Having both puppies to play with has made the spring, even with the screwy weather, tolerable. I have really enjoyed them and it keeps me getting in a lot of steps a day. I need the steps. Last season I didn’t walk as far or as well as I should have, while I was hunting. I may have had what some are calling Long Covid. With me walking these two puppies, most days, morning and evening, I have lost about 10 pounds and I’m walking with less effort, I think.
Gus this morning pointing a pigeon.
Another shot of Gus.
Gracie finding the dog food I threw in the grass.
Yesterday I got the shed ready for Abby to have her litter and moved Gracie, the puppy I kept from Sally’s litter, into Abby’s kennel. Gracie had been in the kennel with Sally but it’s hard for the puppy to get enough to eat. Sally is a chow hound and she would eats most of what I put in the kennel when they were together. I have been taking Gracie out a couple of times each day and feeding her. Now she can have her own food bowl with enough for her to eat whenever she wants.
Abby doesn’t like the shed. She does fine after the puppies are born but I had to force her to go in the dog door on the shed. I took one of our security cameras and installed it where I can watch Abby of the night. I use to walk down and check on my pregnant females when their due date was getting close. Now all I have to do is look at her on my phone. Before it was hard to sleep the last 4 or 5 days of their pregnancy. Now I just check my phone and go back to sleep.
With getting Gus as a stud fee puppy and keeping Gracie from Sally’s last litter my kennels are full. I may have someone coming to look at Gus this week but I’m also sending 2 dogs, Boss and Bodie, to Nebraska with a trainer to get them into wild birds. Boss is 3 and Bodie is almost 2 years old. Last year I didn’t get them into as many wild birds as I should have, although they both found a few.
Gus was born February 13th of this year so he’s still really young. I started him by carrying a bag of pigeons, putting one to sleep and hiding them in the tall grass. I just had him running along with me. It didn’t take him long to learn to watch me. When I would bend over to hide a bird he would come running to me. So I went to release traps.
I’ve probably told this before but it doesn’t hurt to explain this again. I take a lot of time introducing the release traps just like I do guns. I stake the pup out each time. I take a bag of birds and a release trap and get right in front of him. I let a pigeon flop about 4 or 5 feet in front of the pup and when he’s really trying to get the pigeon I let it fly away.
The release trap is about 15 feet away. After I let 3 or 4 birds fly from my hand I let the pup see me load a pigeon in the release trap. I get close to the release trap and tease the puppy with a bird from my hand. When I release this bird I release the bird from the trap. If there is no reaction other than a puppy trying to get the bird I move the release trap closer. It is never any closer than 5 feet or so from the puppy. If he’s still charged up about the birds the traps will be no problem. It’s a lot easier to make sure than it is to cure trap shy or gun shy.
Gus on another pigeon.
This morning I staked Gus out while I hid 4 pigeons in the cover on the training grounds. When I take him off the stake out he has to stand still or sit down. If he’s jumping or pulling on the stake I just stand out of his reach and wait. From the stake out it’s about a hundred yards to the bird field.
I have to put a leash on him or he will beat me to the birds. I want to see him when he smells the pigeon. If he points I watch him and if he moves anything, I flush the bird. If he points with a raised foot and puts it down, I flush the bird. If he gets too close to the bird I flush it. I try to make the pigeons act like a wild bird. Plus I want him to realize any movement on his part and the bird is gone.
The puppy I’m keeping.
I walk them both through the bird field twice a day, usually. Sometimes there is birds and sometimes there isn’t. Probably, there are birds hidden for them one out every 4 times through the field. It doesn’t take the pups very long to figure me out. I start putting 2 birds on my side and 2 birds on the neighbor’s side. In 3 or 4 weeks these pups figure that out so I have to change things. One morning I’ll put all of the birds on the neighbor’s side but start to the back on my side. The next morning maybe the opposite. Or one bird on the neighbor’s side and 3 on my side.
With 2 birds on each side the pups go from place to place where I have hidden birds before. And they aren’t really hunting. Delmar Smith called it doing milk runs. Stopping at all of the known places. Mixing it up stops this. The more the pup trusts his nose the faster they run.
Bodie on point.
I still work Gus on retrieving. This morning and evening when we got back to the shed I put a check cord on his collar and threw a paint roller cover 2 or 3 times. A few times I’ve thrown it 4 times but that is the limit. It’s according to how hot it is. After the retrieving I throw some dog food in the grass and I sit in a chair while he cleans it up. He’s been on Puppy Chow and this is adult food. He cleans the area really well.
By the time he’s found 4 birds, retrieved a paint roller cover and found 30 pieces of dog food he’s been rewarded a lot of times for using his nose. And we do everything but the birds twice a day.
Gracie is ready to start the release traps. This morning I staked her out and rode the 4-wheeler to the back and put 4 pigeons to sleep in the tall grass strips, I have left, on the training grounds. When I came back for her she didn’t try to jump or rear up on me. She just wanted free. I released her and we went to the back.
Boss honoring Sally.
When I put the birds to sleep in the tall grass it’s hard to know how long or if they will stay. This morning all 4 were still there although 3 of them were no longer asleep. They were standing in the grass. Gracie found the first one and woke it up. Gracie only chased a short distance. The second bird was awake and before she even knew it was close, the pigeon flew. Gracie stopped and watched it fly away.
The third bird was awake and Gracie pointed it, with almost no style. She just stopped with her tail down but her head was high. That’s not a big deal at her age. She runs with a good high cracking tail. But that tells me she’s ready to start with the release traps. In the morning I will get her used to the noise of the release traps.
She smelled the last bird and moved toward it and it flew away. She’s not fast enough to chase very far but she does her best. I haven’t started her on the paint roller cover yet but she does get to find a bunch of adult dog food in the grass. Both of these puppies get rewarded for using their nose.
Boss pointing a single, with Abby in the center with Bodie closest to the camera, honoring
Without any pressure these pups are learning a lot. From being staked out they are learning to give to the lead and that jumping around doesn’t get them released from the stake. They are learning to go with me and stay to the front. They are learning to use their nose. They know to come to me and I use kennel when they go back into their pen.
I really enjoy watching the puppies learn. Gracie’s litter, everyone thought they could walk through air. The first time they got on my front porch they all walked off and the first thing to hit the ground was their chin. But they had to learn that and everything else. And I get to watch them. Priceless.