Old Friends Visit

 

"Old friends aren't made overnight." ~ Saint-Exupery

Al and Geoff, Namekagon River

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

October is the height of Fall Colors and also Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock season here in NW Wisconsin.  Every year, Al Cave and his wife come to visit.  Al and I hunt the wily birds and Lisa and Ann have fun together.  We never really have a lot of luck bagging birds, but we have fun - especially working with my dogs.  The story is the same this year.  I did get some fairly nice video I'm about to share with you. 

As usual, if hunting stories offend you, please go read something else.

There is a Fire Break trail along Loon Creek up here that everyone knows about and it always has birds.  I told this short story to Al as we walk up to a bramble cover that Rowdy and Rory have bounced birds out of before.    As always, you can click on these videos to make the bigger and better resolution.  

Its a good setup for what happened immediately after this.

I sent Rory to look into that same bramble cover and dern if he didn't bounce up the first Woodcock I've seen this year.  Al made a great shot.

Al follows through, Rory Chases

As happens many times, we didn't need Rory to retrieve this bird, it's laying right there at our feet.  But...I haven't spent all those hours working with Rory to get Obedient Fetch drilled in to miss a chance to retrieve a freshly killed bird.  Especially a Woodcock, because Rory really needs more familiarity with the Timberdoodles.

So, this next video is a couple of minutes of Keystone Cops because Rory really did need some training in Woodcocks.  Please skip over this unless your are really interested in seeing dog training foibles...

Al bagged the Woodcock and we continued on up the Fire Break.  I really love this little piece of Burnett County, WI.  It's really pretty.  Rory goes out and bounces up another Grouse.  I have to wait for my shot after the bird passes Al and I totally missed it.  But we sent Rory out to look anyway. 

 

Muzzle Discipline?

I have no more stories to tell from that Fire Road and Ann drove us over to another little forest two track not far.  There's a little corner where I frequently see birds sunning and sure enough, Rory bounced up another one.  I'm pretty proud of how obedient Rory was in the run up to this. 

A bunch of family kids came up that night and we all climbed aboard the Poontoon Boat.  A sunset cruise and dashed hopes to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

Ham Lake Sunset Cruise

On that note, I remain, 

Dad/Geoff

ps, Found the comet tonight!  

Orlando Game Farm

 If the day comes when a flight surgeon tells me I can't fly anymore in high-performance
 jets, I can always sneak out back and fly ultra-lights.  .... You do what you can for as long as you can,
 and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing.  You back up but you don't give up." 

~ BG. Chuck Yeager

Hero shot!

 

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

This Gaddabout is another story about hunting.  If that bugs you, please go read something else.  

That quote really hit me when I read it back in the 80s. Training Rowdy and then Rory has been my Yeagerish retirement hobby.  Rory just about used up all his heat tolerance today.  I came close to overheating him. I won't make that mistake again.  Note the huge tongue loll in the picture. 

Back to the story. I've been promising to take my nephew to a game farm for at least a year.  I recently discovered the Orlando Game Farm just east of Miesville, MN.  I like the Miesville area and go there when I can.  It's home of the Miesville Mudhens and King's Place Bar and Grill.  If Jack Ruhr Field and the Miesville, Mudhens weren't the model for Field of Dreams, then they could have been. King's Place slightly beats out the House of Coates as the best burger place in MN.  But I digress. 

Orlando Game Farm does not have a website and appears to thrive on word of mouth so I can't link you to them.  You will have to rely on my meager descriptive skills.  A really pleasant family operation, Orlando Game Farm treated us great.  We bought 6 birds and they put them out for us with a flag to mark where they were planted.  While this may seem like cheating, I wanted to work on Rory whistle sitting and staying steady to flush until I released him.  We were about 50% successful on steady.  He retrieved every bird and we even got him to deliver to hand for Jackson instead of to me.

I made the nephew wear the GoPro hoping to get good video from a different viewpoint. Sadly, I've a got a problem that I don't understand and the GoPro failed to record.  It may have overheated.  The upshot is I don't have any videos and we should have captured some great ones.  I'm bummed. 

Quick overview, Rory or Jackson found 5 of the six birds and shot all we flushed.  Sadly one was only wounded and escaped.  I will play a video of the escaped bird in a moment.  I made Jackson schlepp the birds in his brand new Orange vest.  It's good to be the old guy....

We made our way back to the truck, hid the hens because farm purchased hens make a poor hero picture and arranged the two Roosters on the tailgate.  Then Jackson watered Rory. 

Jackson waters Rory

As I said, the next to last bird we flushed got away from us.  Jackson emptied his gun and feathers flew but the Rooster kept on truckin'.  I stood and tried to note where it flew, while whistle sitting Rory.  He's getting better and he remained steady until I heeled him up.  He was also getting really hot by this time. 

We went to the truck, emptied and stored the guns, watered the dog and took the hero pictures.  Then we closed up the bed, got Rory into the air conditioning and drove the short distance up and to the right to look for the wounded bird.  Sure enough, we turned the corner up on the top of the hill and there it was out in the freshly cultivated field just laying there.  I thought it was wounded enough it couldn't fly any more.  

