Cove Mountain Kennels

Here is a client from Southern Idaho with two of his setters, Ja’ger and Cookie, and some huns. Trevor loves his setters and has four of them. I had the privledge of working with three of them this past summer. Cookie (left) came to me at five years old and had never been exposed to hunting situations. Trevor picked her up a few months before I got her and wanted to see what we could do with her. She left as a very nice bird dog. Ja’ger was younger and had been worked with a little and had a hunting season behind him. The training really steadied him up and exposed him to a lot of birds. This picture was taken shortly after the training. We love hearing from happy clients.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here. The bird season opened here today with forest grouse. I couldn’t make it out today, but tomorrow afternoon, look out. I have been seeing a few ruffed grouse broods around, so things look better here in SE Idaho for forest grouse than they did last year.

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We just got back from the Dave Walker seminar in Richfield, UT put on by Jon Lee of gundogbreeders.com. What an awesome weekend. Dave Walker is a 50+ year veteran professional dog trainer and field trialer and was elected to the AKC Brittany club Hall of Fame. Dave knows bird dogs like no other. He just celebrated his 80th birthday last week, but seeing him work dogs all day long in the field for two day you know he works most 40 and 50 year olds into the ground.

The seminar started on Friday with a delicious breakfast, and Dave talking for a few minutes about his training methods and thoughts about dogs, then we went straight to the field. Where Dave worked one on one with dogs and their owners, starting with the very basics and moving up through steady to wing, steady to shot and fall. He worked with us on backing and honoring as well as force fetch.

We were all amazed with Dave’s ability to get the most out of a dog. He could take a dog that had been running up birds for two seasons and in five minutes have that dog standing like a statue while he flushed the bird for him. It was inspiring. While I’m a long ways from there, it makes me know what is possible from these dogs.

Ever since I extended my love and pursuit of good hunting dogs from bird dogs to include hounds, I have been torn at times which to hunt. In Idaho we have five months of bird season and I do a lot of bird hunting. I also run bears with my hounds in the spring and summer when there is no conflict. But the other day I had a big decision to make: Should I try for cougars or chukars?

It was the end of chukar season, but I had been dying to get out again for lions. I decided I’d try lions in the morning and then Chris and I had plans to hit the chukar hills before dark. After waking at 3:00 am to drive some canyons for lions, my friend Mike and I cut tracks of a cougar right before daylight. The track was two nights old, but we each put a dog in the race. My walker dog, Okie and my friend’s Spike dog took the track well over a mile and by some lucky chance of freak mountain acoustics we heard them jump and tree the lion way up the canyon. When we made it to the tree we were greeted by an old, yellow toothed female lion that was not happy to see us. We took some pictures and let her free to run another day.

On the way home I texted Chris to let him know it would be too late for me to join him. By the time I got home it was after 4:00. I got a call from Chris. He told me he had found a covey and I should get up there. Decisions, decisions… I put the hounds in their kennel, grabbed my Brittany, Kenya (who knew we were going hunting…they always do) and shotgun and jumped in the car. I met Chris on the mountain with enough time for 30-45 minutes of hunting in the prime area. The sun went down before we could get into the covey again, but it is always a good time in the hills with a friend and some fine hunting dogs.

I’ve been reading some reviews on bird dog retail websites about the Garmin GPS dog tracking systems on the market. Quite frankly, I don’t think they have it all right. Let me tell you why.

If you want to know about dog tracking, talk to guys who run hounds on bears and mountain lions. I’ve recently gotten into big game hounds and have made some contacts locally and on the internet. These are the guys that know dog tracking. A bird dog runs big if he is 400 yards out from his handler. This summer a couple of friends and I ran a black bear for over 17 miles from where it was jumped. A lion hound may work a trail for 5 miles before catching up to the cat. Houndsmen use the tracking equipment for what it is worth and therefore know what works and what does not.

I currently have an Astro 220 with DC-30 collars. There is a new Astro on the market and also a newer collar called the DC-40. I have heard very few positive comments about the function of the DC-40 collar over the old DC-30. It takes longer to key in to the receiver and simply doesn’t track as well. I think it was a case of Garmin trying to get a new product on the market without much testing. Possibly Garmin will make the necessary improvements to the DC-40, but from what I’ve been hearing, they underperform the older DC-30. The problem is that it is becoming difficult to find the DC-30 collars because houndsmen are buying them up since they were discontinued early this year. Anyone thinking about buying a GPS tracking system should visit biggamehoundsmen.com and read up in the product review forum about the latest reviews from the guys who know.

Wednesday was the last day of the Idaho pheasant season. The last couple of years I have made it a point to hunt the closing day of the pheasant season, but this year I didn’t think I would make it, with everything that we had going on. However, when it started snowing heavily mid-morning I couldn’t take it. I had to bust out. It started out cold with a biting wind, but after bumping a covey of 18-20 Huns I was hot enough to shed a few layers. I love hunting pheasants in the snow. For one they tend to hold tighter, and for another you can track them and see what’s around. I ended up with a couple of roosters and a fluke ruffed grouse that was in a lone willow patch in a tiny creek bottom along an ag field.  The Huns flushed too far out and I lost them in the fog and never did put them up again, but had an awesome time. Until next year…

There is not much that is more exciting than approaching your bird dog on point waiting for the eruption of sound and feathers. What is even more exciting is not knowing what type of bird is going to rise in front of your dog. One of the great things about living in Idaho as a bird hunter and bird dog trainer is the variety of upland game birds. While most upland game birds stick to a preferred habitat, often these habitats overlap. This offers hunters a chance at bagging multiple species on a single hunt.

While some species of birds will hardly ever be found together, quite a few have habitat that overlaps. Blue and Ruffed Grouse are often found in the same hunt because their habitats overlap. While you won’t generally find forest grouse in the rocks and chukars in the forest, many species lend themselves to a multiple species bag hunt.

If you are looking to bag multiple species in a single hunt, hunt the fringes of habitats when possible. Huns and pheasants like being around agriculture fields so hunt those edges. Sharptails and sage grouse like big expanses of sage and grass. It is possible to get into all of those species in certain areas. Chukars and huns can be found together, but usually huns are taken incidentally in chukar country. There are many other species that can be mixed and we’ve found it really fun getting mixed bags. It really adds to the excitement and mystery of what might flush in front of the dog. – Nick Muckerman

Last week we finished working with a German Shorthair named Moses. He has come along way in his training and I was proud to pass him on to his owner. When I started with his training it was evident that he had lot of bird drive, but only wanted to try and catch birds that he smelled. There was no point in him. He had a great nose, but just wanted to dive in and catch birds. He was also a hard-headed dog and did not pick things up very quickly. His positive attributes were his great confirmation and excellent bird drive.

We worked with a launcher and eventually got him to respect birds and hold a point. Over time he progressed on his obedience training, handling and “whoa” training. After a lot of bird work he eventually learned it didn’t pay to chase birds and began holding through his points and watching the birds fly off (it is great to have homing pigeons for this). The north Utah owner wanted him trained primarily for pheasants and wanted him to break on the shot so he had the best chance of recovering a wounded, running ringneck.

Moses was a challenging dog, but turned out nicely. Toward the end of his training, I began hunting him on chukars, pheasants, and sharptail grouse. He now handles beautifully and checks back often. His first time out for sharptails he pinned a covey of about a dozen and held his point nicely so I was able to knock down a double. He is a striking dog and has a lot of intensity on point. Before he left me, he had had 8-10 wild birds shot over him. The day he was picked up he was headed for a week of pheasant hunting in North Dakota. I’m looking forward to hearing how he did.  – Nick Muckerman