First day on wild birds

Well, we started bright and early this morning. After roading dogs we set out upon the prairie.

We gang runned the puppies: They were Doc, Maggie, Molly, Haley and Jake. They ran for about an hour total.

Doc - Ran well for about 30 minutes and then loped close to the horse - he was near a flush of a group of sharp tail and chased with the rest. He had no independent finds.

Molly - Ran well for 45 mins and shortened up after that - She had one find on a pheasant the birds were well located and she looked good.

Jakey - Ran super hard for the entire time - ran over a group of sharp tails and chased. He had indicated he smelled them - but was not able to pin them before he knocked them.

Maggie - Ran well for the entire time - had independent finds on 2 pheasants and held until the small puppies knocked them and she chased merrily.

Tech - Ran with the pups this morning in an effort to build hunting desire and it appears to be working - he was often out on the prairie working the wind - and although we saw no indepedent finds we did see him chasing a couple birds across the prairie .

Haley - Ran hard across the prairie - seems to be starting to understand what she is out there for. No bird contacts but I am encouraged by her application and going to birdy objectives.

We also ran with Loki, Chester, Mia, Dolly, Stubby, and the other pups. They knocked and chased about 5 broods of pheasants and sharp tails.

We moved into the wild bird portion of work for the broke dogs. Dogs worked this morning after the puppies ran were: Kane, Knikki, Tucker, Diva, Jackie, Cam, Rhemy and Mali.

Kane and Cam were in the first brace - Kane had a stop to flush early, and a broke find, as well as two non-productives. Cam had one find and honored Kane's points.

Knikki and Tucker - Tucker ran well, but bumped a bird and had to be corrected on the failure to stop to flush. Knikki had two stop to flushes.

Jackie and Diva - Jackie had a nice find on a rooster and although she took steps was stopped and Diva honored her point. Diva had a stop to flush shortly after that. Both Jackie and Diva had a nice piece of work on a large brood of pheasants to end the brace.

Rhemy and Mali - The worked hard but were unable to get any birds pointed.

Overall it wasn't a bad first day - the Dogs were amped up and the wind was up - which probably led to the numerous bumps and stop to flush. I was pleased with all the dogs in their manners on honoring and finds.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill