The bird season is finally here. The dove season kicks it off tomorrow and I’m excited about it. I’m not seeing a lot of doves around, but I’m sure there are enough around. It usually goes with out fail that about August 28th or so we get a day or two of cooler rainy weather and it moves the doves on south just before the opener. This year, at least so far, the weather has been consistent and the local doves seem to have stayed.

If you haven’t had a chance to get that new pup around and work with him on birds and give him a proper introduction to the gun, opening day of the dove season isn’t the time to do it. You’d be better off leaving him at home, or better yet, instead of taking the day dove hunting, take him out and put him on some training pigeons and give him a proper introduction to the gun, where there is a positive connection with birds and gunfire. All too often I see young dogs taken straight to the hunting field as their introduction to birds and gunfire. The results can be long-term negative for the dog, and very hard, if not impossible to overcome.

I know I’ll get some negative comments about dove hunting from this post. The answer is, yes I do enjoy shooting the bird of peace. I find them quite a sporting target, as they fly almost 50 mph, and I find them quite tasty. What can I say? This is a hunting dog blog. Tomorrow I’ll post one of my favorite recipes.

 

For anyone who is interested, I will be putting on a dog rattlesnake avoidance training next Saturday, July 26 here in Annabella, UT. Contact me through the contact page on this website if you are interested and we will schedule a time. Plan on about an hour. We will let your dog smell, hear, and see a rattlesnake, and using the e-collar, will condition them to avoid rattlesnakes. We will then shift to a different area and test the dog on a rattlesnake to make sure the conditioning is focused on the snake rather than the training site. Cost is $50.

 Annabella, UT is 3 hours south of Salt Lake City, and 4 hours northeast of Las Vegas.

 

 

One of the things I was able to work on while camping over the fourth of July, was hunting the dogs through forested cover where they quickly loose sight of you. This is as real is it gets for training a dog to hunt forest grouse. This poses a different scenario for a dog that’s use to training on open ground where they can run big and always see you, and you can see them.

While hunting grouse, a dog needs to learn to read the direction you are hunting and anticipate where you are at all times and how to hunt for you when they can’t see you. The other thing they need to do is learn how to find you when they have lost you. They need to learn to circle around and find and follow your scent trail to find you, check in, and keep hunting.

I worked with each of the dogs hunting out through the forest. At first, I would call them back often to me and let them know where I was, especially when I changed directions. Over time, I gave them less and less direction and notice of my location and let them work to me. When they checked back in, I would praise them and cast them off again. Several times during a session with a dog, I also would hide behind a tree and watch while they were out away from me. I wanted them to learn how to circle back and pick up my scent trail and work it out and find me. If they were slow coming back or having a tough time finding me, I would call out their name with a short, quick yell, so they would perk up and have incentive to keep looking, but would have a hard time triangulating my location just from my voice. All the dogs picked this up fairly quickly and would find me using their noses. I think this is critical in a grouse hunting situation, where the cover is fairly thick and they loose sight of you quickly.

We also ran across several grouse roost piles, which got us pumped for the season. We didn’t see any birds, but that is because they were at a much lower elevation with young broods. We were high enough to still have patches of snow, which the dogs loved. We are looking forward to the fall and grouse opener this year.

 

 

 

 

Another cool sight we had while camping on Cove Mountian. They were just hanging out midday feeding together. One thing that was interesting was the difference in development stage in the elk antlers and the mule deer antlers we saw. The mule deer bucks we saw seemed to be way behind the elk in stage of development.

Ok, one of my pet peeves is a dog loose in the back of a truck. How many times have I heard, “he’ll learn not to jump out the hard way,” or some variant? This kind of red neck thinking really irks me. I have seen lots of dead dogs along the highway, and even come across one that wasn’t yet dead, but his back end was so busted up it was a tragic sight. Just put them in a dog box. If you can’t afford that, at least get an eye bolt and 2′ of chain and clip up the dog’s collar so that he can’t get his front shoulders over the edge of the truck.

