Traveling Pointing Dogs

I always feel sorry, now, for the quail I shoot on the last day of the season. If they had lived one more day they may have raised a covey in the spring. Most of the time I don’t go on the last day but this year I did. It’s been a really bad year for me and Don Hansen and I haven’t hunted together much this year. I enjoy hunting with Don and Linda.

Sally pointing quail.

A shot of Mann pointing quail.

Sally pointing quail.

Some years I’m ready for the end of the season but not this year. For me, the bird numbers have been bad but I have been blessed with two really good dogs, Mann and Sally. Neither is very old. Mann won’t be two until April and Sally will be four in June. Also, I have two puppies that I just started with yard work. Abby is eight months old and Josie is a little over six months. I haven’t hunted the puppies much because of the low bird numbers. I don’t want them to think we are just out for a walk.

But back to the last day of the season. I met Don and Linda near Emporia about 9:30 am. We drove around the walk-in place we were to hunt to make sure no one was already hunting it. We had it to our selves.

Don had his two pointers, Goofy and Tigger with him and I had brought Sally and Mann. Don has the Garmin Alpha collars and I use the Garmin Pro 550 and the Astro. We had a light wind, for Kansas, from the west and took the dogs into the wind. When we got to the road on the west we turned north.

As we went along the GPS handheld vibrated and showed Mann on point to the west. We started to him and when I got close to the road I could see he was across the road, off the walk-in. Don was coming my way so I leaned my 16 gauge against a telephone pole and crossed the road. Before I got close to him the GPS showed Sally honoring.

I saw Mann standing in a small creek looking into a plum thicket with Sally ten yards away honoring. When I went in front of him I heard a covey flush out the other side of the plum thicket. I called Mann and Sally and started back to the walk-in property.

When I got to the road, Don and his dogs were still about a hundred yards away. He didn’t want to get his dogs near the road. Good thinking. As I picked up my gun the GPS handheld vibrated. Mann was on point just a little way from where he had been. This time I hid the shotgun in the tall CRP and went back.

As I went back across the road, the handheld vibrated again, to tell me that Sally had honored. Mann was standing in some CRP pointing into a fence row with Sally several yards back honoring. The side of the fence I was on had been grazed down quite a bit and a single quail flushed along the fence row. It had run down the fence a ways and out in the pasture. I wasn’t close when it flushed.

Abby’s, my puppy, second point on wild birds.

This time I stayed on both dogs to get them back where we belonged. As we hunted on through some CRP the GPS showed Mann to the east running a hedge row. He followed the hedge row to the south which was the way we were going. The GPS handheld vibrated. Mann was on point 500 yards to the south east. We started to him.

As we went to him the GPS showed him moving then he went back on point. I think he had originally pointed in the hedge row and the birds ran into the CRP. When we got to him he was hard to see, standing in the waist high CRP, looking into the west wind. Don and I were in the CRP and when we got almost to him he started trailing farther into the CRP.

Mann raised his head and started going back and forth through the CRP. The GPS handheld vibrated showing Sally on point about a 125 yards to the south. We started toward her. As we were going toward her Don said that Tigger was on point about 45 yards in front of us. With Goofy honoring about 3 quail flushed from in front of Tigger. At first I thought that Tigger may have been honoring Sally but she was farther away.

We continued to Sally. When we walked in front of her she started trailing into the CRP. All 4 dogs were in front trailing when Mann went on point. I saw him point but he and Sally look so much alike, I thought it was her, until I got to him. When we walked in a single quail flushed and dropped when I shot.

Mann pointing quail.

Sally pointed just a few seconds later. When we walked in front of her another single flushed. It didn’t get very far. Don made a good shot and the quail dropped. Just as we thought it was down it came back up and flew about 50 yards and dropped like a rock. Sally and Goofy followed almost to where it dropped but came back.

