Cove Mountain Kennels

The bird season is finally here. The dove season kicks it off tomorrow and I’m excited about it. I’m not seeing a lot of doves around, but I’m sure there are enough around. It usually goes with out fail that about August 28th or so we get a day or two of cooler rainy weather and it moves the doves on south just before the opener. This year, at least so far, the weather has been consistent and the local doves seem to have stayed.

If you haven’t had a chance to get that new pup around and work with him on birds and give him a proper introduction to the gun, opening day of the dove season isn’t the time to do it. You’d be better off leaving him at home, or better yet, instead of taking the day dove hunting, take him out and put him on some training pigeons and give him a proper introduction to the gun, where there is a positive connection with birds and gunfire. All too often I see young dogs taken straight to the hunting field as their introduction to birds and gunfire. The results can be long-term negative for the dog, and very hard, if not impossible to overcome.

I know I’ll get some negative comments about dove hunting from this post. The answer is, yes I do enjoy shooting the bird of peace. I find them quite a sporting target, as they fly almost 50 mph, and I find them quite tasty. What can I say? This is a hunting dog blog. Tomorrow I’ll post one of my favorite recipes.

 

If you are looking to buy a new kennel box, here are some suggestions:

First, size is the most important factor in buying a dog box. In order to get the right size, measure your dog’s height at the shoulders; add 10% and this is a minimum height of the crate. Next, when the dog is laying down comfortably in an open “C” position, not stretched out, or in a tight circle, measure the length of the dog from one end to the other. This is the minimum length for the crate. The next thing to carefully consider and measure is where is the going to go? Will it fit in the vehicle? When it is in the vehicle, can you fit any other gear, or can you fit two crates side by side? (e.g. If you are driving a full sized pickup truck, space is much less of a consideration, however, if you have a mid-sized truck or SUV, you may not be able to get two extra large crates in, but two intermediate sized ones will fit perfectly side by side.) So, see what sizes fit the dog, then see what size fits your situation.

Second, figure out is whether or not you want a plastic crate or a metal one. For me, this boils down to how often I plan on taking it in and out of the truck and how much I want to spend (i.e. ~$80 plastic vs. ~$500 metal). As far as plastic crates go, as long as a given kennel box is airline approved, they are basically all of similar quality and you probably won’t go wrong with any of these brands/models.

From my perspective, the Petmate Furrarri is the cat’s meow of plastic dog boxes for the following reasons:

• Latches rather than a bunch of screws around the outside – cleaning issue (loose nuts and bolts)
• Door latches on both sides so you can open the door from either way depending on the situation. Any door can be switched by opening the top and bottom sides and flipping the door over, but again, it takes time to undo all the nuts & bolts to switch it, and it usually doesn’t get done.
• Vents 
• Flat floor

 

For anyone who is interested, I will be putting on a dog rattlesnake avoidance training next Saturday, July 26 here in Annabella, UT. Contact me through the contact page on this website if you are interested and we will schedule a time. Plan on about an hour. We will let your dog smell, hear, and see a rattlesnake, and using the e-collar, will condition them to avoid rattlesnakes. We will then shift to a different area and test the dog on a rattlesnake to make sure the conditioning is focused on the snake rather than the training site. Cost is $50.

 Annabella, UT is 3 hours south of Salt Lake City, and 4 hours northeast of Las Vegas.

 

 

One of the things I was able to work on while camping over the fourth of July, was hunting the dogs through forested cover where they quickly loose sight of you. This is as real is it gets for training a dog to hunt forest grouse. This poses a different scenario for a dog that’s use to training on open ground where they can run big and always see you, and you can see them.

While hunting grouse, a dog needs to learn to read the direction you are hunting and anticipate where you are at all times and how to hunt for you when they can’t see you. The other thing they need to do is learn how to find you when they have lost you. They need to learn to circle around and find and follow your scent trail to find you, check in, and keep hunting.

