Cove Mountain Kennels

I have been thinking of how we can get the idea across to land owners that wildlife is important and that there is a value for wildlife. Part of the problem is that too many of these landowners, they see no value to wildlife, or maybe even perceive a negative value to them. They only see animals (mainly deer and pronghorn) eating their crops and the hassle of having to deal with hunters and trespassing.  I spoke at the last Division of Wildlife upland game public meeting (Regional Advisory Council) about extending the pheasant season from its current 10 day season to a 30 day season; the response I got from landowners at the meeting was that they didn’t want a longer season because they don’t want to have to put up with hunters and trespassing any longer than they already do. It’s hard to convince someone like this that leaving any possible cover for wildlife is important.

I have been thinking of how to change private landowner perception of the value of leaving wildlife cover, because the other day I saw the owner of a beautiful 10 acre field of tall grass out mowing the field with his tractor and PTO mower. I had been watching this field all season and had seen several pheasants fly into this thick cover. The grass cover was waist high, thick and fairly uniform and provided excellent hiding and overwinter cover for pheasants. Best of all, the field was adjacent to a corn field, now corn stubble, which provided an abundance of waste corn feed.  The proximity of the feed to the cover was excellent, because minimizing exposure to predators is critical for a pheasant.

Unfortunately, the owner mowed the field to look about like a putting green. I believe he did so for several reasons, first, he didn’t see the value it provided to wildlife. Second, around here a clean manicured field says something about your self-perception as a farmer, and third, let’s face it, it’s fun to drive a tractor around and hack stuff down. The tragedy is that in our rural valley this provided some great pheasant habitat, that’s now gone. On a small scale it is a minor loss of habitat for a few pheasants, but cumulatively on a county-wide scale it is a significant loss.

Somehow we need to find ways to make wildlife more valuable to private land owners.

While pheasant hunting in Nebraska this year I was thrilled with my lab’s performance. Because of the condition she is in from daily roading, and early season grouse and chukar hunting, Allie was a powerhouse. She hit the tall grass CRP fields with leaps and bounds and quartered over every inch of the fields. Best of all, she listened to and followed my quiet commands.  She stayed within gun range and put up roosters for me.  I was proud of her.

I did, however miss my Drahthaar Aika. This new dog helped me recognized some of the strengths of that old dog; mainly her tracking ability. There was one rooster in particular that drove this point home. We were working a tall grassy edge that ended in a plumb thicket adjacent to a plowed field. All at once about six roosters erupted from the back side of the covert. Five of them flew left and away out of range, but one came up a little closer and crossed to my right over the plowed field. When he cackled from the cover his tail feathers seemed to just keep coming. He was one of the longest tailed birds I have ever seen.  I rocked him at about 50 yards with the first barrel and dropped him with the second barrel. He went down hard, but immediately jumped up and sprinted 150 yards across the bare field to a nasty thick field of standing cane. We raced over to where he crossed under the fence and entered the cover and Allie started down his track, but after a short search came back empty. I wanted that bird and worked and worked to find him to with no success.

With Aika, I can honestly say that I didn’t lose many birds. If you put a bird down, that dog would track it down and find it.  Looking back now I can see she was an amazing tracker. I remember one pheasant I knocked down in a thick weedy patch of tall corn stubble. I sent her for the bird, certain I had killed it and that it would be a quick retrieve. She hit the area, worked around then headed off down our back trail. I called her back several times and each time she would head off. Soon she was gone. I yelled and whistled for her and she was just gone. I waited probably ten minutes before she reappeared, rooster in her mouth. I couldn’t have been more pleased. To this day I wonder how far she tracked that running Ringneck.

One of the things that I really saw on this pheasant hunt is how individual dogs have different strengths. I appreciated how much energy Allie had and how easy she was to handle and follow my commands. But I also recognized my Drahthaar’s hard headedness and her amazing tracking ability.

This year around us chukars have been hard to come by. Numbers seem to be down quite a bit. Saturday I had a great day out with the dogs and a new friend who shares a passion for upland game.  We hunted hard over some rough steep country. Luckily I was able to end up with at least one chukar.

I remember three or four years ago chukar numbers were really up. I could go out and see numerous coveys and consistently shoot a limit. I remember one Saturday I stayed home to get some yard chores done before the snow flew. I worked as long as I could before I had to get out and at least try for some chukars. With just an hour of light left I was lucky enough to pull down a limit of chukars. I am confident that numbers will be back, but until then, I’ll have to keep pounding the hillsides. One hard-earned chukar is real trophy and it tastes that much better.
 

