Since the Missouri quail season opens over a week before Kansas season I decided to go to the Truman Lake area to see if I could find any quail. Tur Bo has had a sore knee cap and has been in his pen for over a month. I wanted a short run for him to make sure he was getting well. I turned Dolly, Luke, Lucky, Tur Bo and Sally out and they all ran to the truck. As I loaded them Sally went back to the kennel. I called her and she wouldn’t come. I went back to the kennel and put her in her pen. I don’t know if this will make her come to the truck, the next time, to load up or not. Didn’t hurt anything to make her stay home.
Sally honoring Tur Bo.
Dolly pointing a single.
Luke pointing quail.
When I got to Truman Lake most of the row crops were still unharvested. I drove by several places, that I found quail last year, without turning the dogs out. I finally stopped at one area that had some fallow fields near some standing corn. I turned Dolly and Tur Bo out.
Tur Bo was glad to be out and hit the ground running. Dolly is getting close to twelve years old and she still goes good but not near as fast as Tur Bo. For the first 30 minutes Tur Bo’s knee didn’t bother him at all. Then we got into an area that had really thick sericea lespedeza as well as a lot of blackberry vines. He started carrying his right rear foot again. We headed back to the truck. I put them both in their box.
I drove around some more. Almost none of the crops on the public hunting grounds had been harvested. Finally I saw a large field that had lots of weeds but there were no row crops near. I turned Luke and Lucky out. If I was quail hunting this wouldn’t be a place I would hunt unless it was a last resort.
Lucky was 13 years old in May but he still made some good casts. I would love to get him in some quail one more time. We went to the south into a strong wind, hit a hedge row and went west. When we got to the edge of this field we turned to the north. We got almost to the road and Lucky looked like he was getting tired so I took him back to the truck. I checked the GPS after putting him up and Luke was on point about 200 yards from me.
When I got to Luke he started trailing. He had been on point along a little creek in some really thick cover. He went about 20 yards and went on point again. It wasn’t easy getting through the cover and I made a lot of noise. I got almost to Luke and some quail flushed from well out front of him. If I had been hunting I wouldn’t have got a shot. I could tell the direction that a few of the quail went but I couldn’t see them down. Luke and I went in that direction but never came up with any more quail. I loaded him in the truck.
When I got home I put Dolly, Luke and Lucky in their kennels and took Tur Bo to see Dr. Becker at Independence Animal Hospital. He could move Tur Bo’s knee cap in and out of place easily. I asked him if the problem might be genetic and maybe I shouldn’t breed him. He said if it was genetic it would have shown up before he was 4 years old. He thought Tur Bo had either hit something with his knee or got his foot hung and pulled the tendons.
Dr. Becker did the surgery this morning and when I called he said he had never seen one like this. He definitely had injured the knee. It was inflamed and the tendon was torn. There was no way it would have heeled on it’s on but with this operation he would make a full recovery. He assured me again that this wasn’t genetic. It was like an injury to an athlete. And we both agreed that dog’s are definitely athletes. He going to keep him over night.
Luke backing Dolly.
Bird dogs go all out all of the time and we are lucky they don’t get hurt more than they do. The worst I have had a dog get hurt was Lady being attacked by a mule deer. I wrote about that in October of 2013.
Once years ago, Dennis Garrison and I were going down a water way that had been mowed with a brush hog. The blades must have been really dull because most of the sprouts had been bent over then cut making the ends like spears. I thought that if a dog landed just right on one it would go through him. About that time I saw my dog, Scamp, jump a ditch and when he hit the ground he didn’t move. When I saw him he his belly was on the ground. Just as I got to him a rooster pheasant flushed. He had gone on point in mid-air. I don’t remember whether I got the pheasant or not but my dog wasn’t hurt.
Quail season will be open soon and I won’t have Tur Bo for the first part but he’ll be back. With Tur Bo injured and Lucky and Dolly as old as they are Luke and Sally will have to take up the slack.
Sally pointing, Roxie backing.
Dolly on point.
Tur Bo pointing a covey of quail.