Wish I was here

A couple years ago. Pete, Clair and I went to hunt prairie chickens in Nebraska. As usual, Clair took a number of excellent photos. The one above is my favorite. Ted and Rosie pointing birds, Pete and I moving up to flush. And, yes, we downed a couple birds.

Time for birds - at last

Dove season, for me, is always the beginning of Fall and bird hunting. Never mind that it is still Summer. 

For a number of years now, Pete Houser has been kind enough to invite me to Southern California for the opening of dove season. This year, as usual, we went out scouting birds on August 31st to check the known hot spots and look for new opportunities. We found enough birds in residence and a new spot or two so we were satisfied that we were ready for the opener the following day. After an excellent brunch at a Mexican restaurant in El Centro we went out for some pre-season shooting - at pigeons and Eurasian Collared Doves. We had a great time for a couple of hours and burned a box or two of ammunition while downing some birds for the freezer.

For whatever reason there were a lot fewer hunters this opener than the past several. And, unlike many past seasons, we found more White Wing Doves than Mourning Doves. We also found that, unlike past seasons, Eurasian Collared Doves were very widely distributed rather than concentrated in a few small areas near towns and feedlot operations. In fact, The Eurasian Collared Doves were as abundant as White Wing Doves and far out numbered Mourning Doves.

Eurasian Collared Doves do not count towards the dove limit in California.  Accordingly, we call them "Zeroes". Due to the abundance of Zeroes we made a relatively large bag in the first two days - over 100 birds and within the 15 bird White Wing/Mourning dove limits for each day. A great shoot and a great time.

White Wing, Eurasian Collared, and Mourning doves with my 20 gauge Charles Daly. 

Little updates

I have been neglecting my blog tasks. If you are a follower, I apologize. I have been rebuilding an old 1947 Willys CJ2A and this, plus work, plus the usual buzz of life have kept me busy.

I have been fooling with my new setter pup - Andy - and it looks like he will not disappoint. Now going on seven months I have spent enough time with him to actually provide him with a registered name - Wenaha Black Storm.

We (the dogs and I) are heading to NE Montana in a few weeks for annual summer training. Mostly a chance to run - and hopefully, train - the dogs on wild sharp-tails and Huns. I'll be there with my friend Paul Garrett. Living in a pasture in the Airstream with nobody around should help clear my head.

For the dove season opener, Pete and I will be in Imperial County, not far from Yuma and the Mexican border. Last couple years we have done well on mouring doves, white wings, and collared dove.

I have also pruned the blog list down and fixed a major omission - I added the Mallard of Discontent to the list. If you have not yet visited Chad's blog, please do so... the voice of passionate reason.

John Yates lives on

I returned from a trip to Arizona on Wednesday and found a surprise in the mail - a book sent by John Yates' widow, Donna Yates. The book is Wolfspeak - the collected works of John Yates - vol. 1. 

John was a friend, a writer, a breeder of English setters, a trainer, a contributor to Field Trial Magazine and this blog, founder of the American Sporting Dog Alliance, and a good man who fought the good fight until his death from cancer on September 15, 2009.

John helped me get Ted started and we ran dogs together in Oklahoma, then continued our friendship through frequent calls, e-mails, and work on issues confronted by the ASDA. 

I did not know that Donna was working to assemble and publish John's writings until this book arrived. I started reading immediately. I'm impressed. Here's a small sample of John's bird dog wisdom on unproductives:

Unproductive points are the bane of many field trial dogs and have cost many good dogs placements. An unproductive means that a dog is found on point, but the handler cannot produce a bird. They are also called unproductives or barren stands. 

While there is no written rule about unproductives, the rule of thumb for most field trialers - and most judges - is that one doesn't hurt you, two hurt a lot, and three are fatal.

All pointing dogs have unproductives on occasion, and most dogs will have an occasional bad day with several. When this happens, a handler simply shrugs and figures that his or her luck will even out at next week's trial.

Other dogs will go through a period during their development when they are prone to unproductives, but will grow out of the problem with patience and time. These dogs also are not of great concern to a trainer. 