We got the dogs in and as we were looking for the dead bird I told Linda and Don I didn’t want to shoot anymore of these birds, just work the dogs on them. And I meant that. As we searched for the bird we knew was down Sally pointed. She was not exactly where we thought the dead bird was but she was close. I walked over to her and saw a little hen quail sitting there. I flushed it and when it got up, flying just fine, I shot it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe all the years of hunting had trained me to just shoot. Sally retrieved the bird.

I felt bad about that. What do you tell the people you are hunting with, after you just told them you weren’t going to shoot, then you do. Tigger had been just a little to my left but the quail was higher than the CRP which put her out of line but I knew I only had a small window to shoot. If the bird went left it was a no shot. Maybe, that was it. I don’t know.

Josie honoring Mann. This is her first honor.

As I tried to explain the unexplainable, we still hadn’t found Don’s bird. I walked near where we thought it had gone down and saw it on the ground. I handed it to Don. Then Don did what I should have done to start with. He opened the side by side he was hunting with. I not only opened mine I took the bullets out. I’m not to be trusted.

I wasn’t watching but Tigger pointed a bird that flushed in front of her. We worked the area but as we went through it the GPS vibrated and Mann was on point, on the other side of a small draw that ran into the CRP. We started to him.

Just after we crossed the draw but before we could see Mann a single quail was in the air. Then the GPS showed him moving. He trailed through the CRP and all of the dogs were birdy in that area. A year or so ago we had seen a covey fly into this area of the CRP and had never found a single bird from it. The one we had seen in the air was the only one we saw.

All of these birds had been within 150 yards or so of where Mann had pointed along the hedge row. They may have been from that covey or not. I don’t know.

We hunted back to the truck without seeing any more quail. We both thought this was a good way to end the season. We had found some quail, shot a few, got some dog work and in our books that is a good day.

Sally on point 144 yards off the walk-in. I set the camera on the fence corner post.

I don’t know why I shot that last quail but I should tell about another time I did something similar. My nephew, Jeff Woodruff, came to Missouri to hunt with me one year. He had never shot a pheasant and at that time we had quite a few in Missouri. I thought I could get him a shot.

We hunted in north central Missouri. We turned the dogs out and as we came through an old cow lot, not far from the truck, the dogs pointed into an overgrown patch of weeds. I told Jeff to get close that it was probably a pheasant. When a single rooster flushed I killed it. I don’t know why. I tried to explain to my nephew but there wasn’t much to say.

Later we did have another point where I thought would be a pheasant so I let him go in alone as I turned my back. He was able to shoot a rooster and I think he had it mounted. But if Don doesn’t hunt with me next year I will know it’s because I can’t be trusted.

I woke up early, to go to Kansas quail hunting, on the next to the last day of the season. I went out north west of Topeka to an area I had been to one time this season. I was supposed to go to the south central area but a huge snow storm hit down there and I wanted to get out of the snow. I have had snow on the ground for a long time. I’m tired of the snow.

Mann pointing a covey of quail.

That’s Mann in a plum thicket pointing quail.

Another shot of Mann pointing quail.

I had only taken Sally and Mann with me. I put the GPS collars and e-collars on both of them and turned them loose. The other time I had hunted this place I had only seen one quail but last year I found 3 coveys. I didn’t get to this place until the afternoon the last time so someone may have been here before me. Today I drove around it and no one was hunting here.

We went to the north along the east fence row. The wind was from the south east but not very strong. There were a couple of draws that ran from the fence row down to a large draw that split the property. As I got near the end of the fence row Mann was off the property to the north and went on point. By the time I got to the end of the property he was moving. When I saw him next he was wound up. I think a pheasant or some quail flushed in front of him.

If I remember right Mann made his first point, on wild quail, here, last year. I killed a couple of singles that he pointed at the north end of the big draw. Today I sent both dogs to the west along the north fence line. I called them back when they were about 300 yards to the west and started down the big draw.

