Mommy Learns A Lesson

When we got home from Pencilvania it was almost Hunting Season in Minnesota and Mommy was worried that we were not ready. She really wanted me to learn what a pheasant bird smells like before Opening Day, so back we went to our friend Steve's to look for one. This is what Mommy wrote on rr-folk about that day:

After all the unpacking was done and I was back on my feet I realized that bird season opens here in less than two weeks and pup is not at all ready- he's never even seen a pheasant! We took him to a nearby game club on Monday afternoon to do some scratch hunting (which means that we go out in the field after the club's clients have finished their hunt, with planted birds, and we look for any birds which they might have missed). We were directed to a field which had last been hunted an hour before we got there and were told that the clients had left 3 birds behind. We started at one end of the field, working our way first down one side, then back up the other side. Pup never gave any indication that there were any birds anywhere near us. He did find 2 piles of feathers which the earlier group of hunters had left on the ground, but no live birds. Since the field is bordered on four sides by woods we decided to walk through the woods to see if any of the birds had gone into them seeking cover. Still no birds. We finally walked over to the flight pen, knowing that loose birds often make their way back to the pen, but no birds there, either. Now, my husband loves pup as much as I do, but until he and I met he was a Retriever man all the way and I don't know if he fully realizes the potential of the "brown dogs". He has helped me with Pup's training since the beginning, but I spend a lot more time with Pup than Craig does and I feel as if I know the dog better and can read him better than Craig can. When we first started tracking with pup, whenever Craig expressed any doubts while on a track, I always told him to "trust the dog. He knows what he's doing". Invariably, Pup proved me right. But now we were both perplexed as to why we weren't finding any birds. Craig finally decided it was time to give up, but I was reluctant to do so. Pup had been asked to track so many different things over the past few weeks without getting the reward of downed quarry, and I really wanted him to have at least one chance to see a downed bird before the season opens. I have seen him work more than Craig has and I have a lot of faith in the dog. Still, as Craig repeated his opinion that pup just wasn't finding the birds, doubt began to creep in. I thought about all the people-tracking, pig chasing, and dog showing we had done over the last few weeks and wondered if I had just ruined the dog for bird hunting. I watched him as we walked back through the field and realized that he wasn't hunting at all- he was simply out for a nice walk in the country. Maybe he had forgotten what a bird smells like! Maybe he would never hunt again! After all the work I had done with him I was nearly despondent at the thought.


By the time we left the field I was pretty worried. We decided that I would walk pup along the dirt road up to the clubhouse and that Craig would get the van and meet us there. I wanted to see if pup could find any stray birds along the way. We had no sooner started walking when Craig hollered out that he had just seen a rooster walking on the mowed path in front of him. The rooster had taken off flying and was heading into the woods. I ran over to the end of the path with pup and started walking towards the spot where the rooster had been. I never even had a chance to give the "find bird" command before pup picked up the scent, all on his own! He ran off, tracking the bird well into the woods before finally losing the scent. We let him work the area for a good while, just in case the bird had landed close by, but he never found it. But what a difference from what he had been doing out in the field. He was HUNTING! Woo Hoo!!!!! With my faith somewhat restored, we headed for home.When we got close to our place, I asked Craig to stop and let pup and me out of the van near one of our fields. I wanted to walk through the field on the way back to the house to see if pup could find any birds there. The field I wanted to walk is planted in buckwheat and is a favorite feeding spot of the pheasants. We made our way through the swamp to the edge of the field- no birds. But as soon as we got over the fence to the edge of the buckwheat, pup's nose jerked up, his head whipped around, and I knew he had caught some scent! Down went the nose, pup tracked for a few feet, and before I realized what he was doing he had taken five big leaps into the buckwheat and flushed two hens! Woo Hooooooo!!! I KNEW he could do it. In retrospect, I realized that when we started in the first field at the club, Pup already knew that there were no birds there. If we had had Craig's Lab along, she would have worked herself into a frenzy looking anyway. But Pup, being a RR, obviously didn't see the point in running around what he already knew was an empty field. This is my kind of dog- the Lazy Hunter's Companion, lol. Because I am just like him- I don't see the point in running around getting all worked up over nothing, lol. But, put a bird in front of us, and we're all over it, lol.

Lesson re-learned-

Always Trust Your Dog!

Once Mommy knew that I had not lost my nose she was so much happier!