Traveling Pointing Dogs

Tur Bo

Blaze

Gailen Cooper asked me to run our young dogs together. He had to take a guy to a friend’s farm, in Kansas, to give a bid on walnut logs and while the guy was checking the walnut trees we would run dogs. This farm is a working farm, of about 400 acres, that has a lot of cover for deer, turkeys and quail.

The neat part of running dogs here, Gailen’s friend lets us use his utility vehicle. We put Sport Dog e-collars and Garmin Astro GPS collars on Tur Bo and his litter mate, Jack, that Gailen owns. We turned them loose on a gravel farm road. I walked a short distance with the dogs while Gailen brought the utility vehicle around. After the dogs figured out that we were in the utility vehicle they ran well.

There is a creek that runs through the farm for about a mile and it has good cover with the buffer strips down the side. The dogs ran the edges and occasionally went into the brush. When we got to the road, on the south, we gathered the dogs up and roaded them across a bridge then back into the cover along the creek. Both dogs started down an edge of a soy bean field and were about 400 yards ahead of us. We decided to go back to the south west corner so we called them back.

When we got back near the road we took the dogs to the west edge of the farm. Last year we had found covey of quail near the south west corner. The dogs checked the cover then went down a fence row along a soy bean field. As we crossed into some timber at the end of the soy bean field Jack went on point. We drove the utility vehicle up behind Jack and when Tur Bo came up he didn’t back. I have seen this before when you ride horses up beside a dog and another dog comes by it’s like the dog thinks everyone is just standing around. I whoaed Tur Bo.

We walked in front of Jack and nothing flushed. The dogs trailed a little while then went on. We hunted around a couple of small corn fields then back to the truck. Both dogs hunted hard but didn’t find any quail.

I put the collars on Blaze and Gailen had a young pointer male named Pal. Blaze and Pal were really running the edges and hunting in front. Just before we got to the road Blaze went into the cover on the edge of the creek with Pal crossing the corn field and hitting a fence row. Gailen stopped the utility vehicle in the corn field waiting on both dogs to come in. As we sat waiting a large covey of quail flushed, from some cover along the edge of the road and flew across the road. Blaze came in front and got excited by the quail smell on the ground in the corn field. As she went through some tall grass by the road she went on point. Before I could get to her a quail flushed from right in front of her and flew across the road. She hadn’t moved.

Blaze crossed the road and by that time I was walking in the roadway. I saw her go on point about 25 yards inside the brush and trees. The creek that crossed the farm we were hunting continued on the other side with a large area of brush on both sides of the creek. All of the quail had flown into this area. As I started to her Pal came in front of her and smelled the quail. Pal isn’t a year old and this was probably the first time he had ever seen a dog on point. As Pal pointed the quail flushed, staying real low but crossing the creek.

We continued through the brush toward where the main body of the covey had flown and Blaze pointed again. She was standing on a hump just before the ground dropped into the creek. Pal came across in front of me and saw Blaze and honored. I started toward Blaze and the quail flushed. When that quail flushed about 5 or 6 more flushed from near the creek and all of them flew across the creek.

We got both dogs back onto the property we were supposed to be on and took them to the south west corner then started north. We were about where Jack had pointed earlier when I checked the Garmin GPS and it showed Blaze on point. We started walking back to her and about 8 quail flew into the cover right beside us. Blaze was still on point and I started on to her when she started moving. She acted like she thought the quail had ran away because she just started trailing. She came in front of us and went on point. I started through the brush to her and a quail flushed in front of her. When that quail flushed it flew through the brush and out the other side with another 5 or 6 quail joining it. Blaze pointed one more time but when I got close to her went to trailing then went on.

We circled a couple more fields with out finding any more quail and hunted back to the truck. It was getting late so we loaded dogs and came home.

Gailen’s friend said he thought there were 4 or 5 coveys on this farm. Young dogs don’t know how to follow up when they get just a little scent. When Jack pointed he probably had the covey that Blaze pointed but they ran a little way and he didn’t have the experience to follow them. If Gailen and I hadn’t been riding we might have spent more time in that area and walked the Jack or Tur Bo into those birds.

It was a fun day. Running dogs from a utility vehicle allows the dog to reach out. After they figure out that they don’t need to come back to check on you they really start running. Gailen only drove a little faster than walking speed but when a dog turned to come back to check on us we were right there. We are talking about running dogs on this farm again next week. If we can it will be good for the dogs and their owners.

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National Grasslands

Tur Bo in front Dolly in back

Oklahoma National Grassland quail

Yesterday the weather was pretty nice but I didn’t work dogs. I went to a good friend and quail hunting buddy, Paul Haass, funeral. Today the high is supposed to be 18 degrees and with the exception of one day the next 7 days are supposed to be similar. Not fit for man or dog but I think about dogs and hunting most days. These are some of the things I think about.

