Wet day at Circle W

When it wasn't raining at the Circle W preserve on Mother's Day, it was reloading.

We started an hour later than usual, hoping that the front would have moved past, and to some extent it did, but there were still bands of showers in the aft of the main front.

Humphrey and Zelda quartered hard in the heavy and wet grass.    Both dogs give you the sense that you could sit them forever after flushing a bird.  There was no anxiety whatsoever about a break on a wing or shot.  Those dogs came in from the field wet, tired, and happy.

For Larsen's turns, we worked on quieter whistling and also on an attempt to gauge where Larsen was on his obedience.  We know that Larsen will stay sitting to any tossed bird, dead or clip-wing.  We also know that Larsen will stay sitting even if we walk away a considerable distance.

We worked on sitting him to the shot with some success.  Larsen sat to the discharge of the .22-powered dummy launcher and went after the "dead" dummy with enthusiasm.  His returns were completely unsatisfactory and will require some time on the bench to improve his finish.

We also asked him to flush a live bird or two, but with the soaking rain, it was not a good indicator of his ability to sit to the flush in that situation.  It appeared, though, that he was not at that point.

Overall, a good day in the Tallapoosa River valley.

 Quail and chukar are in the burlap bags ready for a training session.

Humphrey (L) and Zelda (R) wait for the rain to let up so that they can run.

Larsen mopes for his turn in the field.