Home Site
• 
• Ask The Vet
• Information Library
• Resources
• Photo Gallery
• Audio Podcasts
• Case of the Month
• Articles
• Newsletter Page
Others' Blogs
• Hunter Angler Gardener Cook
• Did a cat $h!t in Here?
• Hunting Dog Vet
• Strideaway
• For love of dogs and Birds
• DogsandDoubles
• Upland Feathers
• Living with birddogs
• Smartdogs Weblog
• Regal Vizsla
• Prairie Ice
• ChienDog
• Matt Crawford's Vermont Field Journal
• 12 Volt Blog
• Stephen Bodio
• Birddogdoc BLOG
Sites I Frequent
• Upland Journal
• Slowtwitch
• Naturescapes
• Cool Running
RSS Feeds
• CNN - Top Stories
  • 8 missing, 54 homes burned in Colorado fires
    
  • BP points fingers in rig blast
    
  • Asteroid buzzes Earth; another coming
    
• ESPN Outdoors
  • Keck: First doe leads to trophy experience
    
  • News: 2 coyote attacks in 1 hour in NYC suburb
    
  • U.S. shows well in world team competition
    
• My Weather
  • Current Weather Conditions In Sioux Falls, SD (57104)
    
  • Your Local Doppler Radar
    
  • Pollen Trend for Sioux Falls, SD (57104)
    
• AVMA News Bytes
  • 
    
  • World Veterinary Agency to Probe Meat-Climate Link
    
  • Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Pet Frogs
    

• General
• Canine Health
• Hunting
• My Dogs
• News
• Musings
• Photography
• Ask the Vet
• diseases
• Case of the Week
• Injuries
• Site Updates

• August 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008

• Login
• Podcasts
• RSS
• Comments RSS

Okay, after a couple of month hiatus I think Gundogdoc should be back online with current content. I know I’ve made those claims before, and while I’m not consistent you’ll have to admit I do keep coming back. This year dog training dominated my free time and we have been swamped at the clinic. Tomorrow we have a new veterinarian joining our staff, and I hope that will mean more free time to devote to the site again.

This year has been different for me because thankfully the dogs have not taken a back seat and their training is coming along wonderfully. Lily and Belle will be running at their respective Master levels come fall. Lily continues to amaze me with her ability to learn and her drive:

We have added some updates to the site today and they should just be the tip of the iceberg. They include:

A Music Video Review from last year HERE

And

A New Ask the Vet HERE.

In the weeks to come stay tuned for a photo gallery from the HRC Spring Grand. I was fortunate to be able to conduct bitch checks all but one morning and spent three of the five days chasing the dogs and handlers with my camera. In addition I have two audio podcast interviews that need edited and posted. As a teaser one will include a giveaway of one of the most exciting new e-collars on the market.

I’ll start this post by apologizing for the lack of content for the last two months. With that out of the way I’ll share the story of where we’ve been and why.

I’ve alluded to the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of training with Lily. Exactly a year ago I attended a cocker field trial in Minnesota and immediately knew this was a dog game I would be playing. From the beginning I took a different approach to Lily’s training than any dog I have had in the past. She received no bird work early in life, I worked obedience until we both were sick of it and I’ve utilized only positive training methods. This meant attempting to train to a finished level with no collars, and other than a brief 1-2 week period of utilizing the check cord, I didn’t even have a strap collar on during training.

Now, I don’t want to give the impression I’m anti-collar. Heck I have about a dozen of them, but I wanted to see how far I could take a dog without one. I cannot take any credit for this novel approach. When I decided on a spaniel I scoured the literature on British methods and learned as much as I could from these techniques. The biggest influence on this decision, though, was the time I’ve spent with Lily’s breeder Paul McGagh of Glencoe Kennels. I have spent a lot of time with dog people from all over the country, and I don’t mean this as a slight to any of them, but the times I’ve spent with Paul have been some of the most amazing dog training lessons I have ever witnessed. Paul truly has a gift when it comes with his relationships with these amazing animals and it was seeing this first hand that made me want to alter my approach with this dog.

