements but that allow us to get in valuable repetitions in the yard and basement.  Larsen's boldness and intensity are a given; a solid retrieve to hand, as always, is the gateway to his success.  

According to the AKC:

. . . [the Senior hunting dog must] show all the attributes of a Junior hunting dog.  In addition, a dog must show true boldness to cover, a pattern addressing the course objectives and an intense desire to hunt.  A proper working distance and independent hunting sense must be maintained.

Seniors should not be afraid to enter cover and should hit the spots likely to hold birds regardless of how difficult.

Some other AKC points:

1. Must demonstrate a true boldness to cover [. . .] an intense desire to hunt.
2. Must be linesteady at water (i.e., no physical or excessive verbal restraint).
3. Must retrieve eagerly to hand from water without "constantly stopping and dropping the bird".
4. Must retrieve all birds - - land or water - - to hand.
5. Must maintain proper working distance.
6. Independent hunting sense.
7. Must return to a call on a missed bird in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable amount of persuasion. 
8. Must exhibit the ability to "hunt dead" on a blind retrieve.