Last season I loaned Bodie to a friend that was dogless for the season. Bodie is young and needed to be into birds. Vince got him into a lot. And Bodie learned a lot and became a good bird dog. But he had, at some time or other, broken a toe. The toe stuck straight up. All season, after the first few days, the toe would be sore and bleed. Bodie never acted like it hurt him but sooner or later he would get an infection or because of the pain quit hitting the tough cover. I talked to my vet about removing the toe.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
Bodie honoring the backing dog.
Bodie pointing a covey.
After the toe was removed I kept Bodie in the basement in a wire cage. I had to take him out several times a day and make sure the wrap didn’t get wet or contaminated in any way. The bandage, the vet put on, only stayed over night and I had to re-wrap it every day and sometimes more often. I have a raised kennel that I keep puppies in sometime. After 5 days I put Bodie in the raised pen where he could have some room to move around without getting the wound dirty. When I took him back to get the stitches out the vet, to my complaint about Bodie not leaving the bandage on, said, “Dogs shouldn’t have operations. No matter what they will take the stitches out”.
But when the stitches came out the vet was mildly surprised at how good he looked. I asked about how long before he was able to run and he said anytime. I put Bodie back in his regular kennel. I watched his wound, checking it each day. Bodie probably broke the toe jumping onto his house, which is inside his kennel, and getting the toe hung in the chain link. After a few days Bodie was limping on his good leg. I think he was jumping on and off of his house and favoring the leg that had been operated on. In a day or so he was limping on both front legs.
I knew I had to do something. I put him back in the raised pen to keep him from jumping off his house. I let him run today for the first time after two days in the raised pen. He ran fine, with no limps, for a little while then started limping again. He is a lot better than before and I will keep him in the raised pen for another week or so. I will let him run every day for a few minutes and even when he doesn’t limp I will not put him back in his regular kennel until I’m sure he’s well.
Some of maintenance of the kennel is replacing dogs. Or at least starting some more puppies. My cousin, Jim Smith, bought a female pup off me several years ago. She became a first rate bird dog and some people are calling her a blue hen. Blue hen refers to most of her pups, no matter the sire, make good bird dogs. She is Mann’s mother and he is one of the best bird dogs I’ve ever owned. Jim had another litter this spring and I bought a female from him out of Mann’s mother but a different sire.
Annie playing with a pigeon.
Neither Jim nor I field trial much. Both of us have a few times but not enough to understand all of the nuances. Jim had a couple of 10 months old pups entered in a walking field trial in north east Oklahoma. Since my pup, Annie, was almost 8 weeks old and the field trial was about half way between my house and his I met him at the field trial. I got there in time to watch him run the first pup and I rode in the dog wagon. He finished with his second pup about 12:30.
I played with Annie and almost everyone that walked by needed to pet her. Jim and I talked for a while and were close to where the judges and participants were eating lunch. We started back toward the trucks and I was getting ready to leave. One of the guys said they are going to give the placements in the amateur derby. Jim, at 83 years old, with two 10 month old pups had won first and second in the amateur walking derby. These two were half brother and sister to my puppy. Same mother different sire.
So now I have this almost 10 week old puppy to play with. My plan is to write a post each week telling what we have been doing toward getting her trained as a bird dog.
Annie with a pigeon.
So far, since she has been here, I’ve been socializing her. She had never worn a collar and I put one on her. She scratched at it for a while then accepted it. I’ve not worked her on any commands except “here”. She comes fairly well. I have locked the wings on a pigeon and let her play with it. The first time she did a lot of barking and would run at the pigeon without touching it. Then she finally pulled it around a little by the feathers. I took it from her and let it fly. She liked that.
The second time I locked the wings on the pigeon Annie didn’t even slow down. She ran full tilt and pounced on the pigeon. She was so aggressive that I turned the pigeon loose. A little later I put a pigeon to sleep close to the kennels. Annie was running around and smelled the pigeon. She went right to it, it woke up and flew away. Annie chased a short distance.
Annie finding dog food in the grass.
Most days I walk Annie to the back of my property. She sometimes is ahead of me and sometimes behind. I have left 3 strips of grass to grow without mowing it. They are only 3 to 5 feet wide but real long. Two different times I have taken a bag of birds with us and hid one in the grass. The first time or two I had to let her stumble over the birds but after that I can see her use her nose. She will smell the pigeon and start trying to find it. Young puppies have to learn to use the nose just like anything else.
A lot of times I sit and watch Annie play. Usually, close to where my chair is I spread dog food in the grass. Not her regular food but the food I feed the grown dogs. Another thing to help her learn to use her nose.
I have put out 6 pigeons for her and after the first two she usually will flash point, then move a little closer to find the bird. The bird flies away. I will do this for a while before putting the pigeons in the release traps. I really enjoy watching the young dogs learn.