I worked with each of the dogs hunting out through the forest. At first, I would call them back often to me and let them know where I was, especially when I changed directions. Over time, I gave them less and less direction and notice of my location and let them work to me. When they checked back in, I would praise them and cast them off again. Several times during a session with a dog, I also would hide behind a tree and watch while they were out away from me. I wanted them to learn how to circle back and pick up my scent trail and work it out and find me. If they were slow coming back or having a tough time finding me, I would call out their name with a short, quick yell, so they would perk up and have incentive to keep looking, but would have a hard time triangulating my location just from my voice. All the dogs picked this up fairly quickly and would find me using their noses. I think this is critical in a grouse hunting situation, where the cover is fairly thick and they loose sight of you quickly.

We also ran across several grouse roost piles, which got us pumped for the season. We didn’t see any birds, but that is because they were at a much lower elevation with young broods. We were high enough to still have patches of snow, which the dogs loved. We are looking forward to the fall and grouse opener this year.

 

 

 

 

For the fourth of July, we took the family and all the dogs and went up on Cove Mountain camping. We had five kids and seven dogs and had a ball. Friday evening we hiked over to the rim and watched fireworks displays at several of the surrounding towns way below us in the valley.

The nice thing about camping is that you can relax and not worry about all the chores that need attention around the house. We were able to enjoy our outing and spend a lot of time both relaxing with and training the dogs.

Another thing about camping with the dogs I enjoy, is sitting around the fire at night with a dog curled up by your side. They seem to enjoy the warmth and relaxation of the fire as much as I do.

A couple of keys about camping with dogs: First, if at all possible, camp as far away from other campers as possible so the dogs won’t bother them, or their dogs cause conflicts. I NEVER camp in a campground because you are packed in tighter than your neighborhood at home and they are stricter about dogs than most municipalities. Second, use tie out chains and kennel boxes to control the dogs when you need a break. When dogs are confined, be keenly aware of temperatures and direct sun. Make sure that they have access to plenty of water. Third, if the dogs are free, keep close attention on them, for running off, chasing wildlife, or otherwise getting into trouble. Above all, enjoy all the time you get to spend with them.

 

Here’s a suggestion, remember to bring your dog in the house or garage Friday night, the fourth of July. Even if your dog doesn’t seem to be gun-shy, it is still a good idea to get them away from the sound of fireworks. If your dog shows some noise sensitivity, this is doubly important. Prevention of gun-shyness is 100 times easier than trying to cure it. When hunting there’s the reward of the bird at the sound of the shot. With fireworks, there’s no reward, just a loud noise. It’s easy to bring the dog inside on the fourth. If you’re going to be out of town, it’s worth the time to ask a neighbor to do it.

 

Ok, one of my pet peeves is a dog loose in the back of a truck. How many times have I heard, “he’ll learn not to jump out the hard way,” or some variant? This kind of red neck thinking really irks me. I have seen lots of dead dogs along the highway, and even come across one that wasn’t yet dead, but his back end was so busted up it was a tragic sight. Just put them in a dog box. If you can’t afford that, at least get an eye bolt and 2′ of chain and clip up the dog’s collar so that he can’t get his front shoulders over the edge of the truck.

I’m sure this guy was wondering what I was doing taking pictures. I was ticked. The dog was back and forth and all over the back of the truck. Several times he wobbled and regained his footing.

 

Photo: www.geo-outdoors.info

Rattlesnakes and dogs scares me, especially gun dogs. Snakes seem to hold a special interest for them; they must smell like a game bird. I know when I did a lot of hunting in the Nebraska Sandhills my dogs would commonly point box turtles. They would point them with almost as much intensity as a prairie chicken. So a reptile must smell somewhat like a bird. When a dog is curious, or wants to investigate a rattlesnake, only bad can come of it. This is what scares me.

The other day I went fly fishing up a small stream not far from my house. I thought about taking a dog or two, I seldomly go anywhere without a dog. At the last minute I decided not to since it was going to be fairly hot out. Man, was I ever grateful. I had one of the snake-iest days of my life. I ran into 5 rattlesnakes while fishing. By the end of the trip I was so jumpy I could hardly fish. Rattlesnakes arn’t agressive and like to give plenty of warning, but sometimes their buzz is covered up by the sound of the creek. I was so glad I didn’t have the dogs.