I’m sure this guy was wondering what I was doing taking pictures. I was ticked. The dog was back and forth and all over the back of the truck. Several times he wobbled and regained his footing.

 

Photo: www.geo-outdoors.info

Rattlesnakes and dogs scares me, especially gun dogs. Snakes seem to hold a special interest for them; they must smell like a game bird. I know when I did a lot of hunting in the Nebraska Sandhills my dogs would commonly point box turtles. They would point them with almost as much intensity as a prairie chicken. So a reptile must smell somewhat like a bird. When a dog is curious, or wants to investigate a rattlesnake, only bad can come of it. This is what scares me.

The other day I went fly fishing up a small stream not far from my house. I thought about taking a dog or two, I seldomly go anywhere without a dog. At the last minute I decided not to since it was going to be fairly hot out. Man, was I ever grateful. I had one of the snake-iest days of my life. I ran into 5 rattlesnakes while fishing. By the end of the trip I was so jumpy I could hardly fish. Rattlesnakes arn’t agressive and like to give plenty of warning, but sometimes their buzz is covered up by the sound of the creek. I was so glad I didn’t have the dogs.

 

Back in October 07 (link) and again in January 08 (link) I wrote about a huge curl leaf mahogany tree we found while grouse hunting. We went back with the official state big tree scorer today from the Division of Forestry and re-measured the tree. We were excited to see that it was not only the state record, but also the world record largest curl leaf mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) tree. Keep in mind that these are typically more like a tall shrub than a tree. A good sized mahogany is  as big around as your thigh and about twice your height, so this tree was huge. It was a fun field trip with folks from the State Division of Forestry, Division of Wildlife, BLM and Forest Service. We are now entered in the record book for the world’s record mahogany tree. We stole the record from California.

Oh yeah, another funny thing was when we went back, there were grouse feathers at the base of the tree. The day we found the tree, we were hunting dusky grouse and were skunked.

 

If you got a puppy this spring, it’s probably about time to start building her interest in birds. I like to start with numerous positive experiences on birds. Pigeons or quail are about the right size for a puppy. Quail are often hard for most folks to come by, so pigeons are the best solution. I start with a small frozen pigeon and toss it out for the dog to retrieve. Build lots of excitement around the bird. Toss it out and have them retrieve it to you. If they want to run away with it, do it in a more confined space or have a check cord on the pup.

Another incentive for them to bring it back is to start turning and moving back, often they think you are leaving and will want to come with you and will bring the bird along. When they bring it back, stroke them down the back while they have the bird in their mouth; stop petting (stroking not patting) the instant they drop it. After just a moment of them holding the bird take it from them with praise. Don’t let them chew up the bird, and don’t over do this. Keep it to 3 or 4 times so it is a super-treat for them.

This will both get the pup excited over birds and help develop their retrieve. This method will help any gun dog puppy, spaniel, retriever, or pointer. This is the first step to preventing gun shyness (gun sensitivity).

 

Next, starting with wild birds…

 

If you live in Utah and didn’t draw a deer or elk tag, today is the day to get online and purchase remaining permits. There are still spike elk and any-bull elk tags, as well as archery deer permits. Last year I my hunting buddy waited to purchase his archery deer tag and didn’t get a tag, because they were sold out.

If you are interested, it is also time to put in for the antlerless big game drawing. Go to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources web site and click on the on-line licence sales.

 

For the Memorial Day holiday we got out and scouted for ruffed grouse. It’s a beautiful time of year to be out, things are greening up and the early spring flowers are coming out. We saw elk everywhere we went. This time of year the ruffed grouse are drumming and a little easier to find. The thumping of their wings against their puffed out chest carries amazingly far. The other thing about it is that it can be deceptively hard to pinpoint. If you are able to locate them, they are sometimes easy to sneak up on to within 20 or 30 yards so you can get a great show as they strut their stuff on a log. They are really awesome birds to watch. I was able to locate six or eight of them in a morning. This fall they won’t be on the exact log, but there is a good chance that there will be some in the area.