Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Tail Wagging the Dog

 First Pheasant Hunt of the season. 
 First bird of the season above.  I have now started my third hunting season.  On the first bird taken , I have always stopped for 10 minutes and sat in the field and reflected on how natural this feels to walk through open fields with my dog and find food for our sustenance. 
 A gift to us from nature.  
 There is NO WAY Bailey could ever be happier than during our 2 1/2 hour hunt this morning.  He was in Dog heaven.
Three birds taken.  Seven birds pointed and flushed.  Two missed and two were not good shots to take.  He handled his birds well and retrieved them all back to me wonderfully.
A great morning with the sun and a gentle breeze blowing in from the west.

5 comments:

Cooke Furniture said...

Looks like a nice day hunting. I have a new Vizla pup and would like a to train her to be a good hunting dog. I see you recommend How to Help gun dogs and Training the Versatile hunting dog. are those still your top recommendations?

Rod Michaelson said...

Best Way to Train Your Gun Dog: The Delmar Smith Method
by Bill Tarrant would be the third to recommend but they are all good. Much of it has to do with having open country very close by to work. Unfortunately the closest place we can "work" is an 90 minutes away. I would also get involve with a pointer club. They often hold training sessions. I also used professional trainers to help me.

Cooke Furniture said...

OK thanks we have lots of open range here in Bishop CA but no pointer club. If you ever come up here with your dogs let me know we can hunt quail and the Lone Pine Pheasant Club just reopened. I have read taking puppies out with older trained dogs is an important part of training to hunt.

Rod Michaelson said...

You are in luck. California City is not far from you and they hold field trials and professional trainers go out and stay for months at a time working dogs. See my post from January 26, 2013 Willowynd Winter Base Camp.
Also January 2010 posts about the desert.
Love to come down and hunt wild quail with you sometime.

Jesse Freidin said...

What a great start to the season! Glad to hear you guys are back in the field and enjoying yourselves.