Traveling Pointing Dogs

I gave Tur Bo the whoa command.

Blaze on whoa.

Luke on whoa.

It dawned on me, finally, that I have taught my dogs to whoa with the e-collar on their flanks then when I go to the field I have an e-collar around their neck. If they don’t stop when I tell them to whoa I hit the transmitter on their e-collar on their neck. If birds are involved they usually chase with me telling them to whoa. By the time I get them to stop all of the quail have been flushed.

Several times this last week I put an e-collar on Luke, Tur Bo and Blaze and heeled them around my yard. Every few feet I would hit the transmitter on the e-collar and say whoa. I kept the setting on the e-collar low and waited for a second before saying whoa. It didn’t take long for each of them to stop before I said whoa. I heeled them for a ways then released them to run. When they were running away from me I would hit the transmitter then say whoa. The first few times they acted as if they didn’t hear me but I turned the e-collar to a higher setting to get their attention. After a few times they stopped when they felt the e-collar, before I could say whoa. I worked with them 3 different days.

Today I’m turkey hunting near Greensburg, Kansas on walk-in properties. To be on walk-in properties you have to be hunting. Kansas allows fall turkey hunting with dogs. This allows me to get on the walk-in properties to check for quail. And if a turkey holds for the dogs I will shoot at it. The first place was CRP next to a harvested corn field. I didn’t get here until about noon. The temperature was about 65 degrees when I turned Luke and Rocky loose. Luke had a Garmin Astro and a Sport Dog collar on. So far Rocky is young enough and stays close enough that he doesn’t need a collar.

We hunted to the west fence line then started down it to the north. Rocky and I were about 50 yards off the fence. Luke took the fence row to the north then crossed back in front of us. He was about 150 yards in front of us when a covey flushed. A covey of about a dozen birds flushed about 30 yards in front of us. It only flew about 40 yards and spread out in a small thicket. I called Luke back and sent him into the cover ahead of us.

When he got to the north side of the thicket he pointed. Rocky and I started toward him. There was a quail between us and Luke. It flushed and Luke started moving. I held the button on the transmitter down and yelled whoa. He only moved about 5 yards and I let off the button. Several more quail flushed and he didn’t move. I stroked his sides and told him what a good boy he is. I released him. I walked another quail up that got Rocky a little excited. It was really warm so we circled back to the truck. We never got much over a quarter of a mile away from the truck.

I drove to another farm. I didn’t have much water with me so I went to a farm that had a pond just a short distance from the road. I turned Tur Bo out with the GPS and e-collars on. Rocky was whining to go so I turned him out again. When we got to the pond I filled a couple of water bottles and stuck them in my hunting vest. This farm was a large pasture next to a harvested corn field. When we left the pond we went to the north until we hit the north fence line then went to the west. There were some large plum thickets that forced us to walk the fence line.

Tur Bo was ahead of us along the fence row and a covey started flushing out of the edge of a plum thicket near us. I saw one quail and heard a couple more flush. I called Tur Bo back and sent him into the thicket. He knew the quail were there but he couldn’t get them to hold. I saw where three quail lit but when we got there we couldn’t find them. They may have flown again but the warm dry weather didn’t help. Tur Bo and Rocky had used the two bottles of water I had brought from the pond so we started back. When we got back to the pond Tur Bo was content to just lie in the pond.

I found another farm that had a pond close to where I parked the truck. Blaze had only been out of the truck one time since about 6:00 am. I put the GPS and E-collar on her and told her it would be a real short hunt. Rocky was still whining to go so I turned him out, also. Neither of the dogs were interested in the water when we came by the pond. The wind was really blowing from the west. We started to the north then crossed to back close to the road. This was another pasture but there was no grain near it. The spring rains had made a lot of cover and it wasn’t grazed down.

We started back toward the truck. Blaze was about 80 yards from me when a covey that was closer to me than her flushed. First I saw one quail fly in front of me. I called Blaze and a few more flushed. She got close and the rest of the covey flushed. They flew over a small hill and I could only tell the direction that they had flown. We headed over the hill in search of the singles.