The dogs that we have to worry about are the ones that consistently have a lot of unproductives. 

Our first job is to figure out why, then how to deal with it.

Figuring out why is the hard part. That is because trainers often don't know what has happened when a dog is found on a barren stand, and because I have never yet met a trainer who had a decent nose compared to a dog.We simply can't smell what a dog is scenting.

Thus, there are no easy rules for dealing with unproductives. To handle them effectively, there is simply no substitute for experience that will allow a trainer correctly interpret a barren stand. WIthout the the perspective gained by understanding, it is likely that a trainer will do the wrong thing at the wrong time...

To get the rest, get the book - $16 on www.createspace.com or on Amazon. 

Early season set-backs

I recently returned from Northeast Oregon. Returned from my hunt early - not something I would usually do.


I ran out of dog. My old dog Jesse is a little long in the tooth and I left him home to keep my wife company. Tommy is in South Carolina in training. So I took Ted and Cody, the six month old puppy. Long story short, we hunted opening weekend but by Monday Ted's foot began to swell and looked really nasty.


To the vet in Enterprise, Oregon (Jereld E. Rice, DVM). Neither of us could find a wound, but it looked a lot like a grass awn in a middle toe. Ted was fevered and the foot was red and swollen to almost twice normal size. The vet prescribed Cephalexin and Rimidyl and said it would probably take 10 days or so to heal, but to come back if I saw changes. 


Two days later I let Ted out of his crate to pee, and he decided to go hunting. After Pete and I spent a couple hours looking for him, he showed up at the truck looking contrite, and without his bandage on his foot (I had found most of the bandage downhill and about a mile away earlier in the search). I cleaned his foot and flushed with saline solution and while doing so noticed an entry wound. Back to the vet, where he did some deep cleaning and removed parts of a cheat grass awn. "Give him 10 days", said the vet. 


So I hunted with Pete behind his setters, Silk and Rosie and focused on running Cody every day and had a good time watching him learn about chukars and Huns. This was really the bright point of the trip. 


But after suffering some back pain in the mornings, shooting poorly when I had opportunities and falling while fishing the Wenaha and ruining my digital camera, I felt I was snake bit and decided to head home to regroup and plan for hunting later in the fall when Ted's foot heals up. 


I did enjoy Pete's company, we had some great campfires and ate and drank well. But even I know when to quit.

Summer Training in Virginia

On July 4th my son and I headed to South Hill, VA to spend some time with professional trainer Pat Casey. Jim Bush, President of the U.S. Complete, was also there.

Jim has a couple of real nice pups on the ground that are being evaluated. It was great fun to watch the youngsters romp through the Virginia countryside.

Riley had three broke finds but let down a little at the flush. She has absolutely zero interest in backing so we've got some work to do before the Fall trial season starts.

My son (13) and middle daughter (16) have shown an increased interest in our dogs and local field trials. They will both start horseback riding lessons next week and I hope to get them enough experience this summer at Pat's place that they can trial the dogs for me while I'm at sea. Few things in life are better than enjoying your favorite hobby with your family.

Belated congratulations

Will and Lizzie in Montana in October

A note of congratulations is due to my friend, Will Pennington, who ran his two pointers, Liz and Riley, at the Chicahominy Field Trial Assn.  US Complete trial in November. And won with both dogs, beating Aubrey Morgan's National Amateur CH Pinekone Spade in the process. Results as reported below:

Chicahominy Field Trial Assoc. 
November 22, 2009

Amateur Shooting Dog-18
1st Tailhook Lizzie               W. Pennington  W. Pennington
2nd Quinton Oak Budlight   J. Lewis            J. Lewis
3rd Pinekone Spade         A. Morgan           A. Morgan

Amateur Derby-5
1st Tailhook Riley               W. Pennington  W. Pennington
2nd Wright’s Precious Jodie  A. Wright     A. Wright

Will in Montana

Will Pennington with his pointers, Riley and Lizzie. 

