This particular brittany pup, Sadie, I am currently working with seems to like birds, but is fairly noise sensitive and a bit skittish of novel things and people. It is important to provide a proper introdution to birds. Some of the keys are using a live bird, not initially letting the pup get wing whipped by the bird, and using the pup’s natural chase drive to get her keyed up about birds. This is also the time to help reinforce natural retrieving instincet. Don’t take the bird away when she brings it back, praise her by long-stroking pets when she holds the bird and stop petting when she drops (the idea is you want to reward her for bringing the bird back and holding it). 

When you introduce gunfire, start with a starter blank or .410. The key is to shoot when the dog is reallly keyed up and chasing, not when they have stopped or are hesitant. The dog’s mental state here if far more critical than the distance to the gun. (Note: avoid 12 guages and autoloaders during this stage – they are too much noise and can break through the dog’s focus on the bird.)

I love spring – beautiful weather and morels!

Utah is not really known for its mushrooms, but if you know just the right spot, you can come up with a few treasures like these black morels. When I can’t hunt upland game, morels do quite nicely. They are every bit as tasty as a buttery chukar. Don’t let the secret out. Happy Hunting!

Max, my pointer and I got it tonight.
We were working on heeling on a checkcord in shin-high grass and WHAM!
Before I could blink, we got it right in the face. It was so strong it about made me vomit. So strong that it almost doesn’t smell like skunk; more like onions. Max didn’t know what hit him. Julie wouldn’t let me in the house. I took care of Max on the front lawn and then had to strip and dash for the shower.

This isn’t the first time, but I had forgotten just how bad it is. Man, I hate skunks!

The recipie we use to wash the dog is the following:
1 quart Hydrogen Peroxide
1/4 cup Baking Soda
1 tsp dish soap

Stir together and bathe dog with it like a shampoo and rinse thoroughly with a hose or buckets of water.
Don’t store the mixture. Mix fresh and use. I bathe the dog about three times in a row. If necessary you can follow up with another washing the next day. (Here’s another tip: don’t use your wife’s good bath towel to dry the dog. The next several times you wash the towel it spreads a mild eau-du-skunk through the laundry.)

I had an opportunity to go fishing with Dave Walker at Lake Powell this Spring and we had a great time. The first day fishing was hot, then a storm blew in and the fish just shut down. That left plenty of time for visiting. Dave is the author of “The Bird Dog Training Manual” and numerous pointing dog DVDs. He is a hall of famer and the pro’s pro of dog training. Most of what I know about pointing dogs comes from Dave and he is a pleasure to spend a few days fishing with.

I finally found the right male to breed with Allie, my female yellow lab to produce pups that have the conformation, energy, drive and stamina to hunt the upland days on end for quail, pheasants, chukars and grouse. My focus for this breeding was on size, conformation, drive, behavior and trainability. The breeding should produce medium sized (50 to 60 lbs) dogs with a smooth gait that can hunt for days in a row. Both the sire and dam have proven themselves in the field hunting wild game. They are both excellent companion dogs around the family and in the house. Both dam and sire are OFA certified for hips and elbows.

Duke, the sire (Royal Duke of Canyon View), is an AKC Master Hunter and has proven himself over the last several years with over a thousand waterfowl retrieves per year for a hunting guide. His pups carry his square head and muscular build, gentle temperament and strong bird drive.

Allie, the dam, has proven herself with her ability to find upland game and her stamina to hunt rough desert country days on end for Gamble’s Quail, Mearn’s Quail, chukars, grouse and ducks. She is a pleasure to have in the house and around the kids. Her strong drive comes from her father, “Nitro” Field Champion Yellowstone’s TNT Explosion.

I am excited about the breeding and am confident that it will produce dynamite puppies. The litter is expected May 2nd. Contact us to reserve your pup.

I have been using e-collars for over twelve years to train dogs and believe that when used correctly as a training tool rather than a control tool or punishment device, they can facilitate dogs learning whether they are at 4 feet or 400 yards. Two keys to their use are correct timing and using as little electricity as possible, just enough to feel it. Almost every time before I put a collar on a dog I test it on my skin. I am constantly amazed at how the placement of the collar makes a big difference on how strongly it is felt. Try placing the prongs of an e-collar on your hand shock in on a low constant setting, then move it one inch and try it again. It is surprising how different the perceived level of stimulation is.

I am concerned about how those differences affect a dog if the collar shifts around a little bit, it may be further from a nerve now and require a little higher level of stimulation, then shift closer to a nerve and be felt too strongly. I hoped that the SCG-LBM adapter device would be the solution. The idea is that you would have seven points of contact rather than just two and would therefore have a more consistent level of stimulation.  The advertising promises to revolutionize electronic animal training; dogs will automatically jump 50 IQ points and move to PhD level programs in just a day or two.

I bought one to try it out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to make any difference. After a fair bit of experimentation on my skin and using it on several dogs, I don’t think there is a difference. It is a novel idea, that with six more prongs that it is more likely to come into contact with a nerve and therefore would only require a low level of stimulation and be more consistent. It just doesn’t prove itself out.

The other advertised feature the SCG-LBM adapter touts is that a dog can wear the device much longer without causing irritation to the skin, whether it is on a bark collar or on a training e-collar. I can definitely see where there would be less wear on a dog’s skin with more contact points. However, it won’t work with any of the three different bark collars I have (Innotek, dogtra and tri-tronics), because either doesn’t fit between the prongs, or it would interfere with the vibration receptor on the collar between the prongs.

