Howdy Everyone;

Well, we are back in Texas now.  I am sure you are all as anxious to have your pets home as they are to go home.  You may come up and pick them up anytime - I am gonna be trialing this weekend coming up but I believe I will be home all next week.

If you live in DFW area - I can transport some up that way this week on either Tues or Weds as I have to go up that way to get some stuff anyway - just let me know if you would like that.

Keith

Update - Breaking Camp

Well, some repairs to the vehicles may take a little longer than anticipated so we are gonna play our departure date by ear - we may leave as late as 1st of October depending on how things work out .

Breaking camp next week

Well, with the field trial season starting in TX, and the crops being harvested and having few places to work - we are gonna break camp a week early.

Planning on leaving 24th or 25th of Sept this year.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Good day working

Well, we are getting more bird work done - which is making a huge difference

Eleanor - 4 or 5 stop to flush (some corrections) and a broke find, working in comfortable foot handling range

Kona - Multiple stop to flush, (some correction) and a broke find, working in nice range, busy dog

Pete - Great run, one broke find - doing well

Deuce - A great find - stood broke while upwards to 20 birds flushed all around him

Diamond - 6 stop to flush (corrections made) and one broke find - working in nice range

Cooper - Not much has changed - working close and has multiple opportunities for bird work

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Camp is winding down a bit

Well, camp is starting to wind down - planning on leaving a few days earlier than usual, to run in some trials in TX prior to going to the english setter national in Nebraska.

We have been getting lots more work on birds now that some of the crops are being harvested so that is making it better up here - weather is very cool too.

We will leave camp on or about the 24th of Sept - so we have just under two weeks left to work.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Crops coming down - bird contacts up

Well, some corn is getting chopped an as a result we are getting more bird contacts.

Cooper - Still working at foot hunting range - opportunities for bird work are abundant.

Eleanor - Had a nice stop to flush, working at foot hunting range.

Ellie, Speedi, Gus, - have pointed and knocked or chased 100s of birds in the last couple days - really exciting to see finally

Dosa - 3 pieces of broke bird work - nice range and working well

Deuce - 2 pieces of broke bird work - very nice dog enjoying the bird work

Pete - One piece of broke bird work - nice find and running well

Diamond - Running well, and unfortunately not her day today

Hobo and Preston - need more bird work but did have some work today

Ellie - Had some flash points but knocked a few too - doing better though.

Primo - Still doing excellent work and excellent range

Jessie - Working well and bird work is excellent

Penny - Pretty nice young dog - bird work is getting very good

Jack - Doing much better - bird contacts are helping alot

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Well good work today

We are starting to drive the roads and hitting the small cover - foregoing horseback work mostly.

Deuce - Two broke finds on pheasant - really made me happy

Cooper - Still working in comfortable foot handling range - no finds - had opportunities however

Eleanor - Nice piece of broke bird work - very nice.

Gunner - Chased and knocked as well as flash pointed some birds - progress.

Penny - Two broke pieces of bird work

Unna - Several broke pieces of bird work

Fuzzy - Really struggling still - no finds

Brunie and Ellie - multiple points and knocks on multiple contacts

Jack - Nice piece of broke bird work

It was a pretty productive day for bird work - impossible to judge run but I was happy today.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Struggling

We are trying to get more done with the young dogs - working pen raised birds and taking them on the section roads and dumping them out on birds we see - some are doing well, some still need work.

Eleanor - Broke dog that is a sweetheart

Cooper - Still working in very comfortable foot hunting range - broke on pen raised birds

Okie - Broke dog that is still doing well

Preston - Standing broke to the shot on pen raised birds, still struggling with wild birds

The bottom line is that due to the drought and other factors (standing crops) we are not getting the bird contacts we normally get and the dogs are not as well advanced as usual this time in the previous years.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Sorry, about not posting lately - we have been

Up to our ass in busy - we are having to pull out and drive longer to find pastures with birds, we are still plugging away. On Weds the temps when from mid 50's to mid 100s which was tough conditions.

Cooper and Rocky - Rocky had 2 nice finds and a non productive in a foggy morning - we couldn't see his run because visability was 100 yds at best when they were running. Cooper had 3 honors, and worked at comfortable foot hunting range.

