Working with the older dogs is, mostly, just doing the same things over and over. I have them each retrieve a few times then let them run as I ride the 4-wheeler behind them. This gets them in a little better shape. As hot as it still is I can’t run them long but it’s better than nothing. Abby is a different story. She loves to retrieve a tennis ball but will not pick up a dummy. So I work her on the retrieving bench with several retrieving dummies.
Sally retrieving.
Mann retrieving.
Bodie pointing last quail season.
When I take Abby out to retrieve I throw a tennis ball for her 3 times. She races out to get the tennis ball and rushes right back. I give her a piece of hot dog each time she brings it back to me then I heel her to the retrieving bench. She jumps onto the bench and I give her a piece of hotdog. I pet her for several seconds and sometimes give her another piece of hotdog. Then I whoa her and spread 6 different dummies out on the bench.
I pet her some more then say, “fetch” and walk down the bench. Abby slowly turns and starts slowly moving down the bench. Usually, two of the dummies are dowels with legs to hold them off the bench. She likes these better than the others but must learn to retrieve whatever she is sent after. After I tell her to fetch I hold the button on the transmitter down until she picks up a dummy. If she doesn’t get the dummy before the transmitter shuts off after 8 seconds I raise the level one setting.
As soon as she takes a dummy in her mouth I let off the transmitter. Usually, once she picks the dummy up she will bring it to me at the end of the bench. When I take the dummy I give her a piece of hotdog. This morning I added a Dokken dove dummy to the mix. No matter where I place it on the bench it was the last one to be picked up. Also, most of the time she would stand over it until I moved the transmitter button to level 4. Finally, she would pick it up.
There was a little break through today. The third time through the dummies Abby picked up 4 of the dummies without me having to apply any correction with the e-collar. She wasn’t really rushing to them. Still just barely moving down the bench but for me it felt good for her to get them with no correction.
Gus pointing a pigeon.
When we finish with the dummies on the bench I set her on the ground and say, “whoa”. This morning, when I threw a tennis ball and said, “fetch” she raced out and was almost to the tennis ball when I said, “fetch’. She grabbed the ball but laid down and drug her belly on the ground for a ways. I knelt down, held my hand out with a chunk of hotdog and called her to me. She quit dragging her stomach on the ground and rushed to me. I threw it again and she raced to it and quickly brought it right back. Hopefully, she will start retrieving whatever I send her after, soon. We will keep working on it.
Years ago I had an English setter male named Scamp. (Named by my kids.) Scamp was a good bird dog. Back in those days we just took the dogs hunting and there were enough birds that they learned to be bird dogs. The wild birds taught them to hold on their birds. It never occurred to me to train my dogs to kennel. When it came time to load the dogs in the box to change places or go home I would force them into the box.
Dennis Garrison and I were hunting Jackson County Kansas and either got a limit and were going home fairly early or were changing spots. But whichever, I called Scamp and he went the other way. I followed him and he pointed down a hedge row but I had already put my gun in the truck. When I got to him I flushed his bird then grabbed his chain collar and started to the truck. He twisted around when I got close to the truck and pinched my hand in the chain collar. I wasn’t happy with having to run him down and twisting my hand in the collar made it worse.
Bodie
Dennis was standing by the dog box when I got to the truck. Being aggravated with Scamp I picked him up by the collar with my other hand under his body and had him moving really fast toward the open door to his box. Just before he got to the box Dennis closed the door. Scamp hit that door really hard. Dennis was shocked. He looked at me and said, “I don’t know why I closed that door.” I don’t either but the rest of the year Scamp would try to beat Dennis to the dog box to load up.
Another time hunting in a different part of Kansas we were going through a water way between corn fields. The farmer had mowed the waterway and his brush hog must have been dull. All of the saplings looked like it had bent them over then cut them off. The ends left looked like they had been sharpened. I was worried about the dogs hitting one of these just right and being stabbed. About the time I was thinking about this Scamp came bounding down the hill and jumped a small ditch. And I didn’t see him move.
I thought, “Oh no. He’s landed on one of those saplings and it stabbed him.” I wanted to help him if he wasn’t really bad but I didn’t want to see it if it was really bad. He was 50 or so yards away and I started to him. I got close and saw him crouched down as he landed but he was on point. When I walked in a rooster pheasant flushed. A much better end than I was expecting.
Abby on point.
I had a nice stylish male by the name of Rusty and a friend of a friend had a female that was the daughter of Bozeann’s Mosely. He wanted pups from the female and brought his female over and left it for about a week. This was during the quail season and I was hunting Rusty about every day. Each day I would think that he was too tired to breed that little female but by the time I got in the house and looked out they were hung up.
If I remember correctly that female raised 13 pups and I had the pick of the litter. All of the setters I had up to this time had been white and orange. My son-in-law thought I should get a tri-color. When it came time to make my pick there were plenty to choose from. I got a little tri-colored female and called her Susy.
When the season opened the next year Susy was about 10 or 11 months old and I had run her a few times but only remember getting her into one covey and when she chased that time I shot a 20 gauge while she was chasing. But that was when there were plenty of birds and I knew with her breeding she should make a bird dog.
Boss on point with Abby backing.
Opening morning I turned her loose in north Missouri and she hit the ground running. She could fly. As she came by a small plum thicket she hit the scent of a covey of birds and locked up. I saw a big covey of quail in the air before I could get into gun range. I had been watching her and had not seen her move but she may have. She ran into the plum thicket and was really excited. She ran back and forth. There must have been a lot of scent. I tried to call her away to chase the singles.
She wasn’t leaving the plum thicket. She pointed a time or two then started digging. She must have thought that with that much smell they had to be more under ground. I walked away calling her a couple of times before I got her to quit looking in that plum thicket. Susy turned out to be one of the best bird dogs I’ve had. I only had her until she was about 6 years old.
I was hunting her near Atchison Kansas and there was a bunch hunting about half a mile away. They were doing a lot of shooting and I think she went to them. I lost her about noon and drove all of the roads around looking and listening. She had a beeper collar on. I checked with some farmers that were feeding cattle, some men cutting wood and every house I came by. I drove around until dark without finding her. I left a jacket where I had turned her out.
Mann pointing Abby honoring.
The next day I had to work at the fire department but my son-in-law went up and looked for her. The next day I was back and checked with everyone I could see out doing anything. No one had seen or heard her. I drove and looked until dark. I called a radio station and ran an ad on her. I called all of the veterinary hospitals and offices in the area and left my name. I ran ads in the news paper.
I never heard a thing. The next day I hunted the same property that I had lost her on. I believe, that she went to those guys that were hunting close to me because they were doing a lot of shooting. I think they saw she would point, back and retrieve so when they left they took her with them.
That’s been 25 or more years ago and when I drive by that farm I still look for her. My mind knows she can’t possibly be alive but that doesn’t keep me from looking. After just a few days I was wishing someone would call and say they had my dog and were treating her good. She had my phone numbers on her collar.
Boss pointing a single.
Bodie and Gus have been in Nebraska and South Dakota for a couple of months and I should be getting them back soon. I’m looking forward to that. Gus needs his yard work and probably Bodie should have a tune up on his. I’ll have something to keep me busy until bird season starts.