Home late

I got home late Friday after a long week in Chicago.  The little dog had been alone most of the day because Aki had left for California earlier in the day.

Larsen's head popped up in the laundry room door as I pulled into the garage.  He had been sleeping at the door in the belief that sooner or later someone would remember him and come home to him.

We played around when I came in, and he ran in circles, picked up his duck and ran upstairs where he placed the bird next to my pillow.  I love you too.

Saturday training

Larsen and I stopped by Tim's on a cool early fall morning.  We worked the field and then did some water work.  At the water, I pushed Larsen across the pond by following Susan's advice of ordering Larsen "back" every time he started to curl around or look back toward his home bank.  Susan said that she had to push Mazie across and that by the time the dog looks at you it is nearly too late.

Once on the other side, I had to handle Larsen back and forth to find the dummy.  Finally, and after Larsen had gone into the water and back out, he jumped on the dummy and brought it back.  What a great note to stop on!

Earlier, on the field, we worked Larsen on fly-off pigeons.  Larsen did fine and hupped himself before I hit the whistle.  We sat Larsen on blank pistol shots and on flush-and-fly-offs.  I worked on timing and thought about precisely when to hit that whistle.

Tim was ready with his blank pistol.

Carson held down the other side of the line with his toy shotgun.

Larsen enjoys the early fall the scene.

Get your motor running'

Get your motor runnin'

Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Yeah, darlin'
Gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born
Born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Born to be wild
Born to be wild

Last days of summer

The water at Lake Alatoona was warm even on a cool day, ushering in the first day of autumn.  In the south, it takes a while for summer to drift away and you can feel it still in the warm afternoons after the cool mornings.

Training report

We beat the rain, but not by much, as Larsen and I ran the traps at Tim's.  I described last week's fiasco to Tim, including my notion that Larsen was ready to bust out just based on his behavior on Friday and Saturday when I tried to work him on dummies.  Tim elected to go train at the field just to get some different vibes going.  We brought Flick the ESS and Avery the flatcoat along and, of course, Carsen whose 6th birthday is tomorrow.

I quartered Larsen with no birds in the field.  Periodically, Tim shot and Larsen sat on the shot.  Tim had his training pistol as well as his field gun so he was able at times to shoot off a real volley: bang-bang - - - - bang, as occurs in a hunting situation often times (miss, miss, and then a hit by the other gunner).

Ultimately, Larsen flushed two pigeons.  Both times the birds flew back toward our home base which made for dog-Frank-bird situations that are ideal to enforce a sit.  While this situation is unlikely to occur in a hunt test (the gunner would not turn and shoot back from whence the group came because the gallery is sitting there), it provided the successes that are so very important to get.

I am going to work at being more relaxed and of good cheer and not anticipating a screwup.  These things will occur, of course, but now I will start expecting success.  Larsen can do this and I can put more trust in him and get the behavior that I want.

Larsen hunted quite close to me and it was difficult to get him to range out, in part, I believe, because we were rolling the birds.

Larsen did well on the hunt dead and the blind.  He is learning to trust my directions on the hunt dead (and the blind) and that obedience will lead to the reward, namely the bird.

Very heavy rain rolled in as we were leaving Bowman.

Clounds like these cover the sky from the Gulf to Canada as heavy rains move in.

WSSCA Hunt Test

The 2013 Welsh Springer Spaniel Hunt Test is November 16-17 in Clark's Hill, South Carolina.  This is a new venue, although many of us have had the opportunity to run a dog in practice or walk the land.  There is a limit of 35 dogs.  We will get a block of rooms at the La Quinta Hotel in Augusta, Ga at I-20 exit 199 (Washington Ave).  The field is about 20 miles north of the interchange.

The WSSCA HT premium can be found at the WSSCA website.

Chromecast TV dongle

I used some credit card points to get a free Chromecast.  Chromecast is Google's TV interface.  It plugs into the HD port on a "smart" TV (that is, a TV that is capable of processing IP signals).  It also requires a power source.  Then you download the Chromecast app on your smartphone or iPad.