Unna and Woody - Nice race in a wheat field Unna had a stop to flush and a find. Woody had a stop to flush and an honor. By the time we ran the brace the fog had burned off and it was getting very hot.

Deuce and Eleanor - Ran pretty well, had some work. Deuce had a find broke at the shot. Eleanor had a stop to flush and did a nice job

Syd and Lucy - Multiple finds and stop to flush - Syd ran a gun dog race and handled easily Lucy was busy in her typical foot hunting range and did a nice job also.

Kona, Kane and Ellie - Ran well - Kane had a hun find, Kona and Ellie both honored - but Ellie being a puppy knocked the birds - Kane stood broke, Kona broke at the shot - still a nice piece of work.

Unna and Dosa - Unna is excelling and doing well, multiple finds and stop to flushes - really nice race and good worker. Dosa is working but much softer and hasn't come up with many birds -

Jack and Penny - Penny is doing well and had a nice find and stood through the shot - nice honor of Jack's point (non-productive) interesting contrast between the littermates.

Fuzzy - Struggling badly - still taking him out for work but he has been unable to come up with any finds.

Ricky - Nice young dog - lack of birds this year and cover is really taking its toll on the young dogs development - birds are jumpy and not co operative -

The cover here in SD is grazed heavily and mowed due to drought and the birds are concentrated in cover we can't work (sunflower and corn fields) and the young dogs are struggling - we are doing the best we can with what we got - it is causing long days and the return while fine is not what we expected - we continue to press on hoping that the corn will be chopped for silage and we will get some birds concentrated in what cover we can work and have some more time yet to turn some of the dogs that are struggling around.

Working a little on the prairies now

Worked on the prairies the last three days, and we are getting more bird work.

Mac - Had a nice comfortable at times big gun dog race and a broke find.

Cooper - Has been getting a bit more bird work - he had a pheasant find a couple days ago, broke at the flush. Today he had a find, he broke at the flush - was corrected and flushed more and fired a blank - he stood for the shot that time - still working close.

Callie - Monster prairie shooting dog race - awesome to watch - no birds but she ran for almost an hour in the heat and that was impressive!

Penny - Ran great - had an honor - nice work.

Unna - Two nice finds - nice race worked fine - still have to work on steadiness after the flush

Dosa - Ran well but the heat got to her more than her bracemate and no birds were found

Diamond - Nice find - good race broke at the shot

Deuce - still working well and doing a good job listening - nice honor - hope he finds some on his own - been near a bunch of birds - just as not been in the right spot at the right time

Okie - Nice work but bird work is tough - he handles his birds when he finds them.

Primo - Super nice dog - always a solid bird finder.

Brunie - Ricky and Ellie - Making nice moves and knocking and pointing birds each time out.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Another day - bird work at a premium

Well, we ran again today on a place that usually holds lots of birds - we got some pointed but they were not being cooperative.

Cooper - Continues to work in very comfortable foot hunting range - and continues to practice backing - unfortunately the birds just are not being found 20 yds from the horses.

Jessie - Ran a great shooting dog race - one broke find

Penny - Ran great shooting dog race - one honor of Jessies find

Brunie - Ran spectacular - she knocked several birds

Knikki - Broke dog find. Good work

Deuce - Ran very well, listened well, and we had some long range honors.

Diamond - Ran well, had a find - she broke at the flush - but otherwise nice work

Lucy - Had a great honor and stop to flush - nice work.

Dolly - Ran a pretty nice race and had a broke find.

Additionally, we were treated to an aggressive antelope - she (probably a doe) charged the dogs, jumped a fence and hung out around the dogs and us within 100 yds for the better part of 5 mins.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Cooling off a bit

Well, we are running dogs every day. Some days we hit them and some days we miss finding birds.

Cooper - Still running short and backing only - for whatever reason he has not found and pointed a bird yet

Eleanor - Running well, her backing is coming along well. She had one find today.

Teeka, Ricky, Ellie - Found and knocked a bunch of birds today - both Ellie and Teeka backed an older dogs 3 finds - awesome young pups had a blast today.

Hondo - Ran well, knocked and chased birds - corrections made - needs more birds to get him to point better

Kona - Ran well, worked in easy gun range - also knocked and chased birds - corrections made needs to get more bird experience.

