Winter weary

Silas is sleeping on the couch and I am watching the birds at the feeder today. I am off for President's Day and it was -17 at 6:30 this morning. We have had snow on the ground here in Franklin, Venango county since Jan. 4. Silas pointed his first grouse that evening. Silas turned 1 year old in late January and has matured greatly in all areas. I look forward to the progression of training when it again warms. My next order of business will be whoa training and steadiness drills with birds. He pointed but did not hold well several times throughout season. He had points on woodcock, pheasant and grouse. He has ranged a little farther than I would like but stays closer in heavy cover and when birds are plentiful. Over the past month I have almost never touched the e-stim collar button. He has been checking in frequently while we are out. He stopped picking birds up to retrieve so that is also something I will work on later this summer. As for now, we will go for conditioning runs when the weather allows and await the return of spring woodcocks.

Grouse and woodcock season are upon us.

Grouse and woodcock season started here in Pa this weekend. Silas is just under 9 months old now and has been gun conditioned and held point on quail and a pheasant. We have not pinned down any wild birds yet, but we also haven't encountered many in Erie county. We started Saturday off in Clarion county and were greeted with rain showers and 20 mile an hour winds. We only flushed one grouse all day and it was a wild flush I could barely hear. We had no woodcocks. Yesterday we tried out luck in some very promising cover in Erie county. We again had rain and despite out efforts encountered no woodcock or grouse. We aren't even finding white wash. Today we flushed a grouse 3 times. We had more rain and Silas tracked the bird 75 yards with 2 flash points before the bird flushed. I am pleased as he has seen scant few grouse in all of our training. With an upcoming move, we are going to be around some fantastic grouse and woodcock cover. My buddy flushed 11 grouse in one hour yesterday so that will be the place we try next week. Silas is certainly showing some promise.

Late summer training.

 

It's certainly starting to feel like fall and a little too early for me. Silas and I have continued to train daily. He is growing and around 30 pounds now at 7 1/2 months old. I use the e-stim collar and am able to run him off lead now. We work on obedience almost daily in the yard. There have been scant few encounters with birds this summer. I joined Oak Ridge Pointers for a training ground. I also have shot the .410 over him while he retrieves. He is quite successful finding the dummies with scent I have placed across the fields. Saturday we are going to visit a farm loaded with pheasants. I can't wait to see how he does. A post will follow.

Canine Connections LLC.

Last evening Sarah and I had Eileen Murdock of Canine Connections come to the house to assist with a behavior modification program for the home. Silas is a very nice dog but we were having some trouble with him around the cats, their food and jumping up. Eileen helped us identify what we were not doing in order to change these behaviors and we are already seeing a difference. Sarah has never owned a dog so she required some education to assist with her becoming a leader with Silas. We were very pleased with Eileen's approach as she is also a hunter and field trial judge. In the field, Silas is moving along. I will contact Knap farms to assist with birds, etc in the next week or so.

Silas is growing in all respects.

 

I haven't posted in some time because it was really just business as usual until I purchased some chukar two weeks ago. Silas was introduced to one I placed in an onion sack. His first response wasn't what I had predicted; he layed down and barked at it. After a short while he became more bold with the bird and started to become very curious. After a second introduction he snuck in and flushed a planted bird which he attempted to chase. Finally, at the third bird he stopped and pointed. It was brief but I did get a photo. I killed one of the birds to use as a retrieve bird when it had cooled. Silas was very eager to retrieve to me. I have started to use the check cord with him at all times because he started to ignore the recall command at about the time he lost his first set of teeth. Also, he hasn't really blossomed into a nice house companion at this time. He is very hyper, running in circles at full speed for 10 minutes at a time, even though he gets out every day on long runs. we are having a very difficult time breaking him of jumping up on us and others. We are staring to look at some various obedience school options. He is a hard worker in the field but not calming down at home. We really hope this improves as he gets a little older.

I took Silas out with the gun for the first time. I aired him out for a while and started to use the retrieve dummy with him. After a few excited retrieves I fired the .22 when he got to the dummy. He didn't seem to notice the shot. We tried a few more times with the same result and I put the gun away quite satisfied with his progress. We were also fortunate to get into a flock of young turkeys which he flushed. He chased them and briefly pointed one that landed in a low tree. After searching for others we came back to the flush site and he worked into the golden rod and trailed the adult hen, he flushed her right at his nose and wasn't at all bothered by her flush and cackle. He jumped after her and made chase for about 50 yards across the field. As you can see by the above photo, we have plenty of open training space in our neck of the woods. I will buy some adult quail as soon as they are ready and get down to some more bird work. I am considering testing at the NAVHDA meeting in Harrisville this September. I think he will do well.

 

 

Warm Temps...

Silas and I continue to get out into new types of cover daily. We go rain or shine, but with the temps heating up we are restricted to early morning or late evening. I am amazed at his growth looking back over the posts now. I will post some new pics after our trip to Clarion county this weekend. We have begun some table work with woah training; nothing too dramatic but a "show dog" style approach. At four and a half months he is doing quite well. I hope to run into some grouse and woodcock before too long.

The steps to nowhere. 5/24/14

Silas and I had took our walk into the steps to nowhere this morning. This is not an official name but the one I use to keep it a secret. This place is full of grouse. We walked about a half a mile along a tram road and then came back. He jumped into the stream to cool off. He took a long, fast leap into the water. This was his first time to play and swim in water. I just stood there and watched. I guess water is not an issue for him. He is now working in front of me on our walks. I try to keep the wind in our face. He is also beginning to explore more boldly on his own. He is also starting to chase robins, etc. He has pointed quite a few bees. I haven't weighed him in two weeks so he must be 15 or so pounds now. He is really getting tall and lanky. I don't really do any training with him at this point other than regular obedience around the house and yard. I just want him to explore and gain some confidence in the covers we walk. I have started some very light, early whoa training and he is doing well with it. He is a very smart dog!