Blaze pointed at the very top of the hill but when I got close she moved on. She pointed then moved 4 or 5 times. Finally, she pointed and didn’t move. Rocky and I started to her and about 7 or 8 quail flushed. I thought that was probably the singles from the covey that had flushed eearlier. Blaze started to chase. I said whoa and held the button on the transmitter down until she stopped. She had moved about 5 or 6 yards. I took a step and 6 or 7 more quail flushed. Blaze never moved. Rocky started to Blaze and 2 or 3 more quail flushed right under his nose. He stopped and looked at me then looked at the quail then looked at me. Rocky came back to me and Blaze still didn’t move. Two more quail flushed then 3 more. There was a total of 5 flushes and after the first move Blaze was steady. I went to her, stroked her sides and told her what a good girl she is. We were close to the pond and the truck so the dogs got a drink and we went to the truck.

We had hunted less than 2 hours total, probably and moved 4 coveys of quail. It’s supposed to be in the upper forty degree range in the morning. I will see if today was just a lucky day or if the quail are back in this area.

Luke

Tur Bo

Rocky

Luke pointing a single quail.

Tur Bo pointing where a prairie chicken had flushed from.

Blaze backing Luke.

I ran dogs on the Corp of Engineers land near Truman Lake yesterday. Missouri quail season open 14 days before Kansas season and I need some new places to hunt. There are thousands of acres of hunting land near Truman lake but with the wet spring a lot of the row crops didn’t get planted. The fallow fields are filled with cockle burrs. Not a good thing for English setters or my one English Cocker Spaniel. Lucky is still dealing with a sore foot and Dolly is in heat so they stayed home.

I’m not familiar with this area so I drove around until I found something that looked like it might have some quail on it. The area I stopped at had a harvested corn field next to an area that was filled with cockle burrs. I started through the cockle burrs not realizing that they were that thick. This was Rocky’s, my English cocker spaniel, first encounter with cockle burrs. His sides were covered and he tried to bite them. He would run a short way then try to snap at the burrs. Finally, he just kept going. When we got home I had to use the scissors on all of the dogs. I turned Luke, Blaze, Tur Bo and Rocky out to hunt. I had Garmin GPS units and Sport Dog e-collars on Luke and Tur Bo. Blaze had a Garmin GPS and a D.T. e-collar. Rocky at 4 months old had no extra collars.

I started the dogs into the wind across the field with all of the cockle burrs. After Rocky started having trouble with the burrs I knew the other dogs were too so I went back to the harvested corn field. We crossed to the west then started to the north through the harvested corn field. The corn had not been very good. The stalks were short and the cobs were small. Probably planted late due to the spring rains. Rocky and I went in a zigzag pattern as the other dogs ran the edges. At the back of the corn field was another grass field but with less cockle burrs than the first field we had tried to cross. We turned east to get to another corn field that I could see at a long distance.

There was a shallow draw running into the partially harvested corn field. The dogs and I started toward the draw. Luke was about 300 yards away from me when he went on point. I started, northeast through the corn field, toward him. I got within about 50 yards of him when the covey of quail flushed. I was watching him and he didn’t move until the birds flew. The quail were in the edge of the draw when they flushed and I saw where about 6 went. The dogs and I started toward where I saw the birds fly to.

Well before I got close Luke was on point again. The grass that they had flown into was real thick and tall. I was still a few yards behind Luke when the quail flushed ahead of him about 10 yards. He wasn’t moving the quail just flushed. He went about 10 yards and pointed again. This time I remembered to take a picture. (That is the first picture in this post. You can see how thick and tall the cover is.) While I was taking the picture with Blaze backing the quail he was pointing flushed. Another quail flew by me from the rear. I don’t think any dogs were back there.

We worked the area without finding any more birds. We went to the south along another draw to the road we had driven in on and hunted along the edge back toward the truck. This put us back into the first field that had so many cockle burrs. Rocky was used to them and hunted without paying much attention to them. There were a couple of short draws that ran into the fallow field. We went up one side then down the other on each of the draws. We hunted back to the truck without finding any more quail. It was warm and dry so I loaded the dogs and drove around looking at other places to hunt, when the season gets here.

There are a lot of fields around Truman Lake that in the past have been in row crops but the rainy spring kept the farmers out of the field. A lot of these fields will have beneficial weed seeds that are good for the quail but will be too thick for young birds to run through. They will also be hard on dogs and hunters.

I only remembered to take one picture on this trip. The first one on this post. I get too wrapped up in what the dogs are doing to remember to take pictures. I’m recycling some of the older pictures I have taken.

Thank you for reading my blog and thank you to the people that click on the ads. I make a few cents off of the ads that are clicked on. An extra click or two might keep me on the road longer this year.