My friend, Cmdr. Will Pennington, Spent a week with me in Montana. We found the bird populations down a bit from previous years, but we had plenty of dogwork, including a classic find by Will's young pointer, Lizzie, on a covey of Huns. Will collected a double on a perfectly handled find. Impressive.  

Unfortunately we had some very troubled weather the week Will was there - the Airstream froze while I was in Michigan and we had some work to do before it was fully habitable, and we had some very cold nights and rain/sleet that kept bird hunting more about hunting than birds.  Still, we did find enough birds to enjoy each day. I think Will had a good time - I enjoyed his visit and hope that we can repeat again in the future.

Ted and Mike visit LoBank

I first began corresponding with Dale Hernden of Michigan a couple of years ago when we discovered that we had littermates from an excellent setter breeding by Craig Peters of Maryland. So we exchanged notes on Ted and Dale's gyp, Lu (Keystone's Private Dancer). Dale and I began blogging at about the same time - he blogs at LoBank. Long story short, Dale invited me to come to LoBank for a visit, and since I was in the neighborhood (Montana) I took him up on his offer. 

LoBank is a wonderful place on the Ausable RIver, and Dale was an exemplary host for the week that I was there. Unfortunately the weather was less than wonderful. But we got out for a day or two of woodcock and grouse in the Michigan woods. I had never been to this type of cover, and Ted had never hunted woodcock. But his cover dog side came to the front, and he ran the cover with his littermate Lu like he had been doing it all his life. Very cool.

Here is Ted pointing a woodcock in typical Michigan cover - thick stuff! (photo by Dale Hernden)

I flushed the woodcock Ted is pointing above, but did not have a clear shot... later Dale told me that, "If you can see the bird, that's a clear shot!" Lesson learned.

Dale also invited me to attend the Michigan Woodcock Championship - a premier cover dog trial. Since I had never been to a cover dog trial I was excited to have a chance to attend, and Dale had a dog running under the whistle of Scott Chaffee, an accomplished cover dog trainer and handler. 

The trial was held at Gladwin, MI. These are grounds set aside by the state of Michigan specifically for field trials and no hunting or other use is allowed. Amazing to a Westerner who is used to scraping for trial grounds. This is a very classy set-up, and the Michigan trialers are very fortunate to have these grounds, which includes an excellent club house and camping area.

The Gladwin grounds were an example of what is possible when the state and sportsmen can co-operate.

Dale's young pointer, "Al", was running in the 5th brace and I was able to walk a couple braces and scout Dale's dog for handler Scott Chaffee. There were many birds on the course, and grouse and/or woodcock were pointed in almost every brace. The handlers had an almost uncanny knack of knowing when and where the dog (not visible in the thick cover) were on point, and went straight to their dogs. Also very cool.

Dale introduced me to a number of people, including Wayne Fruchey, Bryan Wood, Mark and Scott Foreman, Scott Chaffee, and others who exceeded my ability to remember all their names. A terrific and hospitable group of people! I thank all who made me welcome at the trial. A fine group of sportsmen.

I hope to sample some of the fishing in the beautiful AuSable River that Dale shared with me, and to reciprocate his hospitality in the near future. Thank you, Dale!

John Yates - a memorial

On September 15th of this year, my friend John Yates died while undergoing major surgery. He had been battling cancer for months.  I will miss him.

John was a trainer and breeder of setters, and helped to develop my dog Ted at his winter camp in Oklahoma several years ago. I spent a lot of time with him that winter in Oklahoma and we became friends. 

john was a tireless and tenacious fighter for the rights of dog owners and founder of the American Sporting Dog Alliance. He made a major difference in the fight to defeat SB250 in California, and had a similar impact in many states where the rights of dog owners have been threatened by animal rights sponsored legislation. 

My heart goes out to John's wife, Donna. 

I will miss him.

Report from the road...

I am in northern Michigan. Got on the road the afternoon of September 19th, and drove to Valentine, Nebraska to hunt prairie chickens with Pete Houser - and Clair Kofoed was along to take photos and offer encouragement. We hunted with outfitter Mike 2

Kuchera for a couple of days on private land,  and then we tried the McKelvie National Forest lands near Valentine. We got into lots of birds with Mike, fewer on the public ground. More on this later.

