Traveling Pointing Dogs

On June 7, 2013  Dolly gave birth to 2 females and 2 male puppies.  Bo’s litters are usually larger but we may have bred Dolly a few days too early.  Her heat cycles are hard to time.  The litter before this one, if I counted back from their birth day and they were conceived on the 18th day of her cycle.

From the day they were born everyone that came over had to pet the puppies.  I have 4 grandsons and they were glad to oblige.

When the pups were three days old I took them to the vet, Dr. Becker, to have them checked and their dew claws removed.

At three weeks of age I start  feeding the pups with a milk replacer that I mix consisting of;

• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 can water
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon Karo syrup or honey

Before the milk is placed in the whelping box  I start a cd of gun shots interspersed in music made by Masters Voice as a gun conditioning audio.  The pups hear this cd twice a day for up to 7 weeks, according to how long the buyers leave the pups.

At about five weeks I hold a pigeon and let the pups try to get it from my hand.  Then I turn it loose and let them chase it.

After they  get used to the pigeons I start putting a pigeon to sleep, by tucking its head under a wing and straightening its legs out, hide it under grass and let the pups find it, jump in and wake it up.  When the pups get too rough on the pigeons I put the birds in DT release traps and hide them in weeds.  When the pups show they are smelling the birds I release the birds.  Soon they start pointing.

Robin Barrows got pick of the litter, chose a female and named her Emma.  He took her home at 10 weeks after coming over almost every day to pet all of pups to help socialize them.

Occasionally we broke dog biscuits, dropped them in the grass so the pups had to use their nose to find them.

Now at 12 weeks old all four pups are pointing pigeons that are in release traps hidden on my training grounds.  These pups will hunt this fall.

 

Puppies at play

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In 1970 a little white and orange setter by the name of Johnny Crocket won the All Age National Field Trial at the Ames plantation. Forty three years passed before another English setter won. Shadow Oak Bo, handled by Robin Gates won after running a near perfect three hour heat.

All life-long setter people rejoiced. Well some of us did.

When my tri-colored setter female, Dolly, came in heat I called Robin Gates to confirm the date to have her there. When I told my wife what day I would be leaving she said, “That’s the day we have about 20 people coming over. You have to be here.”

A friend of mine, Robin Barrows, was wanting a pup out of Shadow Oak Bo and Dolly. He had hunted with Dolly and knew she was a good bird dog. When he heard I could not go on the day I needed to, he offered to take Dolly to Georgia. That was no small thing. Google said it was 2000 miles round trip.

I decided to have my vet, Dr. Becker, run a test to see if Dolly would be ready on the day I had planned. When the test came back Dr. Becker said we should wait another three days. With the change in dates I could take her.

Robin volunteered to go with me so early on Monday morning we loaded Dolly in the dog box and started east. We drove all day with stops to air Dolly out every two hours or so. We got a room south of Atlanta late that night.

After a quick breakfast the next morning we were back on the road. We arrived at Robin Gates home about 9:00 am. His kennel was close and along with Shadow Oak Bo there were several other all-age champions.

Robin had a front end loader working around his place and he really needed to be working, but he took the time to show us around, tell us about some of the other dogs, and get Dolly and Bo together.

There was some empty kennels there so we were able to leave Dolly in one until the next day. Robin Barrows and I eat a lot more craw fish that evening for dinner than I had ever seen at one time.

We got to Gates kennel about 5:00 am the next morning. Robin Gates was going turkey hunting so we got Bo and Dolly together again, shook hands with Robin and wished him good luck hunting.

With the early start and the time difference we were able to drive all the way home that day even with all the traffic we hit in Atlanta and St. Louis.

On June 7, 2013 two females and two males were born. Most of Bo’s litters are bigger than this, so I think we possibly bred Dolly a day or two to early.

Then the fun starts. I really enjoy having pups around.

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