Cove Mountain Kennels

I was proud of Annie, a little Brittany I started a little over a year ago. Her owner asked me to run her in an AKC hunt test. I was only able to take her out one afternoon for a quick field tune-up before the hunt test.  I was pleased with how quickly she took to me again and followed commands. She did a stellar job in the test, showing excellent hunting and bird finding ability.  She is one of those dogs that just loves to please. When she does, she comes back to you looks you right in the eye and her tail wag starts at her front shoulders and works all the way back through her hips and tail. It was a fun day.

Photo: Working on retrieving with a Braque du Bourbonnais nicknamed Pinto Bean.

You can strengthen both your dog’s desire for birds and willingness to retrieve by playing with them for just a few minutes a night. With the dog on a check cord, show a fresh or frozen bird to the dog, let them smell it, get excited with them over the bird, tease them with it a bit then toss it out for them to get . Keep a hold of the check cord so they don’t run off with it, but keep it loose. If they do try to run off with the bird, praise them while stopping them with the check cord, then provide slack. Call them back to you. When they come back, don’t reach for the bird; let them have it for a moment while you praise them by stroking them down the back. After a moment, take the bird confidently and do it again. If they drop the bird before you reach to take it, immediately stop stroking them (i.e. they are rewarded when they hold the bird and come back to you, the reward stops when they drop the bird). If they don’t want to release the bird, gently lift the under the tender flap of skin between the back leg and hip and take the bird as they look to see what the pressure is; praise them all the while.

All of this should be fun, enthusiastic and positive. You are trying to build a positive, even electric connection between birds, retrieving and you. After about three times, just as the dog is getting really keyed up about the game, act like you are tossing the bird again and hide it behind your back and the bird disappears. Put the dog up and let them grind on just how awesome birds are.

A few brief minutes can really build a pup’s desire for birds and willingness to retrieve.

This weekend I was able to take advantage of the extended Utah chukar season.  This year the season started two weeks later and ran two weeks longer. I was very supportive of this regulation change for two reasons: first, it’s cooler for the dogs on the opener, and second, the birds are not as reliant on water sources, so they are not as tied to the guzzlers when people start hunting them.

We had a great hunt this weekend, the weather was overcast and chilly, which made good conditions for the dogs and the hunters. Even better, there was a fresh dusting of snow on the hillsides. I love to hunt chukars after a snow because you can figure out where they are and what they are doing by tracking them.

We knew the general area we wanted to hunt, so we were driving along surveying the area. We stopped at one spot that looked good and right away we heard chukars calling to us. One would think that I’d have learned by now that when I hear chukars calling I should just walk away. Needless to say, I haven’t. We shelled up and took off after them.  About two-thirds of the way to the top they started calling to us from a steep box canyon back below us. After muttering, we made a plan to go back down and come at them from two sides. As we closed in, I called out that we had them surrounded and they should come out single file. Being the ghost sirens they are, they simply vanished.

The snow did help out. While working my way up the mountain, I came across a single fresh, fresh chukar track in the snow headed up and across the slope. Allie (my lab) and I got on the track and determined to follow it out. Sure enough he led us all the way to the top. I figured he would probably run to the top and fly off the other side, but I thought I’d track him down and find out. In this case it paid off, sort of. We tracked this bird all the way to the top and around an edge. Just as we came around the edge two birds flushed, one right at me flushing from the dog, and the other down and away. I was able to down the first bird with the right barrel and hit the second bird, a far shot with the left barrel. The second bird cocked his wings up like a courting pigeon and sailed way, way down the mountain. Allie quickly came back with the first bird, and I sent her after the second. She made a great retrieve on the second working her way down mountain following the scent.  Where the second bird came from is one of those chukar mysteries.

Later Allie and I were able to get a third bird low on the hillside when she picked up scent and worked over a knoll and up a small drainage and flushed a lone bird. She was still in the drainage and didn’t see the chukar fall. Together we went back over the knoll to look for the downed bird. Once over the rise we could see a tiercel kestrel stooping back and forth after something down in the draw. For a three and a half ounce falcon, he was pretty optimistic about catching a 20 ounce chukar. We apologized to the kestrel and gathered up our third bird.

With the kind of chukar year we have had this year, and for so late in the season, I felt really lucky to have bagged three birds. My hunting partner had about the same luck that I did, so we headed back to town having had a great day. What we learned from this trip: late in the season the birds were single males or in pairs and were widely distributed, rather than in flocks. Birds were at all elevations on the mountain, but based on tracks, more of them were on the lower 1/3 of the slope.

A client and friend of ours sent us this photo of Zoey (the wooly wirehair).

Who says that gun dogs don’t make good house dogs?