Let’s face it dogs are hard on the landscaping. If you are going to have a dog loose in the backyard odds are you will have frustrations keeping the lawn looking nice.  Compaction and pee spots are one thing, but in my opinion, digging holes all over is another level of destruction.  In my experience, digging seems to be an individual thing with dogs. I have had lots of dogs that never dig, and other dogs that dig constantly. 

The first thing to try and understand is the cause of the digging. Are they digging to get at something; has the ground been freshly turned over, if so, they often love to dig it out to investigate the different scents. I think this is a very natural behavior for them, but really frustrating for me. I’ll go out and fill all the dig holes, pack them down and re-seed them with grass seed and that is the very first place they go and dig up. Arrrg! Second, are they digging out of boredom, or pent up energy? This is very often the case.  It is critical to this process to get the dog out and exercise them away from the yard every day.

Digging can be a really frustrating problem. So, how do you stop them from digging? You do it through negative association using an e-collar. Here’s the difficult thing, you have to be watching them every second while they have the opportunity to dig. (Getting a horse to stop cribbing is achieved exactly the same way.) This is the really hard part, taking the time to fix the problem.

Assuming you’re committed to stopping the problem, here’s how you go about. First, the dog can’t have access to the yard or any digging surfaces when you are not able to watch them. Keep them inside, in the kennel run, or somewhere they can’t dig while you are at work or otherwise not able to keep an eye on them. Second, when you do turn them out in the yard, put an e-collar on them every time without exception. This will have to be second nature; every time the dog goes out, the collar goes on. Then you have to keep an eye on them; preferably from inside where they can’t see you watching.

Building the negative association with the act of digging: When they do start digging wait until they truly are digging, not just idly pawing at something, then nick them with the e-collar on a low setting. If they keep digging nick them again, pause increase the power setting slightly and nick them again. Continue increasing the power until they stop digging. Don’t let them know you have anything to do with the correction, it just happens every time they dig.

It is important to only nick them when they are digging. You want to create the negative association with the action of digging, not the location in the yard. You do this through using low e-collar stimulation and correct timing. You want the setting to be low enough that they just barely cock their head or raise their ears as if saying, “did you feel that…what was that”. It’s almost like they want to try digging again to see if they really felt it. Then ‘dig, dig’ – nick, “yup, I did and I guess I don’t like that feeling of digging.”

Don’t think that just because you caught them once the problem is fixed. Keep up the vigilance of watching the dog when they are out until you are convinced that the problem in cured. You want them to believe that it just doesn’t feel good to dig. I liken this to me riding a tilt-a-whirl. The last time I rode the tilt-a-whirl I remember it made me green. I didn’t have a good association with it. Then, this last summer my kids talked me into going with again. Yup, sure enough, I don’t like the tilt-a-whirl. I don’t think I be doing that again. (Negative association)

If they go back to digging one time and don’t get shocked, you have to start all over again. They quickly forget all the negative association training and go back to realizing just how good it feels to dig. Keep up the vigilance. This is by far the hardest part of the training process. Don’t forget, however, that daily exercise it the critical first step in this process.

 

Here is a delicious recipe for grouse. The hot and tangy flavor mixes really well with the flavor of the grouse, however, it could be used for pheasant equally as well.

Hot-n-Tangy Grouse

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp red wine or cider vinegar
2 tsp. freshly packed dark brown sugar
4 cups ¼” thick shredded green cabbage
6 – 10 drops tabasco sauce
4 grouse breast fillets
2/3 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
2 medium carrots, shredded
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro
1/3 cup finely chopped scallions
4 oz. Campanelle noodles (a hearty flowerlike curled pasta)

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine the ketchup, wine, brown sugar, and coriander then blend. Remove 3 Tbsp. of the ketchup mixture and set aside. Add the cabbage, carrots, hot pepper sauce, and 2 Tbsp. of water to the remaining ketchup mixture in the bowl and toss to coat thoroughly.
2. Brush the grouse fillets with the 3 Tbsp. ketchup mixture and grill. I like to have the grill coated with a thick coat of oil and screaming hot. Grill for a minute, rotate 45 degrees and grill for another minute, flip, and rotate again. Grill 4″ from heat until meat is just cooked through. It is critical not to overcook.
3. Cook the noodles in the boiling water as per directions with just a touch of olive oil added to the water. Drain well. Place the noodles on 4 plates, top with the cabbage mixture, and then add the grouse. Sprinkle with scallions and cilantro and serve.