This walk-in property was a huge corn field. There was some old snow still on the ground and recently there was a light dusting on top. There were thousands of bird tracks in this skiff of snow but I never saw one quail track or one pheasant track.

Both Sally and Mann will come back when I tone them with their e-collars. When we got close to the end of the big draw Mann went across the road. I toned him and started for the truck. He didn’t even pay any attention to the tone. As I started to the truck the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Mann on point across the road about 500 yards away. I was close to the truck so I loaded Sally in her box and drove closer to Mann.

He was over 400 yards away when I found a good place to park. I left my gun in the truck and took off my hunting vest. I did keep my blaze orange hat on but I might have to pay a fine for trespassing but not for hunting and trespassing. I started to him.

When I got within about 125 yards of him I saw him standing in a little clearing pointing into a plum thicket. As I got closer I started taking pictures. When I got near him he slowly turned his head to look at me then moved up about 10 yards and went back on point. He was inside the plum thicket. I started past him and the quail started flushing out the other side. It was a small covey but some of them may have run out before I got there. Mann was probably on point about 20 minutes.

Sally pointing quail.

I called him and started back to the truck. He followed the quail. I toned him and hit him with some light electricity from the e-collar. He didn’t pay any attention. I toned him again and moved the e-collar up one setting. Finally, he came around to the west of me then came in front. We made it back to the truck and I loaded him.

I drove by some other places that I had hunted the last time I was in this area. Some of the roads were too muddy to drive as the weather warmed. It seems like every cow in Kansas had been moved into this area. Most of the places I had found birds or hunted because they looked good were either full of cows or grazed down.

I, finally, found an area that was pasture next to some row crops. The pasture had been grazed but not totally cleaned off. The wind was getting a little stronger and we went into the south east wind. Sally was still heeding the tone when I wanted her to come in but Mann seemed to come when he wanted. This really isn’t like him. He hates electricity. Usually, a light correction and he comes right in.

As we went around this pasture next to the row crops I saw a neat, to me anyway, area. It was a large cedar grove that covered several acres. The cedar trees were close together and either the deer or cows had trimmed them. Most of the time I could walk with out bending over. The sun couldn’t hit the ground so it was completely covered with ice. I could see a long way because the limbs were off about head high.

Sally pointing quail.

When we got back close to the truck I loaded the dogs. It started snowing really hard as I looked for another place. I have been snowed in, in Kansas before. As I drove it snowed so hard I could hardly see the road. It was only about 2:30 pm but I started home.

I hadn’t taken the e-collars and GPS collars off the dogs, so when I got home I took them off. When Mann came out of his box and I started to take his e-collar off, it was gone. No wonder he didn’t pay any attention to the tone. The e-collar he had on didn’t have a double buckle and I must have missed the small keeper that holds the collar. I think, from the way he acted he lost that e-collar at the first place we hunted. Maybe I will find it next year.

I don’t like to hunt the last day of the season. I always feel sorry for any birds I shoot. If I hadn’t hunted that day and shot them they may have produced a covey or more of quail. If they had only lived one more day. But Don and Linda Hansen and I are going on the last day. I will report on that in a day or two.

This, to put it mildly, hasn’t been a good year but I’m not ready for it to end. In Kansas the season lasts through the end of January. I met Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia to hunt a walk-in place that we had found some quail on earlier in the season. At home, I still had a lot of snow on the ground but when I got just a little way west, the snow was gone. I like that.

Sally pointing a covey of quail.

Mann honoring Sally’s point.

Mann pointing wild quail.

Don brought his dogs, Tigger and Goofy. Both English pointers and I had my English setters, Mann and Sally. Don and I both always run our dogs with GPS collars. A couple of years ago, when I got to an area to hunt that was a couple of hours from my house, I found that I had left the GPS handheld at home. I turned the dogs out for about 5 minutes, loaded them and went home.

