It’s been a while since I wrote a post. The weather has been the pits but mostly because of one of my renters moving out leaving me a mess. Most of this month will be devoted to working on the rental.
Boss
Boss honoring Sally.
Boss on point with Abby backing.
Vince Dye and I took our dogs to some private properties of a friend of his. On the last day of the season, in Missouri, Vince had killed a limit of quail and had seen a few pheasants. The quail were all found in about 25 acres of really good CRP next to a large corn field. The CRP was mostly lespedeza mixed in with some other low growing grass. Vince had found 3 coveys in this 25 or so acres.
On the way up with a strong east wind I told Vince we would be lucky if we got any dog work. Fishermen don’t like an east wind and it is my experience that quail hunting is not good with an east wind.
We decided this was a good place to turn Bodie out by himself. Bodie is about 20 months old but he missed his first season with a broken leg. He was about 6 months old and I was working him on some pigeons. One of the birds lit on a low hanging branch. Bodie thought he could catch it. He jumped and when he came down it sounded like breaking a big stick. I knew immediately that he had a broken leg.
I tried to carry him to the 4-wheeler but he was too heavy. I laid him on the ground and he didn’t move until I came back with the 4-wheeler. I hauled him to the truck then to the vet’s office. He had to wear a cast and stay in the basement. I would take him outside several times a day. But this put him way behind. I like to run my pups from 5 or 6 months old with the other dogs. They learn a lot in their first year.
I have shot several chukars and some pigeons for him. And he did point a few wild quail the last season. As any puppy will do, he hunts some really good places and some times he’s running a harvested soybean field.
Abby on point.
Any way, we turned Bodie out in this CRP. There were several draws running through the CRP. Bodie hit one and ran it from end to end. The next one he hit in the middle and ran to one end. Vince and I waited for him to return, which took a little while because he left the CRP and ran a harvested corn field. When he came back I made sure he checked all of the draw.
We checked all of the CRP and crossed the corn field to another draw. Bodie was about 300 yards ahead of us when we came over a small hill. He was inside the draw when 3 deer came out. Bodie was not far behind them. This is one of the times I want the e-collar turned up to a high level. Deer chasing is dangerous in several ways. The first time I hit the button on the transmitter it was on the wrong collar. But when there was no change in Bodie I knew something was wrong. I moved the toggle switch and hit the transmitter. Bodie is tough. He didn’t make a sound but just made a circle and came back to the draw.
Mann pointing Abby honoring.
We worked that draw and went a little farther to another draw. This one had a pond in the middle and Bodie started at the pond and ran the draw to the north. There was about a hundred yards of draw that he left out. When dogs are hunting good I don’t like to hack at them. But I don’t like for them to leave out a big portion of the cover. We waited on him to come back.
Vince and I were standing in the corn field a good ways from the draw. Bodie came back and hunted the part of the draw from the pond to the north again. We continued to wait. The next time he came close I walked to the south of the pond and he hunted that portion.
He ran good and he’s learning what to hunt. He stayed in front of us most of the time and we went back through the good CRP where Vince had found the quail earlier with no success. When we got back to the truck we went across the road to some CRP where Vince had seen some pheasants.
Sally pointing Bodie honoring.
This time we turned all of the dogs, Vince had Allie and I had Abby, Boss along with Bodie, out. This CRP had some lespedeza but it had a lot of tall blue stem. About a third of it had been mowed kind of like a hunting preserve. With the mowed strips we could see our dogs for a long way. We made a complete circle with 4 dogs and never saw a pheasant or a quail. When we got back close to the truck we loaded the dogs and called it a day.
I would like to go back and try it again with the wind out of any direction other than east, just to see. We may still try that after I get this rental going again.
Another thing that is going to keep me close to home, Sally is about 2 weeks from having puppies. I bred her to Mann and she looks like she’s pretty full of puppies. This will be the second time of this breeding. Boss is out of their other litter and about 4 of the guys who bought females (Boss was the only male) have kept me up to date on their puppies. They are really happy with them. I have a list of about 13 potential puppy buyers so when Abby comes in season I will breed her too.
Bodie with a nose full of quail scent.
From no puppies last year to two litters this year is quite a change. I enjoy the puppies and I get to see friends and family that might not come by if I didn’t have puppy.