Pete and I then headed to Eastern Montana for sharp-tailed grouse and Hungarian partridge. It was cool and windy, but mostly dry and we found birds and had some good dogwork every day. Pete packed up and left for home, with a blue grouse hunt along the way. He reports that he did well in his 'special' spot, and bagged a double-double - both dogs pointing and produced two birds for a double on blues, followed by a late flush, and he was limited out. Pete's shooting the Fox, and his shooting has apparently improved.

As Pete went West, I headed East, crossing North Dakota and stopping today in Clearview, MN to visit Scott and Ben Berg at their beautiful kennels. We ran some dogs, and  while Ted was wornout and had sore feet, Tommy produced an acceptable performance. Scott and Ben showed me several very nice young dogs, and of which I would be happy to have in my truck. Ben's wife Dawn provided a nice lunch of classic Minnesota chili, and we had a nice visit. 

More later, and maybe some photos... 

Launch time approaches- excuses for not posting for over a month.

I have been flogging away getting the Airstream ready for another Fall season, building an 'Bob Welch' style dog cap for the F350 (which has been sound-proofed and had new gauges added), and am heading to Baker City to pick up Tommy from trainer Mike McGinnis right after the Dove Opener next week.

I visited my friend Bob Welch in Hailey, Idaho a few weeks ago. We fooled around with a couple of projects, ran some dogs, and I was pleased to be introduced to Nancy Whitehead, the sporting dog photographer and author of a new book, about which I will post later. Bob also hosted me at some outstanding pigeon shooting south of Twin Falls. Thanks, Bob!

Pete, Clair and I will be tasting prairie chickens in northern Nebraska third week of next month. After we finish and Clair flies off for his next adventure, Pete and I will head to eastern Montana for another week of prairie birds. Pete, being gainfully employed as an expert rocket scientist, will then return to the arsenal of democracy, and I will head to Michigan to to meet Dale and hunt grouse and woodcock - never hunted woodcock!

Returning from Michigan to Montana, I will be hunting with a couple of newer friends, and enjoying some dog work, before heading to Saskatchewan where I will meet with Clair and Dave Brown for more fun on the prairies. I hope that it will be a busy couple months.

My club will be hosting the US Complete Shooting Dog Association's NW Region Championship in November at the K-Arrow Ranch near Jamestown, California. I hope Ted is ready and fit from a seven weeks of bird hunting. I also hope that he is still broke enough to place in the trial.

Report from the field - Georgia quail

My friend Joe Augustine filed a report of his late season hunt in the piney woods of SW Georgia. Joe has a small troop of setters that live with him in his (apparently spacious) apartment in downtown Manhattan. You can keep bird dogs in the City. Joe's setters were bred by Dan Catalano of Bayview Setters. Here is some eye candy:

Bird dogging in the piney woods

Joe's nice female setter, Sugar, points a bird

Ranger - Joe's 'old pro' setter retrieves

Quail in hand. What could be better than this?

A gift from a friend

I first met Gary Goudy in 1972, when he was living near me and starting to develop considerable skill as a stock maker. Since that time we have been fast friends and hunted together in the Western US and Canada. He has stocked a number of guns for me, and I have learned a great deal from him. There are very few friends that I value as highly as Gary.

Gary has extraordinary skill with his hands. He says, "My brains are in my hands." I dunno, but he can make a saddle, carve, checker and finish  an exquisite gunstock, and does wrought iron work 'on the side'. He built an beautifully done VW 'dune buggy' with a dashboard of hand carved English walnut. 

I recently visited Gary at his home in Dayton, Washington and we had a day hunting pheasants together.  At that time he showed me some leather braiding work that he was doing for fun, and it was extraordinary and imaginative. He said that he would like to braid something for me, and I said I'd like a whistle lanyard. He sent an e-mail today with photos of the lanyard he made for me - a real beauty. Thank you, Gary!