At 3 weeks old, I put collars on the English setter puppies, tied short cords to the collars and started playing the Gun Conditioning CD from Masters Voice for them twice a day as I fed them a formula. The formula (I put it in the last post) is a milk replacer formula that was given to me by my vet. The puppies were in the air conditioned shed, inside a whelping box. I have a dog door for Sally, the mother of this litter, to go out into a big pen, that surrounds my kennels, when ever she wants.
Puppies with collars and ropes.
More puppies.
Sally and her puppies.
I had a dental appointment this morning and as I went out early to take care of the puppies Sally was out in the big pen. I started to close the doggie door off, so I could give the puppies their formula with some dry dog food soaking in it, without Sally eating it before they could get close. As I tried to close the door, over the dog door, two puppies came tumbling out.
That changed everything. Now I have to put the puppies in the kennel. I can’t take a chance on them getting out of the shed. If they get out during a rain, it could be bad. They are still small enough for a hawk or owl to take them, probably.
I have been putting the puppies in the kennel during the day and back in the shed of the night. Putting the puppies in the kennel is better because it’s larger than the whelping box and the puppies can see a lot of stuff going on. In the whelping box they were in an almost dark environment, most of the time.
Now they will be in the kennel most of the time, except when someone comes over to pet them. I encourage all of my friends to come over and bring their grandkids, neighbor kids or whoever they can bring. It has made a real difference in the puppies. They love people and they will play until they are wore out then go to sleep.
The puppies enjoy being in the yard. When I bring them out of the kennel, for people to pet, we usually get in the shade and put the puppies in the grass. The puppies go from one person to the next. They have been carried so much that they don’t even wiggle, most of the time, when they are being carried from the kennel or back to it.
Babe expecting a pigeon to be flushed.
This year the fire works around the 4th of July has lasted forever. In my neighborhood they started shooting them off on Wednesday the third, and shot them on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. They don’t bother the puppies but it drives the older dogs crazy. They go in their dog houses and get as far back as possible. One day I turned the big dogs out while I cleaned pens and there were firecrackers popping all around. Sally went to the shed and went through the dog door. She left her puppies but she probably knew I would bring them into the shed.
I got my Pointing Dog Journal and as I read it, I got to thinking about some of the things, I have seen while hunting, that I never got to take a picture of. Most of the times I didn’t have a camera but a lot of them even if I had a camera there was no time, for a picture.
Several years ago I was hunting in Montana, alone, except for a truck full of dogs. I had hunted for several days and this was my last day. I was going to hunt until about noon then start driving home. Where I wanted to hunt wasn’t far from the hotel I was staying in and I was on the place by daylight.
There was a large pond, or small lake, about half a mile off the unimproved road I was on. There was a dry wash, a couple of hundred yards wide, that ran down to the pond. I turned some dogs loose and started down the wash. When I got about a hundred yards from the pond, with the dogs already circling the pond a bunch of ducks came off the pond.
Mann pointing a pigeon.
As I watched the ducks, from the bottom of the wash, 5 or 6 mule deer started bouncing, as though their feet were springs, along the horizon. The ducks were in view just a little above the deer. With the sun just coming up behind me lighting up the deer and ducks I reached for my camera but there was not enough time to get the shot. I can still see it, though.
Another time Dennis Garrison and I were in north central Kansas. It was early of the morning and we were driving to the place we wanted to hunt. The road had a small jog in it but the farmer had run his fence in a straight line. This left a mound of cover that hadn’t been mowed or taken care of in a lot of years. Good cover for animals.
As we drove by a really nice white tail buck, not huge but a nice 8 point with each hair in place, started running along side the truck through this cover. It wasn’t more than 25 yards from the truck. As it ran along a rooster pheasant flushed right beside it. The pheasant was between the deer and the truck. Again, if I even had a camera, I wouldn’t have had the time to use it.
Another time, again early in the morning, I walking down a hedge row to the west. The sun was behind me just coming up. The dogs were in front quite a ways and I saw a bird coming toward me. But it was a bird like I had never seen before. It looked like it’s breast was on fire and it was carrying a large stick in it’s mouth. I watched it as it got closer and closer.
Luke pointing a pigeon.
When it got closer I saw that it was a rooster pheasant and it’s breast wasn’t on fire but the sun shining off the breast feathers, looked like a fire. The stick I saw in it’s mouth was evidently it’s tail. Now, I’ve hunted a long time and been in pheasant country and I’ve never seen this sight before or since but I should have. But this time, as I stood there with a shotgun in my hands, I never fired a shot. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that.
Another time Dennis and I were going down a hedge row on a real cold day. For some reason we were both on the same side of the hedge row and the dogs were ahead of us. We were walking into a strong north wind that made the day even colder. We looked up and a rooster pheasant came barreling down the hedge row toward us. It was on the same side we were on, about 40 yards high, and had the wind behind it. It must have been doing a hundred miles an hour. We both emptied our guns and never turned a feather on that bird. Didn’t get a picture of that either but I can still see it.
The birds you hit, the great shots you make in a life time of hunting are not what you remember. I remember the little things. The people I was with, the dogs and how they looked and sometimes just the area and sometimes just the things that live there. I only hunt birds but I can see the beauty in all of God’s creation.
Sally and her babies.
Sally and her puppies.
Another shot of Sally right after the babies were born.