Business Travel

A slice of pizza and a beer at 10:30 pm.  That's one picture of business travel today.  Another, and I recall this from several years back, was a pair or maybe three people sitting on the floor in their business attire at O'Hare airport on a Friday afternoon tapping away at their laptops.  Probably doing expense reports.

 

The New York pizza was very good for a by-the-slice place.  Great crust.

Second outing on the new field

Bill was there, as was Cathy with Humphrey and Zelda.  It was a glorious and surprisingly cool August morning, with temperatures in the mid- or high-50s.  Low, smoke-like clouds ringed the field.  The field itself was wet and heavy, and the grass was cut low, but it was still a fine sight overall and a good day to be out with hunting spaniels.

I quartered Larsen and stopped him to the whistle.  His stops were pretty good considering I had been gone all week and that was the first whistle work he'd heard since the prior Sunday.  He quartered some more, I tossed a dead and Bill gave it a shot.  Larsen sat.  I may have had to correct him a foot or so to make it more perfect.

Then we set up the drill.  I walked 40-50 yards away and planted a bird in full sight of Larsen.  Then I pipped him to me and to the bird.  He found it, flushed it, and sat to wing & shot.  It wasn't pretty, I hit the whistle hard and he started to break but then sat.  Bill shot the bird and we all stood around until Larsen calmed.  I pipped him to me and set him up for a "dead".  His return was messy, off by about two feet.  I grabbed him by the collar and pipped him to me and picked up the bird.

Larsen had a couple more drills and did well.  He broke on one low flyer that Bill could not shoot.  He trapped the bird and brought him in.  Still, 2 for 3 or 3 for 4 (I forget how many we ran) with a steady dog was a pretty good morning's work.

New York Public Library

The sidewalk to the library along 41st Street has embedded in it bronze plaques with pull quotes from authors famous and obscure.  My casual inspection turned up nothing regarding dogs generally and bird dogs in particular.

The Lions in repose at the New York Public Library at 41st Street and 5th Avenue.

NY, NY

Chrysler building from 40th and Madison.

New York

The streets are always busy, but the sidewalks don't fill up until well past 8:00 in the morning.  Let's go people, get up and get going!

Chrysler Building from Lexington and 42nd.

Grand Central Station

Around 8:30 am, commuters pour from the station.

MH collars

Orvis shot collars for Humphrey and Zelda, Master Hunters.

Shot collars make a fashion statement in the field. 

All wrapped up.

New fields

Danny at Circle W has done some land swaps.  The result is a mix of good and bad news.

Gone are the fields that we've used for practice and Hunt Tests.  The hedgerows around the old "junior" and "master" fields have been being torn up.  The new owner hopes to grow corn.  Danny does not think he will be successful.  The Circle W is a Hunting Preserve and not a farm because, for whatever reason, crops won't grow in that river valley.

Danny also gave up the two fields off River Road.  We used the front field for pre-Hunt Test practice.  Larsen and I did our first real hunt together on that back field.  We went after a dozen birds that Danny set out in a not-too-challenging configuration.  It gave Larsen a chance to go after bird after bird after bird- - precisely what Allen W. said that dog needed.  Allen was right, and that hunt largely developed Larsen from a junior  dog to a senior dog.

That  far back field also has three enormous walnut trees.  According to Danny, the walnut trees will be cut down and the lumber sold off  as the new owner tries to pay the loan.  I told Danny that I had envisioned that I'd always assumed that one of those trees would provide a shotgun stock for his grandson or great grandson.

The new fields look promising.  They are wide and provide gunners with plenty of room for a shot.  The front field is across from Danny's sporting clays course and is easy to find.  The back fields are another mile down River Road.  These fields are picturesque and ringed with trees, and the the Tallapoosa River is just beyond the tree line.  Under Danny's management, the fields should be ready for the November WSSCA Hunt Test.

 The first new field is on Perryman Bridge Road across from sporting clay field. 

The new field is wide and long, with some interesting doglegs.

Cathy and Jeanne pull out of the new fields after a good day of practice on Danny's new fields.

Fading summer

2012 has been a long and hot summer in the midwest and everywhere else it seems.  This morning's deep clouds, pounding surf, and cool breeze over Lake Michigan is the first indication that summer is fading into  fall.

The Olympic spirit

Nothing exemplifies the true Olympic spirit more than the celebration of gold metal discuss thrower Robert Harting of Germany.

According to the London Telegraph, after winning the discuss toss, Harting ripped off his shirt, grabbed a German flag, and ran a lap around the track in celebration.  He ran the 400 meter high hurdles, which had been set up on the track in anticipation of the women's event, with the flag tied around his waist.  He then ran to the torch and attempted to grab a fiery tong, but was unsuccessful.  That night, he lit up London, wound up sleeping aboard some train, was robbed, and ultimately found his way back to the Olympic village, where he had to wait for daylight business hours to be let in, since he had lost his credentials during the course of the evening.

Photo courtesy of London Telegraph

Steps 1 and 3

We ran Larsen, Humphrey, Zelda, and Sunny on a relatively cool, but very humid morning at Circle W.

We put Larsen on chukar and tried to ride herd on him, but I was far too slow on the uptake and as a result, he was able to break and capture two birds.  This is definitely moving us backward at a time when we need to show progress.

Before we even put Larsen in the field, we sat him and tossed birds about him - - right, left, and right overhead.  He sat, tail wagging, understanding this fundamental game completely.  Larsen understood step 1.  It was step 3 - - birds in the field - - that was coming apart.

Later, and on a call that evening, Cathy determined that we had forgotten step 2.

In an earlier step 2, with pigeons, Cathy planted a pigeon right on the dirt road.  Then we sent Larsen for the flush.  Larsen would flush, and I'd hit the whistle and tell him to sit.  Cathy, right at the flush, would act as the enforcer to get between the dog and the flushed bird, if need be.  If Larsen broke, he would get a pull either on a check cord or e-collar.

We did not do step 2 with chukar.  We had tried step 3 and then determined we would have to go back to step 1, which we did.  But then we skipped over step 2, much to Larsen and my detriment.

 

Puppy stakes

Some photos from a long-ago time when Larsen won his first conformation match in puppy stakes.  Aki guided Larsen to his win over contemporaries Palmer and J-Clarke.

Aki and Larsen get ready to rumble.

Penny/Palmer, Mary/J-Clarke, and Aki/Larsen give it a go.

Say "ahh"!

"Larsen, we won!"