Callie - Ran all over the place - listened well and handled - no bird contacts seen

Knikki - Multiple broke finds and a very nice shooting dog race

Cordite - 3 broke finds, and a nice shooting dog race.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Still plugging away

Well, there are plenty of birds, but most are hanging in the sunflowers and corn. We had a beautiful cool morning and it worked to our advantage. We ran 5 braces with mixed results.

Cooper - Still running a nice foot handling race, and still honoring well. He honors other dogs every day and stands for the flush and shot.

Jessie - Ran a huge nice race and had a nice find - she broke at the flush but stopped on "Whoa"

Diamond - Running very well - honored once - had a nice find on a pheasant - broke at the shot - corrections made.

Penny - Nice race - hunting likely objectives and although unable to come up with a find (hunting in wheat stubble and birds were running) she handled very well and had a nice honor.

Kane - Multiple broke finds, nice race and multiple honors - just an old pro showing his stuff.

Fuzzy - Still not serious about the work - would rather hang out at the trailer than work birds.

Brunie - Running a great race and had 3 nice puppy finds - the star of the young dog show

Stubby - Well, this dog is normally a great bird finder, however, yesterday he took a line down a fence row and was lost at the break away - no bird work but he was waiting at the truck when we came back.

Deuce - Ran great, learning "whoa" and backing - very pleased with the progress of this young dog that we basically started on square one with.

Dolly - Ran a very nice handling dog - did a nice job on a broke find and honored very well. She is a nice hunting dog.

Teeka - Very nice young setter - really a toss up between her and her sister Brunie as to who is the best young setter in the program this year.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Better day today. Worked our north native prairie country.

Jessie - Deuce - Jessie had 3 finds one where she broke on the flush (corrections made) then a broke find, and another - She ran well and had a good gait. Deuce had no bird work - but he is getting better at "Whoa" and he had 3 backs.

Stubby - Fuzzy - Ran hard as it was getting warm - no bird work

Penny - Lucy - Ran short working well, no bird work.

Cooper - Dolly - Cooper continues to practice honoring - doing well, with little correction - continues to be a close working dog - Dolly had a find but upon relocation the bird popped - Dolly stopped and stayed steady through the shot.

Diamond and Brunie - Diamond is running well and listening well - she had one honor (broke work on honor) Brunie ran wonderfully and had 3 puppy finds.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Young dogs having a hard time

Well, it has been a rough week in more ways than one - My horse wreck is still affecting me - cut and bad headache still hard to see because of swollen eye socket but getting better. Grazing and haying is affecting us greatly - birds are in corn and sunflowers and pretty inaccessible to the young dogs - cover because of the drought is sparse.

Old dogs are getting work done because of experience.

Preston - Ran hard and had a few backs but not much bird work.

Syd - Ran well, had some broke finds and backing was great

Taz - Ran well, and no birds were worked - again birds at a premium

Kona - Ran well, backing was fine after a correction

Knikki - Ran well, some bird work - just hard to get birds pointed

Teeka - Had a puppy broke find and a back - ran well

Eleanor - Ran well, and had a nice back

Hoping that they will get the corn chopped for silage so that we have access to more birds.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Been a while since I posted

Got in a horse wreck and was otherwise occupied with training dogs.

Deuce - Doing well and listening better - still not alot of bird work

Okie - Running to the extremes - all the younger dogs seem to have trouble finding birds and Okie is no exception.

Cooper - Running 50 to 100 yds to the front - has had several backs but no bird work beyond honoring through the flush and shot.

Diamond - Running well - keeping within range and turning well - no bird work seen as of yet - but we are only a week into running on the prairie too.

Belle - Running hard and listening - birds are at a premium and only the older dogs seem to be getting into it.

Eleanor - Like this dog - had a derby broke find and running well.

Primo - Young dog that is an old pro - last year made him a dog - every outing we have multiple finds and broke bird work.

Unna - Running well, birds at a premium and unfortunately no bird work recently.

