Cove Mountain Kennels

Today was one of those days you’ll remember for seasons to come. We got a skiff of snow overnight, so I had to get out chukar hunting. I took Allie my yellow lab, a client’s one year old German shorthair (Abby) and another client’s 5-month old black lab puppy (Sophie). The weather was sunny, calm and mild; you couldn’t ask for nicer. I have been roading all of these dogs for a month now and it really showed. The older dogs got out and covered ground and found birds. The puppy stayed at my feet all day, but she climbed over and through some of the roughest terrain without complaint. All of their feet held up well.

My hunting partner and I had to work hard and cover miles of nasty, rocky, steep terrain but we each were able to shoot a limit. Abby (GSP) was my star today. She had four beautiful points, one that she held for a long time; my buddy had just shot his fifth bird and we were standing there telling stories and I didn’t realize she had moved off and found birds. When I found her, only 20 yards away she was locked up, standing on a rock looking down into a small sagebrush-grass patch. As I waded in two birds came up. I connected with the first one and saw a double coming together. In my excitement, I snap shot the second and of course, missed.

A funny thing happened when we were crossing a talus boulder slide following a covey. All three dogs got birdy and started digging down a crevice in the rocks. I thought for sure it was a rabbit. Just as I got over the hole, out came a chukar right in all of our faces. Luckily I was able to connect and all of us had a good laugh. Sophie, the pup, really got keyed up. You could see the wheels turning on that one. It was great to see her visibly getting excited at the sound of the shotgun. She is starting to catch on.

The day ended with a beautiful sunset as we were cleaning birds enjoying a great day.

Late season chukars can be difficult. I know, I have had a tough time putting any in the bag the last two weekends. They get really wily later in the season when there’s snow on the ground. A week ago Saturday was fun, because of the snow and bad weather It kept everyone away. The intermittent snow flurries and fog made me feel like I was the only one ever to set foot on the range. The chukars, however, were smarter than I was.

Yesterday, I did hear another couple of shots, but never saw anyone else hunting. The chukars time and time again got the better of me. They love the game of ” you chase me to the top of the mountain and then I fly away” game. The dogs would get birdy and track birds up and up, I would know we were on hot running birds by their tracks in the fresh snow. Three or four times their tracks would run just over the top of the hill and take to the air. The only way I was able to get the jump on some birds was to pull the dogs off some running birds, circle around to the back side of the mountain and come over the top on to them.

I have decided that chukars aren’t gentlemen like bobwhites. They are low down guerrilla fighters and that’s all there is to it. We still have 6 weeks left of chukar season left, and I intend to make the most of it.

Another idea for training during the winter, when it gets dark even before you get home from work is to move your training table inside the garage. If you don’t have one, build one along one length of the garage wall. If you like, you can put shelves under it, face it with panneling and have a new storage place for your decoys and other hunting paraphernalia.

By moving the training table inside the garage it provides a warm, lighted place to work on lots of commands, including, hold and fetch (trained retrieve), over, down, whoa, and anything else you would otherwise have to bend over for. Plus, having them off the ground and on a narrow runway helps the dog focus on the task at hand.

My table is 2′ wide and 14′ long. I would have made it 16′, but it was too long for the space I had available. I framed the table with 2×4’s and made 2×4 legs. I used one sheet of 3/4″ plywood, cut in half for the deck. Julie likes to use a piece of shelving as a ramp to walk the dogs up, whereas, I either have them jump up or lift them up.  It makes one more place you can train when it’s dark out.

 

Wintertime can be difficult when training a dog for a number of reasons. First, it’s cold and it can be difficult to motivate yourself to get out and train. Second, it’s not always fun to stand around outside and freeze your ears off. Also, one’s patience is often shorter when it’s cold out. Lastly, it’s dark. It makes it difficult to get much field training done when you get off work at five and the sun has already set.

One idea for wintertime training is to work on the “search” command. Dogs that have been force fetched or are natural retrievers can strengthen their search effort by planting a dummy out in the dark and sending the dog to find it with a “search” command. For some of the hunt tests, dogs are required to search unassisted for up to 10 minutes. Now is a great time to get them started.

Start by tossing the dummy into the dark to the same spot over and over so the dog comes to expect the dummy in that spot. Then plant the dummy there unseen by the dog. Bring the dog out and give your “fetch” command and have them go out and get it. Do it again, except use the “search” command spoken with exactly the same intonation as you give the fetch command. Do this several times. Then start to toss the dummy a little ways away so the dog has to search for it. Doing this in the dark or into 3 or 4 inches of snow forces the dog to use their nose. Intersperse searching for dog bumpers with frozen and thawed birds. You can gradually make it more challenging, so the dog learns that on a search command their target is out their, they just need to stay out and use their nose until they find it. Then, the next time you down a bird into thick cover unseen by the dog, you can confidently give your dog the search command. I guarentee this training will pay off come next season. 