One of Don’s dogs, Tigger, is recuperating from surgery so we were to hunt the south side of this walk-in and put her in the truck. The best laid plans of mice and men. We hunted to the west to the road and sent the dogs into the pasture across the road to check it out. Then we started back to the east. We hit a hedge row that ran to the north. When the dogs got to the end of the hedge row they continued, through the CRP, to the north.

As we turned to the east my GPS vibrated. Mann was on point over 400 yards to the north. As we went to him the other dogs all honored. Before we got to him, he started moving. He only moved a few yards then went back on point.

This time of year, when the birds have been pressured a lot, I wasn’t expecting them to hold long enough for us to walk through the tall CRP. When we got there, 3 dogs were backing from a small thicket and Mann was about 20 yards ahead of them, in some knee high grass, looking to the north. Don and I walked in front of him and nothing happened.

We got about 15 yards in front of him with no birds flushing so I said, “okay” and when Mann moved, the dogs started trailing. Sally came in front of us and as I watched her, she went on point. About 3 quail flushed right in front of her. Don’s bird stayed low and he couldn’t shoot, for the dogs, until it got way out and he missed. Two birds came my way and one dropped when I shot. Sally ran to it, picked it up and brought it to me. I didn’t have to move. Having a dog retrieve could grow on a guy. It’s been a few years.

Don and I were standing, watching the dogs work and a single quail flushed behind us. Don and I both shot but Don hit the bird just before I shot. When we shot a couple more birds flushed and when I shot at one my gun just went “ponk”. The shot just barely went out but the wad stayed in the barrel. This is the first time I have shot reloads in 30 years. May be the last. I found a long, straight weed and pushed the wad out of the barrel.

We got the dogs in to find the bird that we had knocked down but after 15 minutes we hadn’t found it. We found a lot of feathers but no bird. I think we both had hit the quail but they are tough. It must have run off. We decided to look for singles and come back to that spot again, later.

My Baker 5 pound 20 gauge side by side and a few quail.

Before we got to the north edge of the walk-in the GPS handheld vibrated and it showed Sally to the west, about 200 yards, on point. Before we got close the other 3 dogs were honoring. Sally was down in a small creek/hedge row in the thick brush. I was never able to see her before all of the dogs started trailing. This time we never came up with the birds.

Our plan was to put Tigger up before we hunted all of this place but now we had no choice but to go on around. All of this walk-in is thick CRP and it’s hard on the dogs and people.

We went on to the north east corner. Sally and Mann went to the north down the fence row, off the walk-in. Almost 300 yards down the fence row, Sally went on point. Mann honored her. Don and I talked for a few minutes to see if the dogs would come back. The dogs were still on point so we decided to go flush the birds. We had walked about 50 yards toward them when they started moving. We got back on the walk-in.

We started to the south along the east fence line. A couple of hundred yards down the fence line the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Sally on point a little over 200 yards to the south west. When we got close, she was in a draw running into the CRP. Don started up one side and I was on the other. When we got close she was out in the CRP a short distance so I crossed a small creek and went on the side with Don and Linda.

I left Luke home this trip but he looked good in this picture.

When I got there Sally was pointing into a small patch of blackberry vines with Mann and Goofy honoring. Later, Linda said that Sally and Mann were sitting down on point but when they heard me, they both stood up. Goofy looked really good as he honored. I tried to get pictures but the sun was in my face.

When Don and I walked in several quail flushed. Don got on one but before he could shoot it flew through a cedar tree. He shot but was too late. I had a bird fly right over me and I missed. There was a late flushing quail that flushed from down in the brush. I made a lucky shot on it.

Sally must have seen the bird fall. She didn’t get a real good mark but made a couple of passes then found it. I hadn’t moved from where I shot but when she didn’t come straight to me, I moved to the edge of the creek. I knelt down and called Sally. She dropped the quail and started to me. I said, “fetch” and she grabbed the bird and came to the edge of the creek.