After that, you use your iPad or smartphone to requests to view YouTube or Netflix videos on your TV.  Your iPad or smartphone acts as a TV remote, in some sense.

We tried it last night and it worked exactly as advertised.  We watched some silly Welsh Springer videos and a few gundog training videos.

My goal is to see if we can get some of the shows that we watch, such as News Hour.  If I can get that small number of shows via Chromecast, I can then drop cable either altogether or to the minimum package.  I would either reduce total spending or use some of the savings to increase my Internet bandwidth.

McDonalds is my kind of place

Larsen may think that this is his kind of McDonalds as he inspects the cargo of chukar on the end of Cathy's van while we wait at the Douglassville exit of I-20 for Al and Shoni.

A dream come true

First the dream, then the true part, and then you can decide whether there is a parallel universe.

In the dream, a chukar flitted out horizontally, enticing Larsen to follow.  I did not blow my whistle fearing that he would not obey the sit command.  However, on his own, Larsen stopped and sat and made some indication to the bird to do likewise, which it did.  Now bird and dog sat together.  I stepped away for a moment, but as luck would have it, I was at the Atlanta Braves stadium and there was a nearby camera operator who might have caught the action.  I asked whether I could watch the replay in order to figure out what to do next.  The camera operator said sure, but first I'd have to watch some commercials that were queued up.  He asked me whether the dog would sit that whole time.  I said the dog would sit, but I wasn't sure about the bird.  At that time, my dream flitted off and that's all I remember.

At Tim's Larsen flushed a pigeon, and I hit the sit whistle.  Larsen sat, but then so did the bird, about three feet away.  Tim and I looked at each other, and Tim suggested that I let him get the bird, but not to use his name, since his name command is a school's-out dismissal and one where I would never get him back under control.  I told Larsen to "go-on," which is his start-to-hunt command, which he was not totally sure about, so I said, "ok," which is pretty close to a school's-out command.  Larsen pounced, put the bird up, and sat to the whistle.  Tim shot the bird, and then we parlayed some more to determine if and when to send Larsen for the retrieve.  (We did, and the retrieve was good.)

You decide for yourself whether the dream was a premonition.  I didn't learn that much from it, except not to be surprised by the surprising.

Season-end tomatoes

By August the garden is parturient: anticipating the harvest of September and October.  Tomatoes ripen throughout the summer, and by August's end we are ready to get into apple season and, later, into squash,   sweet potatoes, and pumpkins of fall.  Bob & April gave us some of their mountain-grown tomatoes during a visit a few weeks ago, neat and as a canned salsa.  What a great way to remember the summertime and friends.

Bounty from Bob's garden.

Instant gratification.

Something for later.  

Black Balsam Knob

This trail is southwest on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville at mile marker 420.  The hike is along a ridge to the knob, which provides for vistas to the right and to the left.  The trail is the 30 mile Art Loeb trail that links with both the Mountains-to-Sea (E-W) and Appalachian (N-S) Trails.

The gang stops for a breather on the Art Loeb trail near Black Balsam Knob.

SUV crate

Most SUVs have a sloped back to present a more streamlined profile.  However, this sloped back cuts interior space for your dog and gear.  Moreover, you want a setup with a front gate to prevent pup from bounding out when the rear hatch is opened.

Here is a contender from General Cage.  The price is around $200.  The crate is trapazoidal at about 32" at the bottom and maybe 24" at the top.  This permits you to have at least one rear seat up while also closing the tailgate of the car.

   The crate's 25" width means one crate per car.

Spring-loaded hardware makes assembly and gate use easy.  Gate opens with one hand.

You will probably replace this heavy, noisy metal pan with the lighter and more manageable ABS plastic pan.

A 55 lbs dog fits reasonably well, even when pouting.

There is room for gear on the side.

Reasonable headroom for a medium-sized dog and you can toss a towel or two on top.