We cogitated for a bit and I decided Rory had one more retrieve in him.  So, we got out of the truck and Jackson videoed us doing a blind retrieve.  You can tell how hot the dog is by how slow he is to obey.  Normally, he'd run as hard as he can.  But we flailed around and got him out next to the bird.  And that is when we learned we should have gunned up again and walked out there.  You'll see what I mean when you click this video.  

So, I think Rory got some experience, we reinforced some training and generally had a good day.  Met the great guys that run Orlando Game Farm.  (Why the road it's on is named Orlando in corn country in MN beats me...) 

Takeaway: I will not ever schedule a game farm trip when the forecast exceeds 60F.  It's just too hard on the dog to run that long in that heat.  I hang my head in shame.  ...and let's not talk about a wounded bird that we didn't harvest.

On that bittersweet note, I remain, 

Dad/Geoff

 

Rory wins two ribbons today!

   "The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win." ~ Bobby Knight

Proud Rory Hero Picture!

 

 Coach Knight got it right.  Rory and I have been working on today's success on a daily basis for months now.  But I digress.

Ann, Rory and I loaded up in the truck at an ungodly hour this morning and drove up to Ogilvie, MN to Pheasant Ridge Shooting Preserve to run in a NAHRA Upland Test.  In all honesty, the video I'm about to show you is pretty lack luster, but I am as proud of it as I can be.  Your mileage may differ.

There are two categories to a NAHRA Upland test.  Working Upland and Senior Upland.  We tested today at the Working level.  I am in awe of the guys who have their dogs up at the Senior level.  Maybe next year! 

Today's tests required Rory to meet a higher standard of training and performance than we've ever managed before.  

I'll explain those requirements as I bloviate my way through today's blog.  Ann followed us throughout the test with our GoPro and captured the video I'm about to show you.  As you watch the videos, please click Youtube's settings gear symbol and set the quality to the highest level and maximize your screen.  It's much better that way!

The two Judges, DickO and Terry are guys that I really respect for the dogs they've trained and the things they've done for Four Points Retriever Club. 

The first event is called a "Hunt-It-Up Test".  The judges hide a recently killed bird out in the cover somewhere.  Neither I nor Rory knew where the bird was hidden.  We are given a starting place for me to heel Rory over to and tell him to start hunting. On a different note, every retrieve in this test series requires Rory to "Deliver to hand" which means that Rory has to hold the bird for me until I take it from him.  The other tests we've passed were Started tests and all Rory had to do was to deliver within a "Reasonable Distance" which is much easier.

I have been working with Tim Springer's Do It Yourself program since last summer and one of the things we've been concentrating on is "Obedient Fetch" and Deliver to Hand.  I'm pretty proud of where we are and yet we've still got some firming up to do.  Rory went full k'nuck and had a little difficulty giving up the bird to me today.   

If I may digress yet again.  I've got Rory to a pretty solid level of obedience when it's just him and I in the backyard working together.  Or, out working in public with garden variety distractions going on.

An official NAHRA test is another whole kettle of cliches.  There are people and dogs everywhere, the excitement level is ramped up for everyone, there are guys with guns and birds, there are judges with clipboards...and it's just a fun whirlwind of distractions and controlled craziness that tests your dog's obedience like no other time.  Tests...well....they test you and your dog.  

If you watch the vids critically, you can see how distracted, excited and driven Rory was and how difficult it was to get him back into an obedient mindset.

We settled down at the start point, I told him "Dead Bird" and then "Find It!"  We've been "backyarding" "Find It!" and he knew exactly what to do.  The wind was blowing perfect and he found it right off and came charging back to me. 

Then we heeled over to the starting point for the next event.  

This next event is two fold.  An Upland Hunting Test consists of Rory "quartering" in front of the judges, the shooters and me for a set distance.  Then I get to heel him up and we "Walk Up" on the bird flinger and the shooters.  The perspicacious Gentle Reader will note the shooters and bird on the left side of the screen.  You can also see Terry signal them to release the bird.  Rory has to remain in heel until I send him to retrieve the bird.  He did really well on this one!

Then we had to quarter over to the next live flyer site.  This video is really kind of boring but you can see the bird guys reloading the flinger with a new bird for the next dog as we walk by.  You can also see the thicket out in front of us where we'll be for the next video.

 

 

This next video is the last event.  We did a Walk Up on the shooters through a thicket.  I had some trouble keeping Rory in heel and I gritched at him too much.  But we got through the thicket and Rory marked and retrieved the last bird pretty nicely.  Then he got all gnawy on the bird and I had to do some handling.  But it all worked out in the end.  

 

 We earned two ribbons today.  The Test Chair combine this weekend's tests on Saturday because of a forecast big blizzard.   So there were two simultaneously running tests going on.  Which is a really great testimony to our Retriever Club can do attitude.  It also added to the level of distraction and chaos for the dogs. I forgot to make sure Ann had the GoPro, so we did not get any video of the second test.  

 

On the second test, I concentrated much harder on making Rory heel, sit and give and I thought was much better.  

So on the happy image, I remain, 

Dad/Geoff