Right in front of me was an old fence with two strands of barb wire. It was only a few feet long but as I knelt there trying to get her to bring me the bird I thought, “this can’t be good”. She held the quail but was on the other side of the creek that was too wide for me to jump and too deep to wade. Just as I started to get up and move away from the barb wire Sally jumped the creek. She missed the wire and gave me the bird.

We were close to the trucks, so we loaded the dogs. I don’t know how long we were out in the heavy CRP but it was more than Tigger needed but she handled it well. When Don let her out at the house, when we quit, she looked good.

Josie pointing a pigeon.

We ate our lunch on the way to another place. The last time we were hunting in this area there was a close place that we had seen a covey of quail on and we never got a shot at them. We went to find them.

This walk-in place is about 160 acres of well grazed pasture and CRP. The CRP was too thick, in my opinion, in a lot of it but some was not as thick. We went down the west fence line to the south edge turned east for a long way. We decided what we were in wasn’t good for quail so we turned back to the north.

Don had left Tigger in the truck. As we came back to the edge of the CRP close to the pasture Goofy went on point. Goofy has lots of style. Sally was on the opposite side of a small hill and couldn’t see him. I whoaed her. When we got close Goofy slowly moved up. Sally started trailing as did Goofy. Mann came close and he, too, started trailing. Something beat us. We never saw anything.

We hunted back to the truck and again, on this walk-in place, we never fired a shot. It was late in the afternoon and I have to drive across most of the Kansas City area to get to my home. I wanted to beat the rush hour traffic, so we started to the house.

For a late season hunt on walk-in properties it had been a good hunt. Don’s young dog, Goofy, hasn’t been hunted much and this had been good for him. This has been a bad year to start young dogs. Several days we have hunted without even seeing a quail. I have two puppies that I haven’t hunted much because I don’t want them to think we are just out for a walk. I have taken them a few times but usually I start the puppies their first year.

Abby out of Sally’s litter.

When Sally was about 7 months old I started hunting her. I had worked her a lot on pigeons and when she started hunting she was ready. She pointed quail her first time out and let me walk in front of her and flush the birds.

Mann was a little older when I started him. He was born in April, so he was 8 months old but he also let me walk in front and flush the birds. But for both of them I knew when we went we would probably find birds. This year hasn’t been that good.

Abby and Josie will get a lot of work on pigeons and I may take them to a game farm, a few times. Anything to get them some experience. There will be more birds next year, I hope.

I decided to go to south central Kansas, on a quail hunt. I set my alarm for 3:00 am but I woke up about 1:30 and when I didn’t go back to sleep by 2:20 I got up and started getting ready to go. The last time I loaded the puppies in the dark they pulled me all over, on the way to the truck. On this morning it was about 10 degrees so I knew the ground was frozen. I drove the truck to the kennel. I loaded all 5 dogs one at a time. Problem solved.

Mann pointing a pheasant.

Sally honoring Mann.

Josie honoring Mann. This is her first honor.

I stopped along the way to let the dogs out. I had to stop at a place where even the dogs could see that there was no chance of going hunting. The last time I was down here I lost Luke for most of the day and only got him back when a man called that he had showed up at their house. He was nine miles from where I turned him loose. The next morning he didn’t stay with me so I decided to retire him but when I take all of the dogs, I can’t leave him home.

The first place I hunted I turned Luke out along with Sally and Abby. I had GPS collars on all three but e-collars on just Sally and Luke. There was a strong wind from the south and we went south east. Luke tried to go to the west but I called him back and got him started in the right direction.

It wasn’t long until Luke was a long way from me. He was going almost straight south. I didn’t even try to call him back. He just kept on to the south. Pretty soon with me going south east the GPS showed him .87 of a mile from me. He turned to the east and pretty soon he was .8 of a mile to the east. Then he went back to the south. Sally, Abby and I had gone about a half mile south then turned straight east. In a little while I saw that Luke was back to the east, again.