Zoey has a great fun-loving personality and is a real addition to the family.
Don’t let anyone kid you; having a dog in the house does not ruin their nose. I believe that it strengthen the companion bond between you and helps you read each other better in the field. In essence, you become a better hunting team.

The only drawback is that they do track in a more dirt and hair. Our answer: vacuum a little more often.

photo

If you have read many of my blogs you know how critical I think exercise is for their physical and mental health.  Let’s put it this way, I believe it is more critical that all other training, without exercise everything else falls apart.

We run our dogs 3 – 4 miles every day and see worlds of difference from a well exercised, well rounded companion vs. a coiled spring without controls. When it comes to puppies, exercise is still critical, but you have to think differently. Give them lots of exercise, but let the puppy set the intensity and the duration. They seem to know best. When they get tired they’ll lay down. Think low impact, low duration. We’ll take a puppy for a good stiff walk rather than running or roading with the big dogs. Too much intensity can be hard on their fast growing joints and bones.  I like to keep puppies exercise sessions frequent, but short in duration (about like their attention span).

Don’t be afraid to take them for long walks, for instance when our puppies were just four months old, we took them on a five mile hike. They did great; when they got tired and flopped down on their bellies, we stopped and took a break. We judged it was time to go again when they were up wrestling and playing tug-o-war with sticks. Some people have suggested a limit of five minutes of exercise per month of age for structured leash exercise; which may not be a bad rule of thumb. Think about when you are out on a long walk and they get tired, will you have the time or be in a location where you can stop and let the pup rest (or pick up the pup and carry her)? If not, make sure your walk is short enough to make it back to the house before the pup needs a rest.

The key for a puppy is frequent, low-intensity, short-duration exercise. This will not over-tax their growing joints, and will benefit both their social, mental and physical development.
 

It has gotten really warm here for mid-winter. Man is it muddy.

The warm weather does have me thinking Spring, and spring makes me think puppies.

Entropion is a condition where the eyelid curls under and the eyelashes come in contact with the eye. It is an uncomfortable condition and over time the constant scratching and irritation to the cornea can have serious consequences.  A knowledgeable vet should readily recognize this condition and recommend a treatment plan. Things that may alert you to the condition are constant tearing or excessive wetness around the eye, mucous discharge around the eye, constant rubbing of the eyes with the foreleg, sensitivity to light or wind, squinting or observable sign of eye discomfort.  Upon close visual inspection you may see that the lid is slightly curled under or see that lashes are contacting the eye lens.

Entropion often shows up at an early age. It is typically a congenital defect that is carried genetically; therefore it is not recommended that dogs with this condition be used for breeding as it will perpetuate the condition in future dogs. Entropion sometimes develops later in life, usually associated with more serious eye diseases or conditions.

Treatment is a fairly simple surgery where a tiny football shaped piece of the eyelid is removed and the lid is stitched back together thereby rolling the edge of the lid and lashes back outward away from the cornea. The nictitating membrane or third eyelid is occasionally involved and may be surgically removed during the procedure. The post-surgery healing is a critical time to keep close watch on the dog so that they are not able to get to their eyes to scratch, rub, tear out the stitches or in any way impact the surgery site. If there is any concern get the dog back to the vet for a follow up visit after surgery (sooner is better than later here).  Healing time is usually about two weeks.

The few dogs I have seen with this condition seem to be in a constant state of general discomfort. The surgery has been easy and relatively inexpensive. Most importantly, the dogs are visibly more comfortable and have a better look to the eye post-surgery.

We had a great trip to Arizona hunting Montezuma quail. Montezuma quail are also known as Mearn’s quail and they are spectacular. The best part about the trip was seeing the huge variety of habitats in Arizona; from the arid Sonoran desert cactus-lands to the higher elevation southern grasslands. Some of the desert plants were really awesome, like this agave pictured below.

The hunting was difficult. We were told by several sources that Arizona had two back to back banner Mearn’s quail years and this year was the best on record. We were told to bring a good book, because you’d have your limit before noon, seven to ten coveys a day, and so on. So were really pumped. The hunting wasn’t as promised. We had to cover a lot of country to find one to three coveys a day. I think the hard hunting made every bird that much sweeter. We all found quail and got some really nice specimens for mounting. We had some really awesome dog work and really nice points.

The scaled quail were a different story all together. Because we struggled finding the Montezuma quail, we didn’t shift over to scalies until the last afternoon. We saw four coveys as we were pulling into our hunting spot. The dogs went crazy with scent, but the little feathered devils just ran circles around us.

One of the really fun parts of the trip was that their late dove season (through January 4th). We were able to shoot several limits of mourning doves, with a few Eurasian collared doves mixed in. Man were they tasty. All told, we had a nice trip, got some trophy birds and saw an awesome diversity of desert country.

Gambel’s Quail Habitat

Mearn’s Quail Habitat