I haven’t worked dogs for quite a while because of the hot weather. Not only is it too hot for the dogs but it’s too hot for the pigeons as well. The pigeons are wrapped in the release traps and then covered with grass. On warm days it may cause a heat stroke in the pigeons as well as the dogs.
Josie.
Abby pointing a pigeon.
Boss.
Two weeks ago I had over 30 pigeons. This morning I have 6. The raccoons dug under my pens and tore through the wire floor. There were some pigeons gone but there were 7 dead ones that hardly anything had been eaten. People think that man is the only thing that kills for sport but they have never seen a pigeon coop after the coons get in.
I also heard about wolves getting into some elk in Wyoming. Those wolves killed 17 elk and only ate a little bit of two of them. Animals must just go into a frenzy.
I blocked the hole that they got in and put an electric fence around the bottom. That worked for one night and then they got in again. I checked my power and one of my extension cords came unplugged. I got a solar powered electric fence charger and hooked it up. That worked for a day or two then the ‘coon forced his way in at a weak spot above the door. Must have jumped over the hot wire.
Finally, I have it where they can’t get in, I think. I trapped 3 ‘coons and actually trapped a fourth that tore my trap up. He broke the wires of the trap and left a lot of hair but he got away. I bought another trap but it was worthless. I worked on it trying to get it to work to no avail.
I had two pigeon houses and the raccoons had gotten into one of them and I had quit using it so I had all 30+ pigeons in one house. I took the unused pigeon house out. I’m going to build a new one that is half again as big as the one I took out and just get by with one. I have ordered flooring for it that is like the flooring I used in my puppy pen. It’s plastic with one inch holes. It should be strong enough the ‘coons can’t break in. Maybe.
June and I were eating supper the other night and her cat, Katie, wanted to get in June’s lap. She came up on her right side and June said, “no”. So Katie went to the other side and June said, “no”, again. Katie tried 5 or 6 times with June getting more irate each time. Finally, Katie laid down in the floor with her back to June and wouldn’t look at her. It reminded me of a dog I took to Greensburg Kansas area one time.
It was during the early prairie chicken season or the first of the fall turkey season. Quail and pheasant seasons weren’t open but I prairie chicken and turkey hunt to work my dogs and to find out if there are any quail. As I was getting ready to go Vince Dye asked me to take a young pointer of his along to get it some experience on wild quail.
Boss.
I have several GPS collars and I always run my dogs with them. I put one on this young pointer not knowing whether she would stay with me or not. I hadn’t been around her much and she really didn’t know me. I turned her loose with a couple of my dogs and we started through a huge pasture. I was relieved that she was staying with me really well, between 75 and 200 yards. It was flat country with few trees so she was easy to keep track of.
I walk along with my gun in my left hand and the GPS handheld is attached to my belt in a holster. I hold on to the handheld with my right hand because I can’t hear it beep but I can feel it vibrate when a dog points. I felt the GPS vibrate and it was the young pointer on point. I looked her way and she was about a hundred yards away, on point.
As I walked to her I was thinking, “both of my setters must have missed these birds”. I could see her standing with a high straight tail but her front was low. I thought she had them right under her nose. When I got to her she was pointing into a yucca bush. In the early season I like to look before I kick the cover because rattle snakes are still active.
I looked the yucca plant over and kicked but nothing flushed. The young pointer didn’t move. I kicked a couple more times then figured out she was probably pointing a rat. I tapped her head and we went on. Just a few yards, maybe 25, she went on point again. Another mouse or rat. I walked around her then tapped her head and we went on.
Puppies
That pointer pointed rats 6 or 7 times. She wouldn’t go 25 yards until she pointed another. Finally, with her on point I walked up behind her, took my hat off and smacked her on the butt. I said, “leave the rats alone”. She did not like that. She took off.
As we walked along I could see her on the GPS. She stayed about a half mile away from me. She knew where I was because I went east until my dogs found a covey of quail. When they flushed the quail flew to the south and we followed. We found some singles to work the dogs on and they flew back to the north. I took my setters back to the north and the young pointer went too but still stayed way away from me.
It was not a real hot day but it was warm and the dogs weren’t in as good as shape as they would be by the time the season rolled around. So we hunted about 2 hours and went back to the truck. The young pointer beat me back to the truck but when I got there she was sitting at the front of the truck looking away from me.
I had a five gallon bucket of water and watered my dogs. The pointer was still sitting at the front of the truck looking away from me. I put the setters in the dog boxes and called the pointer. She didn’t move or look my way.
Puppies using the run.
I knew she was thirsty so I waited. I called her then waited a few minutes and called her again. She didn’t look at me or acknowledge that she heard me. Finally, I got her by the collar and led her to the water bucket. She drank and drank. I loaded her in the box without ever turning loose of her collar until she was in the box.
Of the evening, when I feed the dogs, I like to hook them to a fence and put their food in front of them. When I snapped the pointer to the fence she wouldn’t look at me. She sat with her back to me. I set her food dish in front of her and she ate just fine. I watered them and put them back in their box.
She was still mad the next morning. I didn’t turn her loose other than to just to do her business. I was afraid as mad as she still was she would run off. Never have I seen a dog hold a grudge like she did. Vince sold her before the season opened and it was probably a good thing. She would have probably started biting me. She really didn’t like me.
After I published the above I remembered another dog that wouldn’t look at me. A friend took a dog back from a young man that had just about ruined it. He had left the pointer in a dark barn and just fed and watered him. The dog was man shy, gun shy and bird shy.
Abby on the whoa barrel.
Although I had never tried to break a dog from being gun shy I offered to try. I think his name was Jack. I would take Jack to the chain gang and hook him up with some of my other dogs. Then get right out in front of the chain gang and work them on birds. No blank pistol just lots of pigeons. Jack would sit with his back to us.
Every once in a while I would take a couple of pigeons and release them close to the chain gang. My dogs would be jumping around trying to get the bird and Jack would just sit there. After a week or so he sat sideways where he could see us out of one eye. Soon he was turned watching. As long as I didn’t shoot, even a blank pistol, he was interested.
Finally, I started working him on pigeons, still with no shooting. He got to really liking the birds. Several police departments shoot on a range in a county park near my home. I started taking Jack, some release traps and pigeons over near the range when they were shooting. I took other dogs as well.
I tied Jack and a couple more dogs close together. There would be shooting while I put the birds, in the release traps, out. Jack started off being concerned with the shooting but it didn’t bother the other dogs. They would watch me and the birds. I would work one of my dogs then Jack then another of my dogs.
Rusty, Jim and Vince, in front, in New Mexico.
It took a little while but pretty soon the shooting would only bother him for the first few minutes then he would get interested in the birds. I worked with him a long time before I ever shot over him for the first time. For a little while he would let down when I shot the blank pistol but he soon got over that.
I took it really slow with him and it took nearly a year to get him to not fear everything. But he wound up with a family near St. Louis that duck hunted and hunted preserve birds. Jack would sit in the duck blind with the guy and would point the birds at the preserve. He went from being afraid of everything to a great life. He got to hunt and was also a house dog.