From:  KHickam  
Sep-1 6:54 am 

Well, we are working off of horseback about 4 days a week now - yard training 3 days a week now.  All the dogs are doing well.  But, figured this post would be on a lighter note. 

 

About 2 weeks ago, I travelled to Circle, MT and ran 3 llewellin setters in the MT Shooting Dog Championship.  Those dogs were Tanner, Mali, and Kane.  This was Kane and Mali's first time running in a stake that big under my whistle.  I had prepared them well, but their youth showed.  Mali, failed to stop to flush very early in the stake as her bracemate ran over a bird and it flushed over Mali's head.  She was put in a harness and her day was over. 

 

I was up with Kane next, and Kane was off well made a big cast, and although was in the area of his bracemate pointing.  I don't believe he saw the dog - however, in the judges opinion he did and I picked up.  Tanner would be up in the afternoon and the temps were approaching the mid-high 90s.  already.

 

Tanner started off hard and made a nice initial cast and was running well, about 10 minutes he made a big cast to the front and over a ridge well to the front and as big as any cast in the stake.  He started shortening up, as he was getting hot and I picked up to save him for another day. 

 

The luck of the draw is important and had Tanner drawn Mali's brace - I believe he would have showed well and finished strong.

 

We ran the derby's on Tuesday - as we cast away the derbies it was nearing 100F

 

First dog up was Diva - she ran hard, made some nice casts for 15  minutes, but slowed considerably until 24 minutes and when brought to the water trough showed no inclination to continue so I picked her up.

 

Rhemy - Ran well, made some nice casts but was very handy in the heat and although I kept her down and she finished the heat was definately a factor in her performance or lack thereof.

 

Gus - Ran well for 20 minutes, made some nice casts, but after 20 was seeking shade under my horse and I picked him up - heat is hard on young dogs - even those in great condition, and it was 20 degrees hotter than we had ran in up to that point.

 

Nikki - Made some good casts, including one big one - slowed in the middle - but picked up towards the end and finished with a find on sharp tails along a tree line seeking shade.

 

Jackie - Ran hard, made some nice casts, ran well with a cracking tail and did a super nice job without bird work - but had the best ground race of the dogs I was running and will be a very nice field trial dog in time.

 

Millie - Made a huge cast initially, but as a young dog was not experienced enough to pace herself and although she finished she was very handy at the end.

 

So, we ran some nice young dogs that had the temps been more moderate - would have shown much better.  Inexperience showed with the shooting dogs - but, I was pleased overall with the quality of the dogs we put down.

 

The high point of the trial was great food, good people, great grounds and judges.  In the end we did okay against the big hitters.

 

Whiterock Jackaranda - aka Jackie was placed 2nd in an Open Derby (all age) on the prairie against some very nice dogs.  It was a good day for us and Whiterock Kennels.

 

Congratulations to Jackie and her owner Chuck Wilson.  Jim Michaeletz has watched several of our dogs in competition now - His opinion is that given a year or two - Jackie, Diva and Nikki can run with any AF shooting dogs and be competitive.

 

We still have a long ways to go but we are making the turn.  I wish Chuck and everyone else much success in their breeding programs - and I am confident we can continue to produce the dogs the caliber of those mentioned.  I feel that these three young dogs are better than their daddy was at this age.

 

Additionally,  I was able to speak with Shawn Kinklaar at MT Shooting Dog championship as we rode along waiting for our dogs to run.  It was nice, to make the acquaintance of such a successful shooting dog handler.

 

A couple of days ago on Sunday (the only day I take off - if you want to call it a day off) I rode the morning braces at the Southwestern Championship and watched a couple of Sean Derrig's dogs run.  In between braces, we had an interesting, although brief conversation with him.

 

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill

 

From:  Cuilean/LadyA (KeithH5)  
Sep-5 7:29 pm 
   
 
Well, we have had a great week at training camp here.  Today, we trailered over to Glencross, SD.  The Liberty Ranch is owned by Paula Hinckley and is loaded with birds.  We ran 4 braces of dogs - about 45 minutes to 1 hr per brace.  We moved between 400-500 pheasants and about 30 sharp tails total.

 

The ranch is set along the Moreau river about 4 miles to the south - There are numerous draws that have mixture of prairie, plum thickets and buck brush - little fingers of the draw come up to the alfalfa and wheat fields .  We work CRP fields, alfalfa and the tops of the draw.  There are 3 variety of game birds - pheasants are the most dominant species, sharp tails are less numerous, and huns are the least numerous of the species.  Additionally, there are mule and white tail deer and turkeys in the deep draws. 

 

Jim and I each handled a dog in every brace.  The first brace I had Kane.  We started in a cut alfalfa field that borders mixed grassland and CRP.  The first 2 minutes Kane had a stop to flush, and maintained manners throughout.  He then went on a bird finding bonanza - ending the 1 hr with 8 broke finds, numerous stop to flushes as Jim and I rode up great numbers of pheasants.  We figured that we moved 150 to 200 birds total.