Lily’s training has been a very positive experience and I feel it has forced me to learn, as a handler, more about the canine thought process. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that a number of these training sessions would end with me contemplating adding the collar to the mix in order to smooth out the process. And to be completely honest I can’t say we won’t go down that path eventually.

My plan had been to run her first trial the weekend of April 25 in North Dakota. The week leading up to the trial found us still struggling with steadiness to flush and so I elected to scratch her from the trial in favor of three days of training, with the hopes she would be ready for the Minnesota trial the following weekend. This proved to be a very wise decision as the switch went off for the little dog and outside of the rare break on a low-flushing bird she was bringing it all together like a champ. The Wednesday night before the trial we had a near perfect training session and Thursday I ran her birdless simply to work on control in the field.

Friday I loaded up the truck and headed to Minnesota to watch the first day of the trial in hopes of gaining some insight before our big run on Saturday. The day was filled with incredible dogs. A huge number of dogs were carried over during each series in the open. There was a puppy stake on Friday, smaller than Saturday’s, but with many of the dogs running both days I was able to see some of the competition. After the first two puppies had run I turned to one of the other spectators to inquire about these dogs’ runs and more specifically, what would have kept them from not getting called back in the open…his reply, “Oh, nothing, they would have done fine in the open.” This made me sick about Saturday. When I had first signed Lily up for these trials I thought puppy actually meant puppy; however, in spaniel trials it meant dogs that were under two years old. At 10 months old Lily was truly still a puppy, but the realization sunk in that she would be playing a big dog’s game.

Saturday morning’s alarm sounded much too early and I knew judgement day, literally, was upon us. The puppy stake is usually run after the first two series of the open. Two days of wind and somewhat dry conditions resulted in a number of dogs being dropped during the open, but regardless it felt like it was dragging on forever. Finally the last brace was ran and the trial broke for lunch. We were now about a half-hour from making our debut on the trial scene.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was nervous. It had been suggested by a number of people to take some Immodium with me, and while I didn’t have to resort to that I was pretty worked up. I watched the first couple of dogs run and then decided to get her out of the kennel. We were the last dog to run and so I thought having her out on lead for a while may help settle down her nerves…that proved to not be the case. The longer we waited the more anxious she got. I was beginning to think I had made my first blunder.

It was looking like we were going to start midway through the course and so we walked towards the line as the handler before us sent his dog into the field. His pup put up a bird early and it was dropped, followed by a nice retrieve. Blunder number two had just occurred as Lily intently marked the fall since she was so close to the shot. We followed the action up the course waiting our turn. After the pup’s second bird content the judges decided to head back to the beginning of the course for our run rather than to pick it up where the previous dog ended. By this time Lily was a wild banshee at the end of her leash and raring to go and I was going over every conceivable worst-case scenerio in my head.

After some brief instructions the judges allowed me to take the course. I hupped Lily, stroked her head a few times, told her she was a good dog, removed the leash and we were on our way. Immediately she headed for the area of the fall from the previous dog. I was worried we were in trouble as I could not whistle her out of the area. Blunder number three, in hindsight I should have just left well enough alone, allowed her to hunt it out and swallowed my whistle. As it was I’m sure I got dinged for some whistle refusals and lack of cooperation. After what seemed like an eternity she gave up on finding the bird and started hunting like the dog I’d come to know.