Pretty soon he was only 900 yards to the east. A little later he was getting closer. We continued to the east. I was surprised to see that he was only 300 yards from me. Then I saw him coming and I called him to me. When he saw me he ran as fast as I’ve ever seen him move. He was wagging all over.

We went farther to the east and Luke stayed within a couple of hundred yards of me. We turned to the south and started back toward the truck although we were a long way from it.

As I started up a small hill with my gun in my left hand and the GPS handheld in my right it vibrated. I checked and it showed Luke on point about 160 yards from me. I got to the top of the hill and started down the other side. I could see Luke about 100 yards away. As I watched him, the covey of quail flushed. The hill on the other side had a lot of plum bushes and the quail blended in with the bushes. I had no idea where they landed.

I got all of the dogs in to hunt for some singles. They checked back for a quarter mile with no luck. We were then going to the north west. A little farther I felt the GPS vibrate just after I saw Sally go into a small plum thicket. As I checked the GPS I saw that it was Sally on point, about 20 yards from me. I only took a couple of steps before a rooster pheasant came up, laughing at me. Anyway, that’s what I always think they are doing.

This time of year if you’re not in the thick stuff you’re not finding birds.

I’m glad it cackled because without the sun it was hard to tell if it was a rooster or not. As the 16 gauge came up I went to the back trigger, to shoot the barrel with the tighter choke. The pheasant may not have been as far as I thought because even with it flying straight away from me it went right down. Sally has been retrieving quail but she ran to the pheasant and just held it to the ground. I called her but she wouldn’t move. I waded into the plum thicket and got the young rooster.

When Luke was younger he was really good about responding to the tone on his e-collar. All the way back to the truck he stayed within 200 yards or a little more. If he got farther out I toned him and he came in. If he would hunt like that I would take him out of retirement. When we got to the truck I checked my phone app and it showed that I had walked 6 miles. The last half Luke had hunted with me.

I ate lunch on the way to another place. The next place was a pasture that hadn’t been grazed too much, that ran beside a huge corn field. The corn field had been harvested but it was private. I turned Sally, Mann and Josie out. They all had GPS but only Sally and Mann had e-collars.

As I walked along I saw a lot of human tracks. I didn’t expect to be the only hunter to have walked down this field but there were a lot of tracks. We were in over half a mile when I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. It showed Mann on point about 75 yards in front of me. I was walking down a cow trail and saw a single quail flush and fly to the north, the way we were going. When I got close to Mann, Josie saw him and honored. Sally saw Josie and backed her.

Luke when he knows the bird has left.

I think the bird he was pointing was the one that had run toward me but when it saw me it flushed and flew to the north. All 3 dogs trailed for a few minutes then went back to hunting.

Maybe a hundred yards away Sally pointed. When I got close to her she was on the side of a straight up hill. The hill wasn’t real tall but where she was pointing was real steep. As I got to her a single quail flushed and flew up the hill. When I shot it dropped both legs but kept on flying. When I shot about 40 yards south of me another 6 or 8 quail flushed. I bet this was the covey that Mann had pointed but had run away from him. I looked for the quail I had hit but never found it.

We went on to the north. Not far ahead, maybe 200 yards, the GPS showed Mann on point. When I got close he was about 30 yards on the other side of a cross fence, on this place. When I hunt with someone and need to cross a fence we hold each others guns. I was by myself and I usually unload my gun and lay it on the ground, as I did here.

Sally came by and went on point just inside the fence, as I crossed it. Josie was right in front of me and before I could pick up my shotgun from the ground she pointed then ran right through the covey of quail. It was a huge covey and they got up in a large circle. And they didn’t all get up at one time. There were probably 5 different bunches flushed. By the time I got shells in my gun it was all over. Some of these birds could have been out of the other bunch. I don’t know but some flew this way.

Most of these birds flew to the south. We went on to the north for a couple of hundred yards then came back to the south. We made a couple of passes but it was too thick to see where they went down. We moved over and hunted back to the truck without seeing anything else.