I watch bird hunting shows on television. The dogs go on point, several hunters walk in and they are all saying, “whoa, whoa, whoa.” Usually, the dog isn’t moving. Every time some one says something to the dog it breaks his concentration. A fellow brought a young dog over to my place to work it on my pigeons and when it pointed it was really rigid. The fellow would walk in and as he went in front of the dog he would say, “whoa”. The dog would wag it’s tail then get rigid again. The fellow would say, “whoa” and the dog would wag, then get rigid.

I asked him why he was saying whoa and he said he didn’t want his dog to move. I told him the dog was wagging every time he said whoa. I talked him into trying it without saying anything and the dog didn’t wag but the big thing is, it didn’t move either. I would bet that the next time the dog pointed, after it left my place, he said whoa several times when he walked in. Sometimes habits are hard to break.

I guide at Bird Fever in Richmond, Missouri occasionally. I have both dogs I’m using that day on leashes. When we get to the field we are going to hunt I whoa the dogs, take the leashes off, give my safety talk, have the hunters load their guns then release the dogs with an okay. The dogs usually wait for the okay. Rarely I have to say whoa more than once. Not often, but sometimes I have hunters that want to say whoa to my dogs as they walk in. I let them get by with it the first time, hoping they will notice that I don’t say anything as we walk in. If they do it again I explain to them that I don’t talk to my dogs when they are on point. Some of the people are surprised that I don’t say anything but my dogs sometimes point 400 yards ahead of me. If I had to whoa them, how loud would I have to shout, so they would hear me.

If the dog points then moves and you say whoa, then the dog moves again and you say whoa, the dog doesn’t know whoa. Occasionally one of my dogs will point then start to move. At that time I will say whoa, one time. If it moves again, it’s disobeying a command. At that time the dog is picked up and put back no matter if the bird flushes or not. I say whoa when I put him on the ground then make him stand for a while. If the next time he moves again, I shake him as I’m putting him back. I may shake him 2 or 3 times but I only say whoa 1 time when I put him back on the ground. Yelling whoa a bunch of times when you are close to the dog will make them cower. You can shake them several times but it won’t make them cower. If they do it again, I put them up and redo the yard work. This is the way I train my dogs, if you have a different method and it works for you stick with it.

I’m babysitting a friends dog. She, my friend, not the dog, had back surgery so I have her rescue dog in my kennel. It’s a little brown mongrel that she bought at the pound. Around my kennels, I have a big pen I turn my dogs into each day as I clean kennels. About a week into my babysitting job I turned all of the dogs into the big pen and Maggie got out. She didn’t try to go anywhere but she wouldn’t come to me. All of my leashes were in my truck so I came to the house to get one. She came with me but stayed out of reach. I got the leash and started back to the kennel. She went just ahead of me and went right into the big pen. I shut the gate on the big pen and went into her kennel, leaving the gate open. I always get her to jump on the house and pet her for a while so I sat on the corner of her house and called her. She came into her kennel and jumped onto the house. I petted her.

For about 4 or 5 days I would turn all of the rest of the dogs out but not her. Today, I turned her out with the rest of the dogs and she didn’t even try to get out. Is she cured of getting out? I don’t know. I will only have her for a few more days but I will continue to let her out unless she escapes again.

Nothing makes you think about the past more than going to a friends funeral. I got to thinking about a dog a good friend of mine, Dennis Garrison, had a lot of years ago. Dennis had a nice little female that he had a litter of pups out of. He kept one and I got one, also. My pup came on pretty fast but Dennis had several dogs so he didn’t hunt his pup that he called Spot-tail. The first time he took him was a really cold day with a strong wind. We got into some quail and after the shooting looked for Spot-tail. He was no where around. When we got back to the truck he was in his box. We figured he was gun shy.

Dennis left him home for quite a while but he loved to point a quail wing. He pointed with a high head and tail. Really a classy dog. Dennis decided to try him again and this time it was a nicer day. Spot-tail hunted all day and the gun didn’t bother him at all. We decided he was a fair weather hunter.

Spot-tail made a real good bird dog but when he pointed he would just stop. When Dennis would get home Spot-tail would go to where he had a quail wing on a rod and point with a lot of style. Sometime when we were hunting Dennis would indicate Spot-tail and say, “is that dog on point.” I’d say, “hell, I don’t know. He’s your dog.” We had a lot of fun hunting Spot-tail.

With the weather like it is this month thinking about dogs and hunting may be all I get done. There are some ads interspersed in these posts. If you see anything that interests you, please, click on them. I make a few cents each time someone clicks an ad. A few more clicks might keep me on the road reporting on more public hunting this fall.