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 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.

I came across this indoor dog crate on-line today. Other than on their website, I have never seen this product, but thought it looked nice. They are made by Wooden Creek in Dunedin, FL. They are listing them at $185 and have a sale price of $149. I think it is a great idea, if you have your dog inside, and occasionally use the crate when you have guests, or for the dog to sleep in at night, but don’t like the look of the plastic dog crate in the house, this is a great solution. This looks like a nice piece of furniture and would be a nice addition to most rooms. Of course, you wouldn’t want to put a puppy in it, or any dog that has a habit of chewing on their dog box.

Looking at Wooden Creek’s other items on their website, they have a raised wooden dog feeding dish holder, a dog gate/holder, plus a large selection of beautiful Grandfather clocks and other furniture. It might be worth a look.

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.

If you are interested in really learning about training pointing dogs, Dave Walker, author of “The Bird Dog Training Manual,” is presenting a pointing dog seminar this Saturday and Sunday in Salt Lake City, UT. I am really excited about this event. I use a lot of Dave’s techniques in my training. Dave has been very helpful with my training and some specific issues with certain dogs I have been working with, so I am looking forward to meeting him in person and seeing him apply some of his techniques.

I believe they still have some room for additional participants, so if you are interested, look up Dave’s website at www.davewalkerdogs.com on the Seminars link on the Training dropdown menu for the contact information. The seminar is being sponsored by the Wasatch Front Brittany Club. The seminar is at the Lee Kay Center and starts at 9:00 each day.

1.) Standardize the current split pheasant seasions, Utah County (7-day) vs. the rest of the state (2-week) into one uniform 16-day season statewide. The extended 30-day season on public lands in certain counties will still exist. Further, the opening day shooting hours will start 30 minutes before sunrise rather than the traditional 8:00 am start.

2.) Extend the forest grouse season by one month (mid-September through the end of December).

3.) Unify the current split chukar seasons and lengthen the seasons from late September to mid-February. They are also recommending a two week later opening day for the season to lessen bird’s dependence on water sources, especially guzzlers. This will provide chukar hunters statewide a lot more opportunity to hunt chukars (2 ½ months more in some cases).

4.)  Offer additional/new California quail hunts in Daggett and Sanpete County.

5.) Offer an additional/new sharp-tail grouse hunt in Cache County.

6.) Shift the sharp-tail grouse and the sage-grouse seasons two weeks later in September. Season length would be kept the same, but this change would allow broods to disperse more and provide a lower likelihood of harvesting brood hens (3+ year old), a critical element in grouse production.
One of the current recommendations is to have two different Hungarian partridge seasons in Northern Utah, rather than one uniform season. I oppose this change for two reasons: First, there is no biological basis for this regulation. Second, regulations should be simplified rather than made more complex. And third, the season has always coincided with the chukar season to avoid problems with hunters misidentifying these two species and inadvertently taking a species out of season. I suggest that there should be one statewide Hungarian partridge seasion that matches the chukar season.

Another change I would like to see changed is the pheasant season. I suggest that we go to a statewide 30-day season. Rather than a 16 day season on private lands and a 30 day season on public lands in certain counties.  Habitat is the limiting factor on pheasant populations, rather than a male only harvest strategy. Give hunters more opportunity at the most popular upland game species in the state. 

If you have comments you would like to voice, attend your Regional Advisory Council meeting this week, or contact your local RAC members via email and voice your comments. They are your public voice on wildlife regulations. Information can be found at http://wildlife.utah.gov/news/08-05/upland_game.php .

This post doesn’t have anything to do with gun dogs, other than it’s outdoors and it’s a lot of fun to have the dogs along in the field with you when you are mushroom hunting.

     Last year was such a great year for morels, so I was really pumped up for this spring. We had a good wet winter, and some nice showers early this spring, so I hoped that we would have another good morel crop this year. Unfortunately, I think it has been too cool and the timing of moisture just wasn’t right and we weren’t able to find a single morel. On the flip side, the coprinous mushrooms were very abundant. Their fairly tasty, but need to be cooked and eaten shortly after picking, whereas the morels can be dried and used in dishes for months.
     The dogs weren’t particularly helpful finding the morels, but they were fun to have out in the field. While out mushroom hunting we did have the one of the dogs point a nesting turkey. Luckily I was able to see her and pick up the dog and carry him off without bumping the hen off her nest.