Last trip of the season

[densa44]

There is no "Dog training thread" so I'm putting this here.
We were at the release site on 19-1 which we call Conde (that is the name on the oil well across the road) it was cold and snowing.
There was one car parked in the north lot and the fellow had left his running shoes outside the car, now filling with snow. I still don't know why he didn't put them in the car.

I strategically put my 2 collars on two of my 4 dogs, 2 is all I can handle anyway. We started down the road through the snow. When we got to the culvert 2 dogs sort of pointed but kept moving, this was new and not good, they will stop on a bird. I suspected a porky but since it was so late in the season I thought that they would all be gone by now. I hurried as fast as a 73 year old guy could in ankle deep snow.

Before I got there Sienna was on her way back with a rooster. It was dead and frozen solid, must have died over night.

It was like trying to stuff a 2x4 into my vest so I gave up and laid it on the path. I figured if the other hunter found it he was welcome to it and if not I'd pick it up on my way back.

It didn't take long before I'd had all I could take, it was very cold, for me the dogs didn't care.

On the way back to the truck the dogs started barking all four of them, again I was worried about a skunk/porky but it turned out to be a rooster that they had treed! One shot from 30 yards from my trusty .410 and it fell to the ground to the delight of the wolf pack waiting below.

I now had to pick up the bird that I'd left on the path, I had not seen any sign of the other hunter. I was close to the truck and 2 more cars appeared and the drivers got out to see what I was doing. The bird was about 300 yards away and out of sight due to the undulating terrain.

For the retriever trainers, the retrieve wasn't all that difficult but the dog would be out of sight, for the the versatile trainers, the dog would have to carry a line for at least 200 yards before it would spot the bird.

With all 4 dogs sitting beside me I put my hand down and said "SIENNA!" and off she went and her friends stayed put.

I turned around and struggled up the hill to meet the spectators and my truck. By the time I got there Sienna was back with the frozen bird and my new found friends we suitably impressed (they didn't know that I'd put the bird on the path).

They didn't have a dog and decided that they wouldn't hunt after all.

They wouldn't take the birds that I offered to them.

Great dog work to end the season.

Sienna is in the next room trying to whelp 7 pups, good dog!

[elkhunter11]

We were out yesterday for the last time. The weather was nice , but two hours did not produce a single bird. There were two other hunters there, and I heard no shooting from them either. Everywhere we went the human tracks were like a road, obviously many people had been there in the past few days. Quite the change from last week when it was cool, there were few human tracks, and we were limited out in less than 30 minutes. Another pheasant season is over, and we are going to search for some of the Hungarian partridges that I found while spotting geese this fall. Then it's another winter, and back to training next spring.