The first bird contact went like textbook with a retrieve to hand. The second bird gave us a run for our money. She put it up and immediately hupped. The bird caught the stiff wind and came right back at the judges and me, hovering over us for a few seconds before landing about two yards in front of me with Lily about 20 yards further beyond. The judge asked me to release her and the pup came charging at me like she was shot out of a canon. She hit the bird, rolled it on the ground before it took flight and she once again hupped, was steady to shot and made the retrieve. I handed the bird to the judge and leashed Lily up. Just like that our first trial run was over In my constant negative view of the world I spent the walk back to the truck dwelling on the first minute of the run as she hunted for a non-existent retrieve. I kept thinking, if only I had kept her away from the line longer, if only I had left her in the truck, if only I….if, if, if.

As I walked back with my head down everyone I met on the walk had nothing but compliments to give on Lily’s run. They were impressed with her style, her steadiness and of course her looks. Every time I brought up the start of the run it was dismissed as her just being a puppy and an insignificant part of the performance. The first few times I heard this I thought it was just people being nice to the rookie; however, the more I heard it the more I thought maybe we had a chance. As I shook off the negative thoughts clouding my judgement I had to admit that I could not have been happier with her bird performance that day.

With a mountain of work waiting for me at home I decided to skip out on the last series of the open as well as Sunday’s amateur. The four-hour drive home gave me ample time to reflect on the events of the day, and I knew I had been stricken by yet another addiction to add to my list. Regardless of the judges decision this cocker trial thing had gotten in my blood.

Later in the evening, after the truck was unpacked and the steaks were on the grill my phone rang with news that Lily had taken second. I couldn’t believe it. The little dog had come through. All the hours of researching breeders, the training books and videos and the endless hours of training had all come together.

For those of you who know me also know that I have a competitive side and I may have been known to note in the heat of battle that second place is the first loser. I like to think that in this case Lily had a first place performance that was downgraded by an incompetent handler, that, and had I won right out of the gate I may not have had the incentive to come back for more. Ok, maybe I’m making a little much out of a puppy trial, but we all have to start somewhere.

For a photo gallery look at the first two days of the trial check out the pictures HERE.

Mother Nature hasn’t quite decided whether it is still winter or the start of spring. We started yesterday with around 3-4 inches of snow and by evening the temps were near 50. While the weather sorts things out the snow geese have decided to start their migration through the state. It is just the leading edge, but with cabin fever firmly in place I loaded Lily up last Friday and headed out to attempt a pass shoot after work.

I’ll admit I was impressed by the little dog’s ability to sit still:

Thankfully we had to walk about a half-mile to the spot which allowed her to burn off some energy. Having had no experience with “watching” birds she was a little confused as to why we were just standing there in the tall grass. Occasionally she would excuse herself from Hup and start exploring. After a couple of quick toots on the whistle though she’d return and resume her post.

We were on a hill overlooking a small lake that was holding a few birds out on the ice. My hope was that those birds would draw some of the birds in the area in and afford us a couple of opportunities. After about forty-five minutes something startled the birds on the ice and they began to circle over the lake, gradually widening their path as they contemplated sitting back down or heading out.

As the birds circled wider I was pretty certain I was going to get a shot. They were going to be a bit high, but well within gun range. I had not shot the 12 gauge around Lily yet so I decided to fire twice and see how things went. When the birds were in range I fired, and promptly missed. I quickly looked down to my left and no Lily. My heart sank a bit as I worried I had startled her.

Immediately I caught movement to my right. There was Lily with the front part of her body down and her butt up in the air, tail wagging like she had caught something in the grass? She looked ready to pounce so I released her with a “Lily” and she dove into the grass and quickly returned with an empty shell. She was so incredibly proud as she wiggled with excitement. I graciously took the shell and because she was so excited released her again with “Lily” and she swung around and grabbed shell number two. Not exactly what I had in mind for her first double, but I wasn’t going to disappoint the happy little dog.

