Cove Mountain Kennels

If you’re not a Utah upland game hunter, the following probably doesn’t have much interest for you. Utah’s upland game regulations are undergoing a review and are now up for some significant changes. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has met with the Upland Game Advisory Council and taken comments from citizens about changes to upland game hunting regulations in the state and are proposing some of the following changes:

1.) Standardize the current split pheasant seasions,  Utah County (7-day) vs. the rest of the state (2-week) into one uniform 16-day season statewide. The extended 30-day season on public lands in certain counties will still exist. Further, the opening day shooting hours will start 30 minutes before sunrise rather than the traditional 8:00 am start.

2.) Extend the forest grouse season by one month (mid-September through the end of December).

3.) Unify the current split chukar seasons and lengthen the seasons from late September to mid-February. They are also recommending a two week later opening day for the season to lessen bird’s dependence on water sources, especially guzzlers. This will provide chukar hunters statewide a lot more opportunity to hunt chukars (2 ½ months more in some cases).

4.) Offer additional/new California quail hunts in Daggett and Sanpete County.

5.) Offer an additional/new sharp-tail grouse hunt in Cache County.

6.) Shift the sharp-tail grouse and the sage-grouse seasons two weeks later in September. Season length would be kept the same, but this change would allow broods to disperse more and provide a lower likelihood of harvesting brood hens (3+ year old), a critical element in grouse production.
One of the current recommendations is to have two different Hungarian partridge seasons in Northern Utah, rather than one uniform season. I oppose this change for two reasons: First, there is no biological basis for this regulation. Second, regulations should be simplified rather than made more complex. And third, the season has always coincided with the chukar season to avoid problems with hunters misidentifying these two species and inadvertently taking a species out of season. I suggest that there should be one statewide Hungarian partridge seasion that matches the chukar season.

Another change I would like to see changed is the pheasant season. I suggest that we go to a statewide 30-day season. Rather than a 16 day season on private lands and a 30 day season on public lands in certain counties. Habitat is the limiting factor on pheasant populations, rather than a male only harvest strategy. Give hunters more opportunity at the most popular upland game species in the state.

If you have comments you would like to voice, attend your Regional Advisory Council meeting this week, or contact your local RAC members via email and voice your comments. They are your public voice on wildlife regulations. Information can be found at http://wildlife.utah.gov/news/08-05/upland_game.php .

This post doesn’t have anything to do with gun dogs, other than it’s outdoors and it’s a lot of fun to have the dogs along in the field with you when you are mushroom hunting.

     Last year was such a great year for morels, so I was really pumped up for this spring. We had a good wet winter, and some nice showers early this spring, so I hoped that we would have another good morel crop this year. Unfortunately, I think it has been too cool and the timing of moisture just wasn’t right and we weren’t able to find a single morel. On the flip side, the coprinous mushrooms were very abundant. Their fairly tasty, but need to be cooked and eaten shortly after picking, whereas the morels can be dried and used in dishes for months.
     The dogs weren’t particularly helpful finding the morels, but they were fun to have out in the field. While out mushroom hunting we did have the one of the dogs point a nesting turkey. Luckily I was able to see her and pick up the dog and carry him off without bumping the hen off her nest.

 

We’ve had a really cool spring this year. However, I don’t hear the dogs complaining. Yesterday, it snowed just a couple hundred feet above us on the mountain. The dogs didn’t mind a bit. I think they would rather have the cool temps than the summer heat. This weekend for a day or two for the first time the temperature got up around 85 degrees (F) here, and we all thought we were going to cook.

 

Photo

My sister, brother-in-law, my wife and I went turkey hunting in Southern Utah this weekend. As we always do when we get together, we had a ball. There were turkeys around, but they were pretty quiet and they didn’t much to do with our calling; that is, they didn’t want much to do with the guy’s calling. One of the evenings the two ladies went out together to see if they could find a turkey. About an hour before sunset they came driving back into camp. When they drove up we were just about to head out to try to put some turkeys to bed for the night so we would be ready for the morning hunt.

We asked them what was up and they said that they had already put them to bed. “Huh?” Yeah, put one to bed in the back of the truck! Turns out that they just went about a half mile up the road and saw a couple of toms displaying for some hens off in a meadow. When they drove by the hens moved off, but the toms stayed around. The girls drove on up the road and snuck back to the edge of the meadow and started yelping on a slate call. (We showed them how to use it about 10 minute before leaving camp.)

The toms fired right up and came in. At one point the birds got a little nervous, slicked down and started to move off, but a purr and a yelp turned them right around and brought them back in to within gun range. Unfortunately the ladies were sitting about 20 yards apart and there was only one tom within shotgun range, but that tom was a dandy. He had a 10″ beard and spurs over an inch long.

They great thing was that where the guys couldn’t call a tom in to save our souls, the ladies pulled one within range with all the finesse of a coy hen. Congratulations, ladies!
 

 

     If you are looking for a yellow lab puppy, I just heard about a breeding that should be dynamite. Wasatch Labradors in American Fork, UT just announced a litter that should be born in July. I have a dog that is out Yellowstone Kennel’s Nitro, a maternal grandfather to the litter and have been really pleased with the dogs drive, desire for birds, and natural marking ability. Also, I have heard really good things about the sire, FC-AFC Pin Oak’s Texas Rex. There seems to be a basket full of field champions as you look at the pedigrees for these puppies.
     I’ve never met Gordon or Nancy Miner, but the breeding looks really good on these puppies. Also, I really like what they have to say about socializing puppies. It’s important to start with good breeding that brings together the best traits in a breed, but even more critically, puppies need to be socialized properly over the first critical two months of life.   So, if you are looking for a lab pup this summer, you may want to check out Wasatch Labradors at http://www.wasatchlabradors.com

 

     This weekend Julie and I attended Evan Graham’s Transition seminar hosted by the Northern Utah Retriever Club at the Lee Kay Center, just west of SLC, UT. Evan is the author of the Smartwork series of retriever training materials (Rush Creek Press). The training was excellent. I am a die-hard upland game hunter, not a field-trialer, which this seminar was geared toward, nevertheless, it was excellent, because I learned about how retrievers tick, what kinds of drills you can use to help them learn to mark falls and handle into blind retrieves, and just what you can expect at the highest levels from a dog. I have a lot of respect for field trialers. In order to win, they have to demand the utmost from their dogs. Therefore, they train and drill accordingly.
     A couple of the key principles I took away from the seminar were the following: You cannot expect a dog to be more exact than you are (Rex Carr), therefore you should set high exacting demands on yourself for training and expect them from your dog; accept nothing less.
     A solid basic foundation is critical for higher success.
     Your dog must find lots of yes’s (positives/successes) in the field and few no’s (corrections/failures). Set the dog up for regular success and build his confidence. Make him believe that he will succeed every time he charges off the line and he will; you build his expectations for success.

     I really enjoyed Evan. He was very personable and a great teacher. I liked his methods, because they were well reasoned and stepwise, moving from one phase to the next to build a winning dog step by step.

     I felt like I got a whole year’s worth of training experience in one weekend. I was really impressed with the level of dogs of all of the participants there. We have some great trainers here in Utah. It got me jazzed up to take my training to a higher level.

 

A little neighbor girl got a new puppy the other day. She is so cute with the pup. Kids and puppies just go together. She came over to find out all about puppies and how to take care of him. I hope the excitement lasts. She sure does love this little puppy.

 

You’ve got to wonder sometimes what a dog is thinking. I believe Allie was day dreaming about sunny winter days flushing chukars. Man, I want to go hunting!