Traveling Pointing Dogs

With Boss being in South Dakota and Abby feeding and caring for a litter of puppies, I don’t have anyone to train. The last few mornings have been cool but it is starting to get hot again. Summer isn’t over.

If Abby slows down they nail her.

The 6 quail from a Kansas quail hunt and the W.R. Pape.

Boss pointing a pigeon.

The puppies are 5 weeks old and growing like weeds. I have been putting a lock wing pigeon in the grass for them to play with. Most of them really like the pigeons. They try to drag them around. Soon they will be too aggressive for the pigeons and I’ll let them chase as I let a bird fly away.

When I let the puppies loose near the kennel I put some dog food in the grass. I think this teaches them to use their nose. As they run past the area I see them get a sniff of dog food and stop. The head will go down and they try to find the enticing smell. The other pups see them and come to help. Pretty soon there are several puppies finding food in the grass.

When people come by to see the puppies and I turn them loose the people usually want the puppies to stay near them. As the puppies investigate other areas the people bring them back. I understand this. They have come to play with the puppies. When I’m alone with the loose puppies I let them go where they want.

As I sit in a lawn chair, I may have a bunch of puppies around me, finding dog food in the grass or maybe none. The puppies world has been made up of a 4 feet by 4 feet box and now a 6 feet by 12 feet kennel. They need to get out and investigate their new world. This is how they learn. When they get tired I find them back in their kennel, asleep. If they get in trouble I’m close, to save them.

It seems that the summer has been cooler and wetter in Texas and Oklahoma that it has been the last few years. It may bode well for the quail. We need a good year.

A few years ago I met my cousin, Jim Smith, at some state owned land in Oklahoma. Wow, thinking about this, it was almost 4 years ago. He had a little female, Dottie, with him that was in heat. We kept our male dogs up for the first part so she could have a good run. As soon as I saw her running, along a hillside, I told Jim if he bred her I wanted a pup. Just as I said that she slammed into a point and had tons of style. That’s where Mann came from.

We weren’t far from where we had turned out. She had a single quail. Either the birds were really running or were spread out feeding. We had several points over a large area. Sally pointed along a hillside and as we started toward her she started moving. She pointed several times before we saw a single quail flush well out in front of her. Too far for a shot.

Abby on point.

This was late in the season and on most of these state conservation areas the birds had been well educated. They don’t make it through the season by being dumb.

As we went through the area there were several points. Jim went around a small hill on one side and I went the other side. Jim’s really good male, and Mann’s dad Willie, pointed right in front of me. Jim was on the other side and the way the birds had been running I flushed the bird. Willie went for the retrieve and I knelt down so he would bring it to me. Willie didn’t know me and I wasn’t sure he would come. As he started toward me another bird flushed. I shot from a kneeling position and down went the bird. Willie was almost to me with the first bird and dropped it close to go get the other one. The only quail I’ve ever shot from a kneeling position.

We hunted until Oklahoma’s mandatory quitting time, on state grounds, of 4:30 pm. Jim went on back to the motel and I stopped at a windmill to feed and water dogs. I cleaned the quail I had, too. As I was finishing up cleaning quail an angry, dark cloud came in from the north west. I finished everything before the rain hit.

As I drove down the highway the wind started blowing me from side to side. I saw storm watchers parked along the highway. The wind was different from anything I had ever driven in before. It was from side to side. I had some magnetic signs on my truck that had withstood 80 mile an hour drives plus sometimes faster than that. When I got to the motel I stopped by the office and when I came out I saw that the sign on the passenger side was gone. When I got around to the other side the drivers side was gone also.

Sally honoring Mann.

The only thing I can think of was, I drove through a strong down draft. Those signs had been on my truck for about 5 years or more and had been through some rough winds. Driving some of the highways in Kansas at 75 plus miles per hour with a strong head wind and the signs stayed. I guess I was lucky that was all I lost.

The next day we went to another Wildlife area. We turned out on a place that had a huge patch of shinnery oaks. Just about the time I was going to tell Jim that I had just read that quail don’t use shinnery when the patch is over about 10 acres we had a dog go on point. This patch was about a quarter mile by a half mile. Maybe larger.