Dosa - Doing very well,

As I said, bird work is a premium for the young dogs - the older dogs are finding birds but the young dogs are struggling.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Every once in a while

Every once in a while we find a special puppy - Whiterock Brunhilda is shaping up to be that puppy. This dog has a knack of getting around birds - she always is in the thick of the action it seems, not only can this little dog find birds, but she has some wheels - I was training with Chad Chadwell and this little dog put on an impressive show - she was seen going up a butte close to 300 yds in there and running the top of the ridge before we called to her and turned our horses and she came right along with us. Running hard and making casts up to a 1/4 mile and most of the time was hanging out there at 200 to 300 yds. Several times we saw her slow and point before knocking the birds and chasing - having a great time and learning all along.

Brunie is by Whiterock Mac Windem out of Whiterock Mali. She shows the same ability to find birds as her Momma but has better endurance and heat tolerance it seems. Chad (who has a Runner Up National Champion up here) was very impressed by the class, style and endurance of this dog.

Last couple days have been tough

On Friday we ran the pointers in a place that usually holds lots of birds, and it did unfortunately the birds were jumpy and we didn't get much bird work.

We ran 5 braces before we got any work done - all the dogs were running well, and intelligently seeking the objectives and working the ground and cover in a thorough manner. We had stop to stop to flush from the following dogs in the previous 5 braces. Cooper, Diamond, Eleanor, Woody each stopped on wild flushes - and we got off and fired a blank .

Pete - Had a broke find and a very nice race, working hard to search the objectives for more birds.

Primo and Eleanor - Primo had four broke finds and a stop to flush - great bird work, ran hard and searched the objectives intelligently and unlike the previous 5 braces seemed to be able to dig up birds on grounds other dogs had just been over. Eleanor had a stop to flush (previously mentioned) and a back

We ran setters yesterday - and we had great bird work on the first two braces.

The first brace we ran Belle and Whiterock Cordite - He had a nice broke find on 3 sharptails in a thicket of buffalo brush. Belle ran very hard and searched diligently but the young dog was unable to come up with any birds.

Second brace was Jan and Syd - Jan did not do anything and was getting in the way of the horses and threatening to cause a horse wreck so she was taken back to the truck. Syd had 3 nice broke finds without any catwalking, and two beautiful backs - she was running and extreme shooting dog race and somehow slipped around me and the two other people that were training with me - searching for her in the big country used up some time.

The next 4 braces were unable to come up with any bird work.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Setters ruled today

Well, we got out bright and early and ran 15 dogs or 7 braces. It started out cool and got warm around 10 am and we called it a day.

Lucy and Hondo - Lucy was cautious but had a really nice broke find - and a decent race. Hondo ran well and had a derby broke find on a rooster pheasant.

Stubby and Syd - Wow, what a brace Syd ran a HUGE shooting dog race with one find and no steps. Stubby ran a big gun dog race with 3 broke finds and a stop to flush - both finished strong

Kane and Teeka - Both these dogs had bird work - Kane with a HELLUVA relocation on a running pheasant - Teeka backed Kane and briefly pointed 2 birds before she ripped them out - Kane had a nice broke find and a stop to flush

Kona and Ellie - These dogs were pretty handy - but Kona had a nice piece of broke dog work on pheasants

Brunie and Preston - Heckuva a ground race but were not able to have any bird work

Mac and Taz - Ran in the last brace heat of the day - no birds

Callie, Dolly and Ricky - Ran well - Dolly had one find, Callie had a beautiful race and Ricky was an exuberant puppy.

I was very pleased with Syd, Brunie, and Callie - these dogs had a great race and searched objectives - very nice to watch.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

First day working dogs on the prairie

Well, we were up at the crack of dawn to load and run bird dogs our first day on the prairie - we loaded up 7 braces and went to a nearby field to work the dogs.

Tio and Penny - This was a very good brace - both ran easy handling gun dog races. Tio had 2 broke finds, and 1 Non-productive. Penny had 3 backs with corrections, plus a find that she broke at the flush.

Primo and Cooper - Primo ran a very nice shooting dog race, handling easy. Cooper ran a short gun dog race - Primo had 3 broke finds with minor corrections, 2 broke finds without correction. Cooper had 5 backs with and without correction.

Fuzzy and Unna - These dogs were running hard shooting dog or all age races - our horses were well lathered trying to corral them - Unna had a very nice derby find on a rooster pheasant and Fuzzy backed with a minor correction - very good for a pair of green dogs on the first day of running.

