To beat the rush hour traffic in the Kansas City area I loaded dogs early and left the house about 5:45 am. This was a good call and put me in the area I wanted to run dogs before 9:00 am. I still drove around the place I wanted to run the dogs on before turning them loose. I even drive around private lands when I hunt them. Old habits die slowly.
Sally
Bodie on point.
Abby on point.
I turned all 5 dogs, Abby, Bodie, Boss, Mann and Sally, loose with e-collars and GPS collars. This area is some harvested corn but mostly harvested soybeans. There is some grown up waterways between the fields with tall weeds, saplings and taller trees. Perfect habitat for quail. I have hunted this area 2 times before finding birds both times. This time I started farther to the south and was intending to walk farther north than I had been before.
I started to the west along a waterway with all of the dogs in front of me. Sally has been in heat and was not run for about a month. She didn’t get as far ahead of me as she would have if she was in better shape but she was hitting all of the spots. About a hundred yards down the waterway, she went on point.
When I got close she started moving. Abby and Bodie were trailing along with her. Sally pointed again with Bodie honoring. These waterways have green briars and grape vines growing in them that makes it hard to get to the dogs. And it’s impossible to get to them quietly. Finally, I got in front of her. When I kicked the weeds and grape vines she started moving again. Bodie went one way and Sally another. Bodie pointed. I got in front of him and he started moving. I looked and Sally was on point the other way. When I got close to her I heard a quail flush. Just one bird.
We went on to the the west. When we got to some heavy woods we turned north then hit another waterway and took it back to the east. We hadn’t gone far when the GPS showed Mann on point over 600 yards away and Sally on point at 50 yards. Guess which one I went to.
Mann pointing a single, Boss honoring.
When I got close to Sally she was moving, trailing. Boss and Bodie had run most of this waterway so I started toward Mann. In just a little while Mann was moving. We continued on to the north to the next waterway then back to the west along it. Several times I had points for just a minute or so then the dog would be moving.
I did find some of the largest acorns that I’ve ever seen. According to Google they were from a Burr oak tree. But as I got close to the north edge Mann was across the road and south of me on point. I made it across the road before he was moving but we went on back to the truck. That side of the road had good cover for quail but in two trips I’ve never seen one on that side. This area is public hunting, near a road and it’s easy to hunt. Almost everyone that drives by turns their dogs loose and we have really educated these birds. But there are birds here. I loaded the dogs and went to another place.
Years ago, I had hunted this area. One of the places was a soybean field that ran parallel with the road but wasn’t very deep. The dogs got a little birdy in a little thicket just off the soybeans. When they harvested the soybeans they left about 6 or 7 rows the length of the field. One of my dogs pointed in those standing soybeans. When we got to them with the other dogs backing the dogs all started trailing. We just happened to be looking in the right spot when about 300 yards, at the other end of the standing soybeans, we saw a covey of quail flush.
Burr oak acorn.
After the hunt I took a GPS collar and placed it where the dogs were on point and then walked to where the birds had flushed from. I don’t remember the yardage now but it was around 300 yards.
When I saw this farm I wanted to see if there were still quail living there. There had been a tree row taken out by the road but it was still a soybean field. Sally being out of shape, I left her in the truck. This time the soybeans had all been harvested. On the edge there was still a good weedy strip of fallow ground.
We worked our way down the soybean field and when we got to the end Bodie was on point. He was across the CRP or whatever it was. As I started to him I saw him in a small wood lot. Then I heard some turkeys putting. The turkeys must have gone out the other side of the wood lot. I could hear them but I never saw them. As we circled back toward the truck Boss pointed in some big woods. Not hardly enough cover on the ground to hold a quail but that may have been where some of the turkeys had been.
This is Mann pointing a covey with Abby in the middle and Boss close to the camera, honoring.
When we got back to the truck Boss got a drink from the water I put out then wandered off and laid down in some tall weeds. He hates to ride. I got him in the truck and Bodie was hiding from me. He doesn’t like to ride either. I was able to call him to me.
Well, I started this week working all 5 dogs on loading in the truck. I used to just back my truck out of the garage, go turn dogs loose and they would all come to the front of the house and load up. Not anymore. Now I drive around to the back of the house and turn dogs loose. Some start toward the truck and wind up back at the kennel. Sally, Abby and Mann load pretty good. Boss and Bodie not so good.
This week, a couple of times so far, I worked all 5 dogs on heel and whoa. Then when I got close to the truck I had them jump on to the tail gate. When they jumped onto the tail gate I gave them a piece of hot dog. Always, when Bodie got close to the tail gate he liked jumping up. But when he found out he would get a chunk of hot dog he was hard to keep off the tail gate.
Boss pointing a single.
Abby and Sally liked the hot dog chunks, too. But Mann and Boss wouldn’t even take them. I did get them to jump up with no problem they just didn’t want the hot dog. Can’t buy them that cheap, I guess.
After the heel, whoa and jumping on the tail gate I let them run the yard as I follow on the 4-wheeler. I take the dogs to near the 4-wheeler, put them on whoa, go to the 4-wheeler, start it, put it in gear then say, “okay”. The dog has to stay on whoa until he is released. All but Bodie. He stayed until I started the 4-wheeler and he was gone. I shouted, “whoa” but that did no good. I hit the e-collar but it was only on level 2. He went to the back. I just waited.
Abby on the far side with Bay Lee and Josie.
In just a few minutes he came back. I whoaed him in front of the 4-wheeler. Now I had the e-collar on level 3. I started the 4-wheeler and he took off, again. I whoaed him and he slowed and turned to look at me. I held the button on the e-collar down until he stopped. I sat on the 4-wheeler watching him then put it in gear. He didn’t move until I said, “okay”. The other dogs know the drill and Bodie will get it pretty soon.
I will try to continue running the dogs somewhere at least once a week and will work them on loading. To keep me moving around, I’m glad there is something to work them on.