The shooting preserve season is closing here in Idaho, so Saturday we planned on going to a nearby preserve and working the dogs on some pheasants. However, Saturday morning in southeastern Idaho felt like the Arctic; there was about 4 inches of snow and it was blowing 40mph. The guy I was with called a buddy down in northern Utah and he said that the weather was calm, so we went down there to train. We ended up getting about seven guys together and a pile of dogs. We had shorthairs, setters, pointers and French brittanys and worked them on pheasants and chukars. It turned out to be a great day down there. It was fun to work a bunch of dogs and sit around and shoot the bull about dogs and swap hunting stories.
One interesting thing I had happen was that a pointer I was working, who has been fully steady to wing and shot, broke when a chukar paraded around in front of him then flushed. He hasn’t been worked on chukars before, plus it was a new area with a bunch of other dogs and people around, so… I guess he thought he would try a new strategy. Needless to say, we had a quick talk about what it means to be steady on birds. He’s coming along.