Jessie and Jack - Jack ran a nice big gun dog race working objectives well, but had no finds. Jessie ran a very nice gun dog race, with one piece of broke bird work. Very nice brace

Deuce and Gunner - Pair of nice dogs ran well, no finds but ran over several birds and had a couple brief chases - about what I expected for their first day

Pete and Eleanor - Very nice pair of dogs - very good races, searching diligently and had no finds, but with experience should come up with more birds.

Dosa and Woody - Nice hard running pair of dogs and unfortunately did not come up with any bird work.

Diamond and Okie - Very good work from both dogs - searched objectives well and went to the right places - but no bird work was seen.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Working a little on the prairies now

We will start in ernest on Monday - but we have taken some pups and derbies out on the prairies and they are showing great progress and ability

Teeka - Little tricolor setter owned by Mark Wicks is pointing wild birds and backing - very attractive on the ground

Bright Eyes - Little tricolor setter - pointing wild birds (3 or 5 finds a outing) and backing very nice gait

Hondo - Finding birds - pointing and backing

Gus - Finding birds - but still needs work

Lucy - Great little irish setter - she is finding birds and backing and maintaining broke dog manners most of the time

Brunie - Doing very well, she needs some more work but progressing well

Rick - Nice dog - standing staunch on pen raised birds

Eleanor - Very nice shorthair female - standing broke on pen raised birds and ready for work on the prairie

Cooper - Doing well on pen raised birds, ready to work on the prairie

Okie - Awesome dog - ready for the big dog ranks

Taz - Awesome dog - need some more work on birds on the prairie but doing well

Diamond - Awesome little GSP - standing broke on pen raised birds - and almost ready for wild bird work

Woody - Doing well on pen raised birds - ready for bird work on the prairie

Fuzzy - Still needs work on pen raised birds - but making good progress

Penny - Broke on pen raised birds - ready for prairie work

Dosa - Doing well on pen raised birds - making good progress almost ready for wild bird work

Stubby - Work ethic is awesome very nice dog - bird work is very good

Unna - Doing well standing broke on pen raised birds and almost ready for bird work

Kona - Doing awesome wild bird work

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Bird work progressing

Well, we took out some dogs and worked birds and steadiness training.

Cooper - Standing broke on the flush about 50% of the time and broke to shot 50% of the time - very good progress.

Preston - Standing his birds broke - soon to be running with the big dogs

Jack - Needs to work on his happy feet - moving on both flush and shot and corrections were made

Penny - Doing a super job - standing broke about 75% of the time

Dosa - Nice job standing broke to the shot about 25% of the time

Brunie - Nice staunch puppy work

Rick - Nice staunch puppy work

Deuce - Needs more work on "whoa" but off to a good start

Unna - Standing broke about 50% of the time - needs more work

Jack - Standing broke but not very stylish as confidence grows that should change

Diamond - Happy feet loves birds - gonna have to work on her steadiness

Eleanor - Standing broke 100 percent today - almost ready to run with the big dogs

Callie - Stood broke about 50 % of the time - very nice and stylish dog

Woody - Standing very staunch - almost ready to run with the big dogs

Fuzzy - Still a bit of happy feet going on - but progress is very good

Keith - Posting From Under the Rusty Windmill

Litter mates

Litter Mates and thoughts from an Old Dog Trainer;

Well, I have been asked a couple questions about litter mates lately. First some background. I have been training dogs since the 1980s and professionally since 1999 I have been the advisor to Whiterock Kennels in the breeding program since 2006 and because of this I have had the opportunity to train several littermates from different litters - too many to recall but I have 3 sets of littermates from different breedings here at camp and thought I would share some observations, as well as several pointers - but will stick to the llewellin setter littermates for now

Dolly and Stubby- These are 3 yr old littermates from Polly and Tanner. Both of these dogs are heavily marked tri colors - Dolly is a Chestnut tricolor and Stubby a black and white tricolor. These dogs have had roughly the same training and time on the

prairies. Stubby is a big going stylish and serious dog - and shows ability to just be around birds - While Dolly is not so big going, but has outstanding style, is considerably less serious than Stubby - both of these dogs would be rated as above average to excellent bird dogs and competitors. This is a repeat breeding that produced Diva and Knikki. I would call this a consistent and predictable breeding

