The Cocker Pups Continue To Shine

     My friend Tom and I headed back out to a couple of local coverts today with Chunk and his sister Izzy in tow. Our quarry today as always was partridge (Ruffed Grouse) and woodcock. It was a beautiful fall day with blue skies and colorful foliage to make it a great time to be in the woods.

     Today we ran Chunk first. Tom and I spread out about thirty yards or so and let Chunk cover the ground around and between us. He did a great job of patterning and staying within range and responded well to his commands. To my biased eye he looked to be doing very well for a pup his age. He had one woodcock find which unfortunately we were not able to get a shot at. Chunk took it in stride and was right back to hunting while we worked our way back to the truck.

     Next up was Tom's dog Izzy. She was all business as soon as we put her down. She's a natural and did very well. She handled very well for Tom and she wasn't down long before she flushed a partridge. He made the shot count and Izzy made a nice retrieve.

     We made the move to check out a different covert and brought Chunk out again. He did really well once more, covering the ground with enthusiasm. I cast him toward Tom and then around back to me. He hit the area just to my right and put up a woodcock. I shouldered the Browning, let some lead fly, and down came the bird. Chunk made the retrieve and brought it to hand.

     We put Izzy down for one more run and though she was game, Tom and I were spent. We pushed through one last covert to give her the work but found no birds there. We headed back to the truck to water the pups and put them up for the ride home.

      I continue to be impressed with how well these pups do especially considering their age. There is an old saying somewhere that "Breeding Tells" and that truly seems to be the case with these pups.
Now it's time for the Geezer Hour, a time for some fine scotch and some storytelling.

What a Great Weekend

I'm just coming off a busy & fun-filled weekend which actually started on Thursday. I hit the woods with the cocker pups, Chunk and his sister Izzy & her dad Tom D. We were able to get the pups into several woodcock and grouse. They both performed admirably. They patterned well, were well behaved and when we ran them together they didn't spend the time playing like a lot of pups do. They were all business.

Then on Saturday, Ben & I headed north with the two setters, Gunner & Gally and of course Chunk. Gunner went first but we had to pick him up early due to a minor eye injury which is not uncommon. We gave him some field first aid and TLC and brought him back to the truck. He's fine.

Next we brought out our "Go dog" Gally. She wasn't down five minutes and had a woodcock pinned. I couldn't find it so I sent her on a relocate (which we had worked on this summer with Churchie Kennel & Gun Dog Training) and she executed it to perfection. I moved in and flushed the bird and it worked out just like in the magazines. We ran Gally some more but it became apparent this covert was sparse. We headed back to the truck and headed up to the next place.

We put down Chunk at the next spot. Some kind of ground critter apparently left a lot of scent because his nose never came off the ground. We tried moving up the trail to get him out of the scent and start patterning him but he kept doing the same thing. He was acting more like one of our beagles used to than a bird dog and seeing as I wasn't after any ground critters we picked him up. Whatever it was it left no tracks but it definitely was not anything we were after.

We swapped him out for Gally and once again she was all business. It wasn't long before she had a couple of grouse finds.We only got a look at one of them, but she really performed well. The rain started coming down harder and since Gally had already been down longer than I typically like to run her this early in the season we headed back to the truck. I was pretty beat by this point anyway. We watered the dogs, checked them over for burrs and other nasties, then took a ride to scout some new areas for next time.

When we got home I had a geezer, turned on the TiVo and watched Notre Dame beat Stanford. Yay!!! Ben went out to pick up some stuff for his next morning's duck hunt and took his brother out for ice cream.

Sunday I had a gig at a local apple orchard which is always a fun time. Laurie, Ben, Gerron and Grace came to see us and pick apples. During one of our sets a little girl, maybe three years old, came up with us and danced while we played. Then while we were on a break, a teenage girl came up, borrowed a fiddle and entertained the folks until it was time for us to play again. When I got home Laurie had an apple pie waiting for me.

All in all it was a great weekend but I am whipped. I'm taking today off.