Things I Learned Pheasant Hunting

Pardon me while I depart a bit from writing about the escapades of the 2 brown dawgs and write a bit about my own.  (Well it still involves the 2 brown dawgs!)  

I am asked all of the time, “Why don’t you go out hunting?  You have 2 brown dawgs and a husband who loves to hunt, yet you never go.”  So this time I grabbed my camera and tagged along on a pheasant hunt.  I have never done anything like this before and I certainly learned a lot that morning.  

These are the top 15 things that I learned:

   

1.  When you are trudging through waist-high cover, it is impossible to keep up with a tall guy and 2 brown dawgs intent on pursuing their prey. 

   

Hey, Wait Up!

2.  That waist-high cover has a way of wrapping itself around the laces of your boots and untying them requiring you to stop and retie them repeatedly.             

3.  Leave the boots that tie at home.       

     

Can't Catch Up

4.  It is impossible to get pictures of dogs working in high grass.         

     

Where are the 2 Brown Dawgs?

5.  If the wind whips up to 25 mph those pheasants will sit tight in the grass and then move at jet speed once flushed.      

    

Where's The Pheasant?

6.  They will then head straight for a corn field and disappear.

     
 

Find It Storm!

 

 7.  A good Chesapeake Bay Retriever will chase a cripple pheasant into the corn and flush it again.    

 

I Flushed It. You Missed It!

 

  8.  It is impossible to see dogs, let alone get pictures of dogs, working in a corn field.    

At Least I Got A Picture Of Half a Dog!

9.  Getting a picture of a pheasant moving at jet speed is tough. If you are lucky, you just might get a blurry picture of a bird. 

 

 

This One Didn't Get Away

 

 10.  No matter how big the field, if there are any trees, you will crawl over the same pile of logs hidden under the grass at least three times.    

     

 

Trees Mean Logs

 

 11.  Hawks don’t care that you’ve paid to hunt the field, if they get there first, they call dibs.  

    

 

Just Feathers

 

12.   Have pond, the 2 brown dawgs will swim.  

    

 

Dawgs Will Swim

 

           

13. Trudging trough a field can sometimes only produce 3 flushes and 2 birds in the bag.  

     

 

One In The Bag

 

     

 14.  The 2 brown dawgs will happily work hard even if they only end up with 2 birds.  

    

 

2 Brown Dawgs With Their Birds

 

     

15.  I am not a hunter, and if I ever try this again it will be in the dead of winter when all the green stuff is dead, (as long as the snow isn’t too deep :D ).  

       

 

Thunder With His Pheasant

 

     

 

Storm With Her Pheasant

 

The 2 Brown Dawgs’ Big Week

 

Storm working on her WDX

The 2 brown dawgs had a big week last week.  The first part of the week they participated in the American Chesapeake Club’s Working Dog Test.  Storm earned her Working Dog Excellent Certification (WDX).  To qualify for the WDX certification a dog must be steady, retrieve double marks on land and on water and deliver to hand.  Storm needs to work a bit on the steady part, but she recovered enough to earn her certification.  Good job Storm!   

 

Thunder Bringing Back His Bird

 Thunder earned his Working Dog Excellent Certification last year at the Chessie Specialty so he was “Test Dog” for the land portion of the WDX.  The “Test Dog” runs the test before any competition starts in order to show what the test requires.  He did a great job.  

Hopefully the next time this test is run the 2 brown dawgs will be ready for the final level of the test which is Working Dog Qualified (WDQ).  WDQ requires triple marks and handling to a land and a water blind. 

Storm

 Then mid-week the 2 brown dawgs hunted opening day of the grouse season.  Storm even bagged her first grouse.  Thunder and Storm have been out grouse hunting in the past and although they have put up multiple birds, there was never an opportunity for a shot, so this is the first grouse Storm has brought to the table.  She was so proud!  

Storm's First Grouse

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

Tule Shows Smokey How to Do It

 

Thunder and Tule’s pup Smokey had a big week too.  Smokey earned her Working Dog Certification.  But before Smokey ran the test her mama Tule ran as “Test Dog” and showed her how it was done.

Good girl Tule!

 
 
 
 

 

Smokey Bringing Back Her Bird

 

Smokey did a great job and earned her Working Dog certification.  The end of the week she earned her AKC Rally Advanced Title.  That is three titles earned for Smokey this year, (RN, JH, RA).

 

Good job Smokey!

 
 
  

Smokey with her WD Ribbon

 
 
 
 

Also this past week, Radar, another of Thunder and Tule’s pups, earned the first leg of three legs toward  his Rally Advanced Title.  Rally Advanced is the next step up from Rally Novice and all done off lead. 

Good boy Radar! 

 

 
 

There were a lot of great Chesapeake Bay Retrievers at the WDXQ Test and at the training day before the test.  I wish I could have taken pictures of then all.  Congratulations to all who participated—dogs, handlers, workers and judges!

 

Megan

Annie

Maggie

Thunder's hunting pal Stella earned her WDX

Brooke

Cinnamon

Cheyenne

A cute puppy!

Ducks, Finally Ducks!

 

The 2 brown dawgs got to train marks with ducks in this pretty little pond. 

  

They love to train on water and with ducks! Unfortunately, the pond wasn’t really big enough to train true doubles, but they were game to try.

 Storm was up first. 

Go Storm!

  

Its over here!

  

Storm has it.

  

Good girl!

 Thunder’s turn. 

Waiting patiently.

Let's GO!

I got it!

 

Good boy!