We had about 6 dogs out and they all backed the pointing dog. We at first thought it was Willie but when we got to him we saw he was backing Sally. When we passed Sally she started moving ahead of us and then all of the dogs were trailing. We had 5 dogs in a line side by side and then they all pointed. Luke was the only dog that backed.

When we got to the dogs that were on point a large covey of quail flushed 50 yards or more in front of the dogs. We didn’t get a shot. But we were able to watch the birds light. We followed the singles and never found a bird. Shinnery oak is good cover for quail and it allows them to run forever. If quail weren’t smart we wouldn’t have anything for our dogs to work.

Boss pointing quail.

Another time I was in this same area I had a couple of dogs out. We hit a brushy fence line along a dirt road. Both dogs would go on point then move up. We went about a half mile down the fence row. First one would point with the other backing then they would swap places. When we got to the corner of the place the dogs didn’t get any scent. I went into the sandy, dirt road and saw tracks where a covey, well spread out, had crossed the road onto private land.

Oh well, I’ve always said that a quail has a brain about the size of a pea and they outsmart me most of the time. I would rather have super smart quail than no quail. Quail may be too precious to shoot. We need something to work our dogs on.

Someone told me once that if the puppies have a really good mother they will not open their eyes at the normal 9 to 10 days. I don’t know that to be the truth but these puppies were 13 days old yesterday and they didn’t have their eyes all the way open. Maybe today. Once they have their eyes open they will move around more. They have just been sleeping and eating. Well pooping too.

Just hanging out.

An early picture when Abby was guarding the puppies.

Another picture of the puppies.

I have had a heat pad with the puppies since they were born. Even on the really warm days, with the air conditioner in the shed, the puppies use the heat pad, occasionally. They were about a 100 degrees inside their mother and they need this warmth.

A friend, Doug Myers, put a video on Facebook about the U.S. Army Super Pup program. (This may not be the right name for it.) In training their bomb sniffing dogs they determined that if they did a few things with the puppies early, day 3 through day 16, that the puppies were easier to train when they went through their training programs. So I am doing this with these puppies.

There is five steps in the program. Hold the puppy upright, with the head straight up tail down, for 5 seconds. I usually talk to them where they can smell my breathe. Then turn them with their head down and their tail up, for 5 seconds. They will twist a little in this position. Then hold them on their back with their belly up, for 5 seconds. The fourth step is to rub their foot, just one foot, for 5 seconds with a Q tip. The last thing is to lay them on something cold, for 5 seconds.

For the cold something I put an old T shirt in the freezer in a plastic bag and take it out each morning. This doesn’t take very long and if it helps it will certainly be worthwhile.

Each month June and I try to have a Sunday brunch for our kids, grandkids and great grandkids. We had one last Sunday and we had 5 kids, 10 years old and under. They wanted to pet the puppies before we ate and then again after we ate. There were several adults that came down to pet the puppies, also.

Today my friend, Robin Barrows, that has first pick of the females, came over and petted puppies. By the time he got here I had already put the puppies through the Super Puppy exercise. Later my neighbor brought a friend over and they petted puppies. Before they left I had two ladies and a little girl, wanting to maybe buy a pup, petting them.

Abby pointing a pigeon.

Until the puppies go to their forever home, there will be lots of people petting them. I have a lot of friends that bring their kids and grandkids over just to play with the puppies. In my opinion, this makes for bold, confident pups and older dogs. The dogs can’t be afraid of something they can and have climbed all over since it was a puppy. Later when we can get them outside there will be a lot of different things they will get to experience. The more experiences we can have these puppies to go through the more bold they will be.

Boss is in South Dakotas, with Mike Harryman. This is the first time I’ve sent a dog away where I can’t go visit. I really would like to go visit. I talked to Mike last week to get an update on Boss. Although, during the mid day it’s really hot, he’s able to work the dogs really early morning and late evening. He said that they were finding birds and that Boss was working well. He was pointing birds and chasing. That’s exactly what I wanted. He’s too young to make him really steady. He needs to chase enough birds that he decides he can’t catch them.

Abby pointing a chukar.

At this time, with the puppies I can’t leave. I may, when the puppies are a little older, slip away for a few days and visit Boss. I really miss him.