Callie and Taz - These are approximately 2 yr old littermates from Polly and Jakey. Both are chestnut tricolors. These are long leggy dogs with extreme speed and range, Taz is more stylish of the two dogs but Callie has better endurance and speed. Style on point is above average and both have shown the ability to be around birds consistantly and have very good noses - However, Callie has more up side than Taz does I believe because she is just now truly hitting her stride and although Taz is well advanced of his littermate in training - she is fast becoming his equal and takes training well. This can be explained because Taz is owned by a person that consistently can get him into training and birds. Taz has a slight crouch in pointing stature while Callie doesn't. Taz has a ground beating gait while Callie floats over the ground.

Rick and Teeka - These are approximately 8 month old littermates from a breeding of Dolly and Jakey - Both have excellent noses, style is very good, both find birds, and have a sense of where to go to find birds - and have consistently found and pointed birds from a very young age (8 to 10 wks) Ricky is a chestnut tricolor and Teeka a black and white tricolor. These dogs have been pointing wild birds since a young age. Ricky has a very stand up style while Teeka is crouchy in style - Ricky hits his birds hard while Teeka feathers into a point - but at a much longer distance - in other words Teeka hits her birds farther out and points very well when she reaches her threshold of scent - while Ricky hits his birds closer but immediately points - indicating that Teeka has a much longer nose but has a less staunch point. Both have a long gait which leads them to being somewhat dead tailed and have less class running.

Brunie and Bright Eyes - These are approximately 8 month old littermates from a breeding of Mali and Mac (Whiterock Mac Windem) Brunie is a chestnut tricolor and Bright Eyes is a black and white tricolor . This is an amazing study - when we started working this pair of littermates - Brunie has a longer gait but Bright Eyes has a super attractive gait and class running - Brunie has more speed but Bright Eyes has more snap. Both have amazing bird sense and noses - Bright Eyes at first was less than impressive - but now after 4 wks of running wild on the prairies is an amazing dog and one to watch - in fact, probably the best of the bunch - I watched her point 5 different bunches of pheasants and sharptails today - some with other dogs but she was always in the mix - sometimes first impressions are not the correct ones

Well what a few days it has been

Well, we are working dogs daily and we are gonna cut back the intensity of the training schedule it is too rigorous for some of the dogs.

Diamond - Doing well - transitioning to flank collar easily

Cooper - Doing well, transitioning to the flank collar now - progress is good

Unna - Very easy transition to flank collar

Dosa - Transitioning to the flank collar well now

Jack - Transitioning to flank collar very well now

Penny - Good progress on "Whoa" post transitioning slowly

Woody - Transitioning to flank collar almost complete

Preston - Transition to flank collar complete

Belle- Transition to flank collar progressing normally

Eleanor - Transition to flank collar nearly complete

Overall considering the weather pattern - excessive heat some days - thunder and lightning other days and rain - the yard work portion of the summer camp is going well.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Whoa Training going well

We are well into working the older dogs on Whoa and things are going well. Was very cool when we started this morning to work 14 dogs on "whoa" post

Callie - Taking the training very well.

Belle - A bit stubborn (but also hormonally challenged) and still not taking the training well

Rick - Doing good - he is a bit immature but based on what I am seeing I am optimistic

Dosa - Taking the training well

Unna - Taking the training very well

Woody - Almost ready to move into the next steps of training

Fuzzy - Doing very well and just a bit more time before moving to the next level of training

Penny - Taking all aspects of training very well

Jack - A bit slower in training than expected but making progress

Hondo - Ready to make the move to big dog/broke dog training

Taz - Also ready to work on big dog concepts - very good progress

Preston - Ready to make the next steps in training - doing great

Diamond - A bit slow to grasp the concepts of "whoa" but progress is good

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Puppies doing well

Well, things are progressing with the puppies - some of the wheat field are being harvested and that has pushed birds into areas that the puppies are able to make contact with them.

All the youngsters are having multiple bird contacts per day and doing well.

Starting to work on "whoa" post with all the derbies and progress should be good judging from what we have done so far.