Sally with Abby honoring.

I leashed all of the dogs to the fence near where I was parked and fed them. While they ate I cleaned the pheasant. Luke and the two puppies ate real well but Sally and Mann ate very little. For them it doesn’t matter whether it’s canned dog food or dry they don’t eat much on trips.

The next morning I thought I would drive east, toward home, and look at walk-in properties that I had never seen. If they looked good turn the dogs out. So after breakfast I headed east. About 2 miles down the road I got to thinking, “I know there are birds in the area I hunted yesterday. Why go somewhere else”. I turned around and drove to the west of town.

I don’t like to put a lot of pressure on the same birds so I hunted a different area. But it was an area I had hunted in the years past. The temperature was in the teens and the south wind was really blowing. The cold cut like a knife.

I turned Luke, Sally and Mann loose. Everyone had a GPS and e-collar. I wanted to see if Luke was going to stay with me. I would love to have my dog back. We went into the strong wind for about a half mile when the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Luke on point a little over 500 yards to the north west. I started to him. I came over the top of a hill and could see a white dog standing on a terrace looking into a huge plum thicket.

Sally on point 144 yards off the walk-in. I set the camera on the fence corner post.

I thought that’s Luke and started to him. I had to go around plum thickets and through some by following deer or cow trails. It took a long time to get close enough to see that it was Mann I was going to instead of Luke. When I checked the GPS Luke was moving. I went on to Mann.

Before I got to him Sally honored him. I remembered the camera and took pictures of both dogs. I was almost to Mann when a hen pheasant flushed in front of him. Plenty close enough had it been a rooster. But a lot of hens hold.

This area is more plum thickets than pasture land. We didn’t go very far when Mann pointed, again. He was only 40 yards away but I had trouble finding a way to him. When I did see him he was buried in the plum thicket. I kicked in front of him but he didn’t want to move. I kept trying to get him to move and finally he started trailing. Sally had honored and she was helping trail. About 40 yards away another pheasant flushed. I’m not sure if it was a rooster or not. It didn’t cackle and I didn’t shoot.

Luke was with me and he pointed, looking into a plum thicket. As I went toward him I knew whatever it was had left. He wasn’t moving but his tail had come down to level with his back. If he’s still got the bird he’s got a great tail. I kicked in front of him and said, “okay”. He went back to hunting.

I finally got them away from this patch of plum thickets but on the way north there were plenty more. We had made a big circle and when we got back to the truck, I loaded the dogs. Luke had stayed with me. I may have my dog back. We started driving east to look at new walk-in. New to me at least.

Sally honoring Mann.

I did find one walk-in that I really wanted to hunt but when I drove around it to make sure no one was hunting it there was an out of state pickup parked near a gate. I didn’t see a dog box so he could have been a deer hunter but it doesn’t matter. Unless I know for sure there is no one on the walk-in, I don’t hunt it.

I knew I could be home before dark so I started driving. When I got home I put the dogs in their kennels and fed them. Sally, Luke and Mann hadn’t finished their food before we left. I always mix water with it and the food in their bowls was frozen. I dumped the food in their runs and put new fresh food in their pans. Each one of these dogs started eating the frozen food. Mann even picked his frozen chunk up and carried it into his house.

We think we know what is good for these dogs and what they will like but we really are clueless. I’ve gone down to check on the dogs when it was real cold and snowy and there have been dogs lying on the ground, covered with snow. I have a top over my kennels now and that doesn’t happen but it has before.

I didn’t kill many birds, only one pheasant, but I got quite a bit of dog work. That is fine for me. I’ve killed plenty of birds in my life I just need dog work and see the puppies learn. It didn’t bother me that Josie flushed that covey. It’s one more bunch of birds for her to learn that she can’t catch. Next year she will be a good bird dog and I’ll probably have another puppy along to flush the birds. I have a blessed life.