Needless to say we have a bit of waterfowling work to do with the hopes of her understanding that we’re out there for birds. I relayed the story to a good friend whose comment was that she was just being a “green” dog worried about the environment. Nonetheless the adventure has begun as I transition Lily from the training field to the real world. She is at a crucial point for me to reinforce steadiness. Far and away she is the calmest, most steady dog I’ve ever had but a couple of unrestrained instances like last week and I can see how that would quickly come undone. I’m hoping this is the first of many spring reports with the little white “goose” dog:

Most of the snow in the area has finally started to melt after accumulating much of the winter. This has helped open up more areas to training, and we’ve been taking advantage of it. I’ve been slowly returning Maggie back to action and she’s been loving every minute she gets in the field:

She’s definitely still a little awkward and sore in that rear leg, but unless you watch closely she isn’t missing a beat. By far one of the most stylish dogs I’ve ever owned, I never had the heart to “break” her to be completely steady. For whatever reason she is easy to make steady to wing and shot, but when the feathers drop watch out:

All the dogs got to work, but with Belle and Lily I’m trying to work out steadiness, which meant it wasn’t practical to carry the camera in the field. Both dogs are doing great and as long as I stick with it I’m hoping to have a couple of steady youngsters by hunting season. It seems like I make that statement every year and never see it through, so we’ll just have to see. Lily is progressing and it has certainly been an exciting process to train her, essentially in reverse, from any other dog I have ever owned. She has been remarkably steady and obedient through her early training and now that we are introducing birds late in the process I just need to stay ahead of the curve:

I’ve posted some of the best pictures from the morning (the light was fantastic) in the photo gallery on the site. For more pointing dogs in action CLICK HERE.

This morning at a little after 5 a.m., when I sat down at the computer with my first cup of coffee the temperature here was -25 with a wind chill of -42. As I type this at 10 am, it has warmed to a balmy -23 degrees. The cold alone would be bad enough, but my morning blog posting has been curtailed over the last week or two because it seems like every morning finds me out shoveling either new snow or windblown drifts–Old Man Winter’s one-two punch. Currently, living in town with a standard-sized driveway, I have refused to invest in a snow blower, which I guess is my own fault. The sides of my driveway are getting so snow piled that I may not have a choice in the matter before long. I’ve never understood those that head south in the winter…until this year. I thought I’d offer these bits of information as a backdrop to the heart of the post below.

Last night after work I received an email from a good friend entitled, “Driven crazy by 30 below windchill or Cabin Fever in the Extreme.” My friend is a fellow dog addict with her breed of choice being Bearded Collies and her game of choice agility. The email went on to detail her “remodeling” project, after the extreme temperatures caused her to crack. She converted her living room into a weave pole station:

Waiting to go:

The email went on to lament about no longer being eligible for a Better Homes & Gardens spread, but that the dogs were in agility heaven. In addition her boys can practice further obedience in the newly converted space:

She ended the email with “Of course, I’m sure the weave pole in the living room situation will only last …..for about 4 more months.  Who needs to have guests over???” Unfortunately with the weather pattern of late I fear her four month prediction is not hyperbole.

For those of you unfamiliar with agility, here is what the finished product of weave pole training looks like. Follow the link for a short video clip of Logan:

Link to Logan Video on Youtube

Now, I’d like to report this is one isolated case of a dog owner gone mad…unfortunately it is not. The irony of the situation is that just prior to checking my email I, too, was undertaking a remodeling project in our living room. I had cleared out the furniture, and instead of weave poles, laid out a GHG ultra-low dog blind and field mat to introduce Lily to field work:

Once she got the hang of kenneling we even had room to throw some marks:

Of course the retrieving field currently goes through the area I planned to set up my carving bench (another winter project), which happens to be the same area that I set up my indoor bike trainer. The only silver lining in all of this is that we should have plenty of sheet water in the spring for the snow geese and the snow up north should help produce a bumper crop of little ducks.

The dogs, on the other hand, have not shared my optimism at what the future holds as they dwell in their boredom with the present. Lily, always the resourceful one, did discover a little nook that happens to contain a heating vent. As I type this she is fast a sleep with a steady stream of warm air comforting her to sleep:

I’m sure some day it will warm up again…some day.