I have used this device with both my Tri-tronics G3 and Dogtra 200 training collars. It definitely works, I just don’t see any improvement over the standard prongs that come with the collar.

This weekend I was able to take advantage of the extended Utah chukar season.  This year the season started two weeks later and ran two weeks longer. I was very supportive of this regulation change for two reasons: first, it’s cooler for the dogs on the opener, and second, the birds are not as reliant on water sources, so they are not as tied to the guzzlers when people start hunting them.

We had a great hunt this weekend, the weather was overcast and chilly, which made good conditions for the dogs and the hunters. Even better, there was a fresh dusting of snow on the hillsides. I love to hunt chukars after a snow because you can figure out where they are and what they are doing by tracking them.

We knew the general area we wanted to hunt, so we were driving along surveying the area. We stopped at one spot that looked good and right away we heard chukars calling to us. One would think that I’d have learned by now that when I hear chukars calling I should just walk away. Needless to say, I haven’t. We shelled up and took off after them.  About two-thirds of the way to the top they started calling to us from a steep box canyon back below us. After muttering, we made a plan to go back down and come at them from two sides. As we closed in, I called out that we had them surrounded and they should come out single file. Being the ghost sirens they are, they simply vanished.

The snow did help out. While working my way up the mountain, I came across a single fresh, fresh chukar track in the snow headed up and across the slope. Allie (my lab) and I got on the track and determined to follow it out. Sure enough he led us all the way to the top. I figured he would probably run to the top and fly off the other side, but I thought I’d track him down and find out. In this case it paid off, sort of. We tracked this bird all the way to the top and around an edge. Just as we came around the edge two birds flushed, one right at me flushing from the dog, and the other down and away. I was able to down the first bird with the right barrel and hit the second bird, a far shot with the left barrel. The second bird cocked his wings up like a courting pigeon and sailed way, way down the mountain. Allie quickly came back with the first bird, and I sent her after the second. She made a great retrieve on the second working her way down mountain following the scent.  Where the second bird came from is one of those chukar mysteries.

Later Allie and I were able to get a third bird low on the hillside when she picked up scent and worked over a knoll and up a small drainage and flushed a lone bird. She was still in the drainage and didn’t see the chukar fall. Together we went back over the knoll to look for the downed bird. Once over the rise we could see a tiercel kestrel stooping back and forth after something down in the draw. For a three and a half ounce falcon, he was pretty optimistic about catching a 20 ounce chukar. We apologized to the kestrel and gathered up our third bird.

With the kind of chukar year we have had this year, and for so late in the season, I felt really lucky to have bagged three birds. My hunting partner had about the same luck that I did, so we headed back to town having had a great day. What we learned from this trip: late in the season the birds were single males or in pairs and were widely distributed, rather than in flocks. Birds were at all elevations on the mountain, but based on tracks, more of them were on the lower 1/3 of the slope.

photo

If you have read many of my blogs you know how critical I think exercise is for their physical and mental health.  Let’s put it this way, I believe it is more critical that all other training, without exercise everything else falls apart.

We run our dogs 3 – 4 miles every day and see worlds of difference from a well exercised, well rounded companion vs. a coiled spring without controls. When it comes to puppies, exercise is still critical, but you have to think differently. Give them lots of exercise, but let the puppy set the intensity and the duration. They seem to know best. When they get tired they’ll lay down. Think low impact, low duration. We’ll take a puppy for a good stiff walk rather than running or roading with the big dogs. Too much intensity can be hard on their fast growing joints and bones.  I like to keep puppies exercise sessions frequent, but short in duration (about like their attention span).

Don’t be afraid to take them for long walks, for instance when our puppies were just four months old, we took them on a five mile hike. They did great; when they got tired and flopped down on their bellies, we stopped and took a break. We judged it was time to go again when they were up wrestling and playing tug-o-war with sticks. Some people have suggested a limit of five minutes of exercise per month of age for structured leash exercise; which may not be a bad rule of thumb. Think about when you are out on a long walk and they get tired, will you have the time or be in a location where you can stop and let the pup rest (or pick up the pup and carry her)? If not, make sure your walk is short enough to make it back to the house before the pup needs a rest.

The key for a puppy is frequent, low-intensity, short-duration exercise. This will not over-tax their growing joints, and will benefit both their social, mental and physical development.
 

We had a great trip to Arizona hunting Montezuma quail. Montezuma quail are also known as Mearn’s quail and they are spectacular. The best part about the trip was seeing the huge variety of habitats in Arizona; from the arid Sonoran desert cactus-lands to the higher elevation southern grasslands. Some of the desert plants were really awesome, like this agave pictured below.

The hunting was difficult. We were told by several sources that Arizona had two back to back banner Mearn’s quail years and this year was the best on record. We were told to bring a good book, because you’d have your limit before noon, seven to ten coveys a day, and so on. So were really pumped. The hunting wasn’t as promised. We had to cover a lot of country to find one to three coveys a day. I think the hard hunting made every bird that much sweeter. We all found quail and got some really nice specimens for mounting. We had some really awesome dog work and really nice points.

The scaled quail were a different story all together. Because we struggled finding the Montezuma quail, we didn’t shift over to scalies until the last afternoon. We saw four coveys as we were pulling into our hunting spot. The dogs went crazy with scent, but the little feathered devils just ran circles around us.

One of the really fun parts of the trip was that their late dove season (through January 4th). We were able to shoot several limits of mourning doves, with a few Eurasian collared doves mixed in. Man were they tasty. All told, we had a nice trip, got some trophy birds and saw an awesome diversity of desert country.

Gambel’s Quail Habitat

Mearn’s Quail Habitat