It was a spectacular weekend. We got our first snow of the year. In the higher country we received about 4” of wet snow. My guess is that it will all melt off within a few days though. The aspen leaves were spectacular. Blue grouse populations seem to be down in my usual spots. I had a hard time coming up with a limit this weekend. It was a beautiful day though. The aspen leaves made it worth the effort.

 

 

I love Motorola radios and use them on most of my bird hunts. They are small, light and work clearly over a long distance. My hunting companions and I usually go to a good spot and then make a plan to meet at lunch and each hunt our separate part of the country with our dogs. With the radios, we can keep in contact throughout the day.

My biggest frustration with the radios is that annoying “roger” beep when you let up on the PTT button. Not only does it make that annoyingly loud beep at my radio, but it broadcasts it to everyone on my channel regardless what they have their radio set to.  I can’t imagine why motorola would design such an annoying feature into a radio. It finally came to a head when I was hunting with my sister on her trophy muzzleloader elk tag this last week. (An awesome hunt, BTW.) No matter how low I turned my radio that maddening beep was loud enough to wake the whole aspen hillside. That was enough incentive to push me to figure out the solution; it was easy, but not intuitive.

To turn off the “roger” beep (a.k.a. courtesy tone) on the Motorola walkie talkie, simply turn off the radio, hold the “+” button (channel up button) down as you turn the radio back on.

When I finally got the “roger” beep turned off, I felt like Fiona on the Shrek movie after she kicked Robin Hood’s  %@# and said,  “Man, that was annoying.”  (youtube link) One funny movie.
 

 

 I had a fun weekend grouse hunting and watching the development of Remington, a 12 month old Brittany I have been training. To date we have focused on birds in the training field (pigeons, bobwhite quail, and chukars). This weekend we went out and hunted wild blue grouse (dusky grouse). Remington is a dog that I had to work with very carefully on noise sensitivity issues. I could tell from the outset that he was very sensitive to loud noises, so I took it very carefully.  On the plus side he was very keen on birds, so I was able to use his interest in birds to overcome his aversion to loud noises, and have eventually been able to work up to the shotgun.

This weekend was his first wild bird hunt, and his first hunt in tall dense cover where he couldn’t see me. Remington made a lot of progress this weekend; I saw him go from a dog, crazy with excitement running wild through the forest and getting himself lost, to a dog that stayed within range and was actively hunting with me looking for birds.

I used the Garmin GPS collar on the dog and was able to see exactly what he was doing on the first hunt.  This was really interesting. We started out working through an upper elevation aspen/Doug fir transition area that had been selectively logged. Remington started out wild with excitement. I was able to call him back to me several times for the first ¼ mile before he blew out of the area in a frenzy. I watched what he was doing on the GPS unit. He went part way back to the truck then ran back and forth perpendicular to our direction of travel, ranging 500 – 600 yards back and forth. Based on how fast he was running and the fact that he was just running back and forth in practically a straight line it didn’t seem like he was hunting, more like he was in a brain spastic frenzy and then got lost. After ~20 minutes he found the truck and sat under it waiting for me.  Thanks to the Garmin, I didn’t have to worry about where he was I just monitored what he was doing, then went to him.

I put him in up in the dog box in the truck and went hunting for a couple of hours with another dog. When I got back, he seemed anxious to go again, but had lost the crazed look in his eyes. We went out and he was like a whole new dog. It was as if he had sat in the kennel and thought about what he was going to do next time he got a chance.  He stayed within a reasonable range for the thickness of the cover and checked back often, he responded to my commands, and seemed to be hunting with me.  Best of all, when I did have a chance to shoot a grouse, he was right there wanting in on the action. My other dog, a lab, located and flushed the grouse, but Remington was quickly there at the shot looking for the downed bird he has come to expect at the sound of a gunshot.

The next day the lessons seemed to have stuck. From the outset, Remington was out looking for birds, yet he stayed within range, followed my directions and checked in often. Unfortunately after a hard day of grouse hunting we didn’t find any birds. It is looking like a tough blue grouse season this year. Nevertheless, it was exciting to see this young Brittany developing into a good field dog and asset to the hunting team. He has a ways to go, but this was a great start and it was fun to watch his progress.