Almost done.

[Jeff S]

Tom, glad to hear that you’re heading back to Michigan. I’ve heard that there was a lot of damage to trees in the Gaylord area from last spring’s ice storm. Could be tough hiking. Good luck and keep us posted.

We moved a bit further south based on that ice storm. Too many widow makers up where we planned on going.

May I ask where you’ll be hunting?

[vaturkey]

Tom, glad to hear that you’re heading back to Michigan. I’ve heard that there was a lot of damage to trees in the Gaylord area from last spring’s ice storm. Could be tough hiking. Good luck and keep us posted.

We moved a bit further south based on that ice storm. Too many widow makers up where we planned on going.

May I ask where you’ll be hunting?

Sure about 30 miles East of Houghton Lake.

[vaturkey]

Helped the next generation yesterday. Young lady with her husband. They have a 12 month old Brit they wanted a couple birds shot over.

Was a bit of a comedy of errors. They had 4 large launchers which were too large for the quail they had brought. 2 out of 3 Quail got out of the launchers and flew off into the woods before the dog was even released. They also had to feral Pigeons in the launchers and those worked fine.

She lead the dog in on a check cord and once to established point she held the check cord and popped the launcher. First Pigeon flew directly behind her and the dog and by the time it cleared both it was 40 yards off. Knocked one feather loose as I gave it a single barrel salute.

Next two birds got out away from her and the pointing pup and I dropped both. First live birds killed with the Gournet engraved as a B Grade 20 gauge, which will be the subject of an article hopefully after the upcoming Michigan trip.

Her dog mouthed both birds and carried them a few yards and dropped them. Training young dogs required lots of patience. She will get there.

[vaturkey]

Little Red Setter competition going on. Orange collar is Annie. Green collar is her niece Haley. Annie is 2.5 years old and Haley is 18 months.

[Foxnut]

That’s a great looking brace of Red Setters!!!

[vaturkey]

That’s a great looking brace of Red Setters!!!

They are ungodly competitive dogs. Both Alpha's in every way possible. Its a race to see who will find the bird and then the other one at times will want to steal the point versus honoring. My trainer said its awesome to watch two dogs compete against each other so hard, but its a challenge as well. The Force is strong in both of them. Haley's owner is a preserve guide so that pup will get lots of work this year on birds. She is a bit harder to reel in as compared to Annie. Field trial stock both of them.

PS. Annie sees pen raised birds during training, but once the wild bird season comes in that's over. I think she will have a good season.

[DarylC]

Annie is a very handsome dog Tom. Now all you have to do is find some birds. How is she on retrieving?

[DarylC]

Duplicate.

[vaturkey]

Annie is a very handsome dog Tom. Now all you have to do is find some birds. How is she on retrieving?

Daryl,

One of the reason's she spend a lot of time with the Trainer this year was to tighten the retrieving up. Like most pointing dogs she would rather find and point birds then retrieve them. Last year I knocked down a few Woodcock over her and she picked them up and ran a few feet and dropped them and then went back to hunting. Accordingly, I really focused on teaching her to hunt dead this spring and summer using Cherry Tomatoes and Hot Dog pieces.

Read about the hot dog pieces in a very old training book. Anyway, I told the trainer I wanted the retrieve really tightened up as well as the hunt dead and per the trainer 9 out of 10 retrieves are done to hand. Course that is with the trainer. Hopefully she will do the same thing with me. She is also 9 out of 10 on being steady to flush/shot and fall also. Like many dogs every once in a while the instincts override the training.

Above said, I think she will have a good year. She has stamina to burn, a great nose and a ton of drive and looks good doing it. Looking forward to hopefully have her find a few birds in Michigan. Also have a trip planned to Nebraska in November for a Quail hunt with hopefully a few Roosters thrown in. Long as my body and the weather holds up we both should have a good season.