It seems like just yesterday that Chrissy and I visited those little bundles of setters with their eyes barely opened. I know that everyone says its stupid to pick a dog based purely on color, but as the only tri-colored female in the litter, I knew that day that she’d be hunting in South Dakota some day. Today the apple of my eye celebrated her third birthday:

We’re a couple of those crazy dog owners who dress their dogs up for Christmas pictures and also celebrate their birthdays. I am neurotic about dog nutrition, and for a couple of years it occupied most of my professional life. At the end of the day, though, who doesn’t like birthday cake:

After this picture the birthday toys were promptly destroyed, and Lily returned to her regularly scheduled mischief. We are currently having our hundredth blizzard of the winter and so it’s too cold, windy and miserable out to run off the pent up energy outside…I can’t wait for the spring to get here.

I’ve often stated that the prairie grouse are my true love. Deep down the excitement and mystery of these native birds really does something for me. The last couple of years I was their devoted companion, only rarely straying to chase their Asian cousin the pheasant. Yesterday things once again changed in my life. If prairie grouse have become my true love, then yesterday I was reunited with the mistress that I’ll never be able to quit.

For the last two years I had forsaken this first love, in large part due to Emma’s deteriorating condition. I could justify an upland trip without her, but I think it would have killed her to watch me take the duck hunting gear and leave her at home. Most of this season I spent reminiscing about my waterfowling pursuits but had not acted upon them, always figuring “next year.” As the seasons came to a close I decided that I couldn’t wait for the snow geese to return and set the wheels in motion for a hunt that I’d been longing to have since moving to South Dakota.

Much the same as its bigger sibling the Mississippi, the Missouri river, is steeped in tradition and history. One of those traditions is late-season Canada goose hunting, which prior to yesterday I had only dreamed about. There are goose camps galore strung out along the river and a number of guides willing to share their pit with you for a price. The biggest stickler holding me back with such an arrangement was this last bit. I’ll go on record as saying I am staunchly against paying to hunt. I think it could lead to the downfall of hunting in this country as more and more land is taken away from public access. It was with this great internal moral conflict that I booked a day with a guide for a buddy and me. My rationale was that it was the only hunting opportunity in South Dakota, we would be using his gear and access to his land…that’s how I rationalized it but it still didn’t sit well in my heart.

This would be a bit of a reunion hunt for one of my best hunting buddies and me. Many of you who have followed the site from the start probably have noticed that Aaron and Storm had been absent the last couple of years in the blog. While I had shifted from primarily waterfowling to prairie birds, Aaron and Storm continued to chase the migrating birds. After a two-year break from the field we looked to pick up where we had left off.

The trip almost didn’t happen, as a cold-front moved in on Friday night and brought with it snow, drizzle and some strong northwest winds. After hemming and hawing for about a half-hour we decided to chance it. Thankfully about 20 miles west of Sioux Falls the conditions improved dramatically and we assumed we would have smooth sailing. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to test our resolve once again, and the winds kicked up and we had to drive a significant stretch in on-and-off white conditions. Finally arriving at the motel, we both were beat and retired for the evening.

Most waterfowling adventures begin in the wee hours of the morning; late-season geese on the other hand seemed to be more dignified and like to see the sunrise before starting their day. We met our guide at about 7:30am, and were at the field after nine. We would be meeting other hunters, which was another big potential issue for me, as I have very few hunting partners choosing to share these experiences with the closest of friends. I was more than relieved when the group showed and I recognized some familiar faces. Thankfully the dog world is rather small and filled with good people. The nine of us set about to putting together the spread:

With temps just two degrees above zero we elected to sit in the trucks, waiting to see the first groups lift off the river in the distance. The birds had been flying around 10:30 most of the week, but with the abrupt change to lower temps they took their time stretching their wings, and it was noon when we spotted the first group. Three from the group offered to take the trucks out of the field while the rest of us headed for the layout blinds. As luck would have it, on this first group, Aaron and I were the only ones with calls in the blind. With a three-year layoff from calling I was a little worried whether I’d still have the chops. Aaron is an incredible caller and I happily played second chair to his Concert Master performance. The flock circled once before cupping up and committing to the spread. As those big birds parachuted into the spread I was falling in love all over again with the majesty of waterfowl.