 

I absolute love my Dog Den dog houses, but if you would like to build one of your own rather than buy one, I ran across some plans on the Resha Sled Dog website. They look fairly simple and straight forward; made with one sheet of plywood. The only thing I would suggest adding is metal corner bead (for finishing drywall corners) around the door to keep dogs from chewing on the edges.

To go right to their website, click on their name above. I have also copied the information below.

 

ONE SHEET (4′ X 8′) PLYWOOD DOG HOUSE

Measurements are for ½” plywood.  Exterior grade is recommended.  Nailing strips should be used for reinforcing the contact points.  When using ¾” material nailing strips are not necessary, however, note that the floor should then measure 33 ½” in length.  When nailing together – the sides overlap the bottom, front and back panels.  The front and back panels also overlap the bottom.  By nailing blocks to the  inside of the roof it can simply sit on top of the house without sliding and be conveniently lifted off when cleaning out the house.  The box should be painted and placed on blocks of 2 by 4’s to keep it off the ground.

Make sure the dog’s line is long enough to allow jumping up onto the roof.

from http://www.reshaequip.com/ 

Today was the last day of the Utah grouse season and the extended pheasant season, so I had to get out. There was a storm predicted for the afternoon, so we went up on the mountain first after ruffed grouse. It was somewhat slim pickin’s, but we had a great time. There seemed to be a lull before the storm; the weather was overcast, but calm and warm. We had one ruffed grouse flush wild out of range, but then had the dogs work up a blue grouse (dusky grouse) and had a picture-perfect flush through an open aspen stand and finished with a nice retrieve. In the early afternoon the weather turned noticeably colder, so I took the hint and left for lower country.

The extended pheasant hunt (on public lands, including the State Wildlife Management Areas) also closed today, so I thought I would see if I could get one last wild pheasant this season. By the time I got down to the WMA it was raining, which I took as a good sign. Often pheasants will be hunkered down in the rain and don’t run on you (a real problem late season on public land), and you can quietly get within range and have the dog work them up. It wasn’t to be, though. I walked for two hours in the rain and got so wet I had to wring my shotgun out. I didn’t see a bird, but still had a good time because I had the place completely to myself.

 

I had to go to a meeting up north today, but was able to slip out to the marsh late in the afternoon for a duck hunt with my brother-in-law, DJ. I hadn’t planned on going, so I didn’t have any gear, but he was able to outfit me pretty well. I did have to wear an old pair of his waders, which were 5 sizes too big for me. I felt like a clown on the long walk to the blind, but it was well worth it.  We had a great shoot with fairly steady action. The best was when a small flock of ducks were landing in a pothole several hundred yards from our position and DJ was able to blast the ducks out with an alarm call, then brought them over to us with a series of quacks and feeding chuckles. Casadore, his huge male lab did a fantistic job, as usual, on the retrieves. It made for a great evening.

 

 

Photo from Jessie’s photo album: http://www.showme.net/~tlem/Keel%20Ft.%20Drum/PhotoAlbum.htm 

Here’s what happened. Sunday, I needed a midnight snack and accidentally left 1/2 of the pumpkin pie on the kitchen table over night. When I got up in the morning, the foil cover was off and the pie plate was as clean as can be. Allie, my 2 year old lab was sleeping contentedly, sprawled out on the living room floor with a full belly.  What should you do? Come uncorked? Discipline the dog? What?

In this case the right thing to do was to do nothing at all. If I would have snatched her off the floor and disciplined her, it only would have been confusing. She would have linked the discipline with her sleeping on the floor, which she does every day.  The same exact thing applies when house training a puppy and you find a mess long after it occurred, or when in the field with a dog and it comes back after ignoring you for 30 minutes. Timing of correction is critical; keep in mind that a dog’s association period for learning is about 2 seconds long, so consequences (rewards or corrections) need to happen immediately.

What I plan on doing with Allie and her table jumping pie eating tendency is to set her up. She would never jump on the table when we are up and around; she has made that association that such an action is not acceptable. However, she has learned from Sunday’s reward that once we are in bed, such an action is acceptable. I plan on putting her e-collar on (a positive thing for her – it means we are going out to run or train and have fun) and then leaving some tasty treat on the table while we go to bed. Then I will slip outside and watch for a while through the window. The moment she jumps on the table I will hit her with the collar. If I get too cold outside before she commits the offence, I will go in put the food up and wait for another day to set her up.

The principle here is in order to properly train your dog, timing is critical; you must catch the 2 second window after the action (positive or negative). To do so later than that only confuses the dog.