ROUX - Assistant to New Recruit - Margaux

[eightbore]

Chris, thanks for the tips. Eva was a NAVHDA dog, trained with the Green Book and frozen pigeons. I will try to kill more birds in front of my next Wirehair. I spent most of Eva's life recovering from various debilitating surgeries with not too much real hunting. However, I was retired for her entire life and she went everywhere I did and got to run almost every day. She was a "feature" at the Southern Side by Side and Ernie's Northeast Shoot for many years, on or off a lead with The Lovely Linda. Her early yard training made her a real lady when around gun people at these events. There are not many cats in attendance at side by side shoots.

[WPGRIFFON]

Eightbore

Great to meet another NAVHDA individual that shoot birds with Fox guns. Spring is coming perhaps there is a Wirehair pup in your future? If not I will send Margaux up for a few weeks.

WPGRIFFON

[kgb]

At Pheasantfest this year the Bohemian WPG folks had a booth and a few dogs along. Beautiful animals and a very controlled program with rules I'm sure are not for everyone. http://bohemiangriffon.org/

[glassman48]

Chris,
My wife and I enjoyed all your pictures a lot. The swimming pool idea is a good one too. I live on a canal that goes out into an 850 acre lake. Has the chlorine in pool been an issue? I never thought much about swimming, that would be great exercise, he could swim in our canal, or down at the beach which is a more gradual incline. I would probably let him go to a beach type setting first to get used to the gradual incline. Thanks for your responses to me in here too. Great looking dogs

[WPGRIFFON]

Glassman

The dogs come out of the swimming pool smelling great. Our chlorine levels in the pool are not like public pools, so no chlorine issues. The advantage for me is I can swim them every evening and do not have to wash pond or lake water, algae & mud off three fuzzy dogs. There is some dog hair on the water some times but it's all in the skimmer in AM and I remove it. My 82 year old mother complains about me swimming the dogs but I remind her that they are cleaner and more well behaved than some of her grandchildren.

It is very low impact, suitable for older dogs or rehabbing injuries, makes them burn calories, eat and sleep well.

Thanks

Chris

[glassman48]

Chris,
Thank you again, really a great idea and your right I bet the lake water might get to be to much. When we rescued our brittany he weighed 69 pounds. We got him in November 2017, during the first week, he pulled my wife off our porch twice, and nearly pulled her arm out of her socket. The breeder showed us a simple way to cinch the lead under his belly so he couldn't pull so hard. I was looking for a used treadmill during the first week for our dog, my wife was having such a hard time. He now runs free most of the time, we have a couple seasonal road type areas where he can run close to home so he get a lot more exercise that way. I wish you all the best with those dogs, and all the memories that go along with owning them.

[Foxnut]

Both my of my previous dogs (Setter and Brit) were in the water and running up and down our dock all summer long at our cottage. Gertie our Brit was in the water so much between our dock and our neighbors we never had any issue with weeds. She was a “spot and stalk” fish dog!!! Shed’d stand on the dock till a bluegill or bass would swim by and then take a dive and chase after them. Luckily she never caught any! Some evenings she’d get a hose down and sometimes she’d air dry. Who doesn’t like the smell of a wet dog?!!!!

[WPGRIFFON]

Margaux - Getting our monies worth from the PA Game Commission pheasant permit, couple days last week. Had to work for them though, in multiflora rose and dense cover, these birds flew like wild ones.

WPGriffon

[glassman48]

wpgriffon,
So are they wild pheasants that were planted as young birds? We live so far north that the only pheasants we have are on a pheasant farm. Your dog is doing so well, congratulations. I took my brittany to a pheasant farm on opening day of deer season with my buddy who has a brittany that is recovering from leg surgery. He kept his dog on a lead, and let him walk up and point the first couple birds while I shot them. Then my brittany cash went on point, I was walking by him to flush the bird, and the bird was "planted" on the edge of a thick clump of tall grass and could not fly away from myself and my dog, his only way out was towards the dog who grabbed the bird when it tried to run by my dog That was the first time he has ever done that, on grouse and woodcock, I can tell pretty well now when they are running because he slowly moves forward as he loses the scent. If the birds hold, he holds. The rest of the day when I walked by him to flush the bird, I held my hand out behind me which is my "stay" signal, then I say stay then put both hands on gun to finish walking in on the bird. Its hard because I run into things that I don't know how to handle, my buddy suggested the stay signal from now on. I usually use the stay hand signal and voice command when we cross a road or 2 track.

[WPGRIFFON]

Glassman48

Unfortunately they are planted adult birds, wild pheasants are a thing of the past in PA. In my county we had wild pheasants into the late 70's. All the family farms went under and what was left reverted to timber or has houses on it. Clean Roundup farming has sealed the rest of deal around here, if you are a turtle, snake, frog, rabbit, etc. there are not many places to live.

WPGRIFFON

[Jeff S]

Great picture of Margaux! She's a good looking dog.

[WPGRIFFON]

We added Roux to the household recently, she is 12 weeks old and a lot of fun so far. The heat is killer right now so working on basic discipline and swimming and not jumping on the older dogs. Fall is coming.

[fox-admin]

Great picture thanks keep us posted on her progress. Craig

[WPGRIFFON]

Roux at 8 months - first bird was a solid point, 20 yard shot, second rooster was a challenge, she trailed the bird for about twenty minutes in 50 acres of golden rod and warm season grasses, we were finally able to force him to fly, shot him with 16 gauge Sterlingworth ejector, #5 shot at 30 yds hit him and then 38 yards from second barrel crossing from left to right brought him down. One of those shots I wish I had my Go-Pro on.

Great PA day - Roux seven months, Margaux four years, lots of woodcock flushes, 11 grouse flushes in 9 hrs of hunting.

[Jim Cloninger]

That sure was a banner day for you and the dogs!
Jim