In addition to the waterfowl hunt I was extremely excited to see Storm in action and had the camera gear along to capture this magnificent dog at work. As some of you have probably gathered from recent posts I miss having a retriever around the house. I love the setters and the cocker is growing on me, but with that being said, there is just something about a working retriever.  After the first volley Storm was called on to perform his end of the job:

The action was extremely fast-paced as flock after flock appeared on the horizon. I’d alternate between calling, shooting and trying to manage the camera. Storm continued to do his job with enthusiasm and efficiency:

While we had a lot of success there were a number of geese that got away unscathed. Towards the end of the flurry I’d try to snap some pictures of the birds. Had I had a different blind set-up I think I could have managed some good incoming shots, but the last thing I wanted to do was ruin the hunt for the others with my camera glass causing flares. In this shot someone clearly wasn’t on the bird. This low-res copy doesn’t do it justice, but you can see a wad between the two birds and the shot string behind them:

Having the birds stacked up above us, and so readily responding to the calling and spread, completely fanned the waterfowling flame that had been laying dorment inside. I had moved to this great state to waterfowl, and prior to the prairie grouse obsession, I’d waterfowl hunt to the exclusion of all else, only chasing other birds once the duck season had ended. I can’t take back the two-year absence but I can dang well make sure it never happens again:

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how complicated we make life when at the end of the day it should be so, so simple. We’re always striving for bigger, better, faster, stronger, more money and more power. In the end how much of that will ever really matter? In the end the memories of family, friends, passionate pursuits…and a good dog or six will be what leads us through our dark times. Me?…my New Year’s resolution will be to making more memories like these:

Yesterday found me sticking pretty close to home. I had two hospitalized patients, one of which was in really rough shape at our local Emergency Hospital. After my morning rounds, I did find a couple of hours mid-day to sneak the dogs out for our traditional New Year’s Day hunt. I decided to head to an area I had not hunted this year in hopes of finding less pressure than in some of the areas I had been hitting recently.

I found what I was looking for on the pressure front, but I think it was because I found an area that had been pounded by snow. Lily continues to amaze me, and though she has no idea yet what we are doing, when she does quarter, the cover and snow don’t seem to slow this little pup down:

I’m still only carrying the blank pistol with her, and the snow cover and birds in the cattails have made for a less than ideal introduction to birds. We still have fun though, and I am increasingly excited about her intelligence and progression in the field.

Belle was up next, and she was raring to go. We managed two hens, but the roosters avoided us. I hate hunting the setters in the cattails, and so we could only manage the thick edges and I’m sure the wise, late-season birds just scooted further in to their burrows as we passed by. Maggie has been making these little excursions with us, but up to this point it has been as an observer. Yesterday I decided to run her very briefly to see how the leg responded. The deep, crusted snow was a less than ideal “recovery” exercise but she did have fun for the brief 10-15 minutes she was on the ground, and I’m happy to report there was very minimal limping afterwards.

To continue with the theme of my last post, not only am I a dogaholic, I’m also a bit of a nerd. Lining our downstairs are 8×10 pictures of the dogs. I take one in-the-field picture of each dog, and print and frame it, to serve as a pictorial walk down memory lane. In addition I take one group shot of the dogs that serves as the separation at the yearly breaks. Since this was the first time this season all three dogs had a spin in the field, here will be this season’s shot:

You try to get three dogs all to look at the camera at the same time. Maggie hadn’t run by this point so I think she was still a little disgusted with me.