Lucky pointing a pigeon.

Dolly pointing a pigeon.

Lucky pointing a pigeon.

Rocky the English Cocker Spaniel.

Blaze pointing a pigeon.

Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.

In Kansas, you have to be hunting to be on the walk-in farms properties. Kansas allows turkey hunting with dogs in the fall, so that gives me an excuse to be on the properties. And if a turkey holds for the dogs I will shoot at it.

On this morning I drove out west of Atchison several miles. There are a lot of walk-in properties in this area. The farm I chose to hunt had a large CRP field with corn and soy beans running along the side of it. I turned Tur Bo, Luke and Rocky out. We started south, down the edge of the CRP. Between the CRP and the row crops was a deep draw with a creek running through it. There were several smaller draws running off the larger one.

Luke and Tur Bo crossed the CRP and checked each of the draws as we went toward the row crops. Rocky was in front of me weaving back and forth through the CRP. At 4 months old he’s not sure why we are out there but his genes are telling him to keep running. As we neared the end of the CRP Luke and Tur Bo started up the deep ditch. It was warm so I wanted to make a circle and go back to the truck. These early hunts are just to see if it looks like a good place to quail hunt.

I check the Garmin GPS often because both dogs are hard to keep track of. They both run pretty big. As I went along a fence that runs beside the ditch I checked the GPS and it showed Luke on point across the ditch and up a water way that ran into the ditch. He was about 300 yards away. Sometimes, if a dog is getting a drink the GPS will show them on point so I watched the GPS until I knew he was pointing. I had a fence and a deep ditch to cross. The fence was a barb wire fence with 5 strands. There isn’t a good way to cross but I finally got through the strands after getting my pants and vest untangled from the barbs.

Next up was the deep ditch. This has been a really wet year and the cover is really thick. I had to walk up the ditch a ways to find a place to cross. Rocky and I finally got across the ditch and started around a soy bean field toward Luke. He was pretty close if we could have crossed the soy bean field but it hadn’t been harvested yet. I was about 75 yards from him when I saw him start trailing. It had taken me too long to get to him. The birds had run off and flown. As I came up I saw a quail flush about 30 yards in front of Luke that flew into the soy bean field. It was far enough away that he never saw or heard it. The soy bean field was really big but I didn’t want the dogs running into it. The beans are ready to harvest or nearly so and dogs running through them knock them off where the farmer loses them. I took the dogs back toward the CRP. Without a dog on point I found an easier way to cross the fence and ditch. We hunted our way through the CRP back to the truck.

It was getting pretty hot but I had 3 dogs that hadn’t been out of the truck so I drove to another area on the same farm. There was a harvested corn field that was right next to a soy bean field. There was a couple of draws that ran into the corn field and the lower end of the deep ditch. I turned Lucky, Dolly and Blaze loose along with Rocky again.

The dogs ran the draws then circled around to the deep ditch. We hunted the ditch up to where I had hunted earlier then crossed to the edge of the corn field. I saw a meadow lark fly into the grass ahead of me and thought it would be good for Rocky to flush it or see it fly away. I started toward it and Blaze came in front of us and the meadow lark flew. Blaze paid no attention to it. It flew across in front of us and lit again. I started toward it and before we got to it Dolly came in front of us and the lark flew away. It was hot so we went back to the truck.

I put the dogs on the tail gate and take the collars off. I check the dogs at this time for burrs or cuts. I never noticed any problems with any of them. This was on Saturday, on Monday a friend brought a young dog over that he wanted to work on backing. We had already worked her on the pop up backing dog so we wanted to use live dogs this time. I put 3 pigeons out and we turned Dolly out. She pointed the pigeons and the young dog backed her just fine. We worked another dog on pigeons then decided to work the dog again on backing. This time I turned Lucky out. As he got close to the first pigeon he started running while holding his rear foot up. He only went about 20 yards then started using the leg again. When he pointed the pigeon I looked at his foot and there was a visible wound.

I took him to the vet and Dr. Becker, from Independence Animal Hospital, ran some forceps into the wound and pulled out a piece of wood about 3/8 of an inch wide and an inch and a quarter long. That one time was the only time that I saw him carry that foot. Dr. Becker gave him a shot and some medicine. It’s already starting to heal. It’s amazing how tough these dogs are.

Close up of Luke pointing a pigeon.

Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.

Luke