Keith -Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Evaluations and Introduction to Birds/Gun Fire going well

Well, the past week we have been concentrating on getting an idea of where the dogs are and what to do training to make it as best we can. We have been working on check cord and introduction to gun fire for the past week

Eleanor - Doing well, no issues

Cooper - Doing well, no issues - but a bit aggressive

Diamond - Doing really well, loves birds and quite a handful

Fuzzy - Getting better on his bird work

Woody - Doing really well with his birds and other work

Gunner - Nice little puppy -

Dosa - Pointing well, a bit low styled but nice other ways

Unna - Pointing well, no issues yet

Jack - Whiner - and he has really happy feet - might get better - but still hard to handle

Penny - Nice dog - working well - no issues

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Evaluations going well

Well, we have spent the last two days evaluating the dogs to see where they are and evaluate what we must be doing to get the best out of the talent we have.

For simplicity we divided the dogs into two categories - setters and pointers

Pointers are obviously - Pointers, GSP's, GWP's and viszla's.

Setters are - llewellins, irish, english setters and one lone pudelpointer

Cooper - Will be working on "whoa" and pen raised birds.

Eleanor - Will be working more on birds - less on whoa

Okie - Graduated to the big dog string - will be run with our broke dogs

Pete - We are gonna work him on double set pigeons - flushing the far bird and firing while he is pointed focused on the the near bird - seems if the bird flushes close he lays down

Dosa - Whoa and pen raised birds

Unna - Whoa and pen raised birds

Jack - Whoa

Penny - Whoa and pen raised birds

Woody - Whoa and pen raised birds

Fuzzy - Running and letting him work birds

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

1st Day working pen birds

Well, we had a pleasant visit from Brian Graebe and worked pups this morning on pen raised birds - evaluation and see where they are

We worked

Sid - coming 3 yr old broke dog that we need to transfer some commands too and get her to stop cat walking - wild birds in order and corrections - looks like a great young dog and I am very hopeful she will get the training she needs and be a serious competitor

Callie - Need to work on getting this fine young dog broke on her birds, really awesome looking dog

Ellie - Super nice dog from Rhonda Berg's kennels - may be the star of the summer puppy program

Taz - Super nice dog - still needs to work on broke dog manners - but wild birds will fix this I am confident

Rick - Very nice young dog that is going to be a star I think too - He is doing well

Teeka - Mark Wick's young dog - coming along super nice - go and great nose

Brunie - Angie Arnolds young bitch - super nice bird dog - will be something to watch this summer

Hondo - Super nice young coming derby - very pleased with this dog

Gus - Needs a summer on wild birds with no pressure at all

Gunner - Ray Coopers nice little viszla puppy - did a nice job on his first bird contacts

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

1st Day roading

We started roading today - with 8 dogs in the harnesses and 3 pups free running nearby.It was warm about 70F but the dogs did well, we had no problems with any dogs balking at the harness or getting scared of the ATV

30th of June - Arrived in camp safely - much work to do - lots of damage to repair. Horses grazing on prairie grass and dogs enjoying the much cooler temps on the Plains. Took a walk on the prairies to a low hill near camp with some pups just to watch the sun rise - very happy to be back - working on getting camp organized is draining and busy work - but I will post when I can in the next week and more often once we really get working on the training program for all the young dogs Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

Summer Camp is Coming

Summer Camp will be once again in and around Timber Lake, SD. I will leave the last week in June and returning between the 3rd week in Sept and the 1st week in October. Favorable conditions in the winter and fall has lead to potentially a great hatch and plenty of birds according to reports from my landowners up there. I have about 10 slots left so if you want to send a dog this year - please get in touch with me Keith - Posting from Under the Live Oaks

No Luck last couple trials

Hoping to turn that around this weekend.

Last weekend I was proud of Dot - felt she had a win - no luck. Asked the judge if she ran too big (she was a wide shooting dog in the stake) and he said - that the first 15 minutes looked like she was running not hunting - she ran a great race had 3 beautiful finds the last 15 minutes and still didn't get a placement.

Tucker and Rocky all had 3 or 4 finds each - No luck there either - felt Rocky did a good job but knew Tucker was not in contention.

Primo - Ran a great race - but went birdless in the first brace.

Keith - Posting from Under the Live Oaks