 

Hoochie was up in the 2nd brace.  We started along the tops of the deep draws.  We worked down one finger of the draw and up another.  Hoochie is very inexperienced and it showed, as she ran over many birds and although it took some time we finally had a productive find and Hoochie did a very nice job with it.  Meanwhile, Jim with his big running all age dog, had all the bird work he needed perhaps more than was needed and we ended the brace at about 45 minutes with Hoochie having 1 broke find, several stop to flushes and multiple times where she ran through groups of pheasants.  This was a wonderful outing for her since it fired her up and in the end she was handling her birds much better.  Jim's dog Rock had 4 broke finds and 2 stop to flushes.  I need to note here that generally speaking these were not single bird finds - but often 5 - 30 bird groups.  Great bird work for young dogs.

 

The third brace was Mali - we started along a large, CRP field with tough, heavy cover -  she immediately had a nice stop to bump/flush .  I got off the horse and worked in front of her and as I did so another 5 or 6 pheasants flushed and I fired and moved Mali on.  Jim and his dog had 3 broke finds and moved numerous birds during the hour including a back of Mali and vice versa.  We continued to move through this heavy cover with Mali ranging 50-250 yds (absolutely spectacular endurance/range considering the cover) and Mali had 4 more broke finds and numerous stop to flush.  As we rode through this cover it was not unusual for us to flush multiple birds with the horses.  I got tired of getting on and off my horse.  This was a spectacular brace and fine work from a 1st year shooting dog and a 1st year All age dog.

 

The 4th brace we ran a single dog - Aura.  This fine little brittany was very game the entire 45 minutes - the cover was difficult, but she managed to handle it very well.  She had a stop to flush early in the brace and it was very mannerly. 

 

I got tired of getting on and off my horse flushing for her on the numerous non-productives she had - due in large part to inexperience and the tremendous amount of bird scent in the field - generally, I would flush in front of her and find roosts or areas that birds had been in recently.  We finally, got a broke find with her and she was mannerly.  We then turned into the cut alfalfa field and watched as 5-10 birds flushed well in front of her and out into the prairies and draws.  This was a tremendous learning experience for Aura and she finished well, and on a very nice note.

 

Yesterday, we worked yard work with 4 dogs that have been lagging behind the group.  This is very much in tune with my training style as I do not push a dog faster than the dog can handle and the slower dogs are trained at their own pace and speed.  Yet, all these dogs are showing good progress.

 

Sis - Although, she gets to run on the prairies for experience.  We have been working on yard work to get her broke.  She is a new dog at camp in her first 10 days here and she is starting to stand her birds to the shot pretty well.

 

Chase - We had to start this dog basically from scratch and progress is super.  He is standing broke about 90 percent of the time on pen birds and sometime next week will be worked into the mix of dogs working on wild birds

 

Belle - We are not going to get this dog broke as she had some serious issues we had to help her resolve but we are going to go back to happy timing her and check cording her on wild birds at the hog farm in hopes that she will get more excited by more exposure to wild birds.

 

Maggie - Standing broke now - we are going to start this dog on wild birds next week.  I am pleased with her progress as she started this summer with gun sensitivity issue.

 

On Wednesday, We tried something totally new we trailered over about 4 miles west of camp with 3 dogs and ran an out an back over new ground each brace.  This worked out super and we need to continue to do that.  We took Sammie, Sadie, Diva out with us on the trailer.

 

Diva was up in the first brace and ran for over 1 hr on the prairies.  She runs a beautiful, forward shooting dog race and was rewarded by 3 broke finds and a stop to flush - she had to be corrected on the stop to flush but figured it out fast and did a great job.  Her first find was in and shadow of a bluff as Jim and I split up and he took the left side with his fine all age dog and I took the right side with Diva.  Her first contact was with a brood of pheasants, she winded them and worked forward but her inexperience proved to be her down fall as the flushed as she worked too close - she started to chase but I was able stop her with a correction.  We didn't get 200 yds and she pointed - I got off and flushed a single sharptail - she took a step forward but I stopped her and fired a blank - at the sound of the shot the rest of the group of sharptails flushed in a delayed rise.  After rejoining Jim we had another find - this time on pheasants.  Diva had learned her lesson and was very mannerly throughout.   As we turned towards home - Diva had a find where the prairie meets an alfalfa field,  she was beautiful throughout the flush of 15 sharptails.  This is a dog with tremendous potential as a field trial dog - super nice - much better than daddy was at the same age.

 

We ran back with Sis - she had no points - but she got into a bunch of birds and had a great race and was very nice to watch.  A few more outings and this young bitch will do much better I think.

 

Next up was Sammie - she had a couple corrections on stop to flush - and she did great after that.  She had a broke find with a pheasant - and I was pleased with her - and she had a broke find on a running bird that I had to chase close to 80 yds to flush.

 

We ran back with Aura - she had a nice gun dog race - with two broke finds on young pheasants.  The weather was perfect and she was going to all the right places and I was very pleased with her performance.

 

Our final brace was Sadie - this nice chestnut bitch ran a nice hunting dog race and had a broke find on sharptails.  She is coming along nicely and gaining more experience.

 

Overall - We are running alot of nice dogs and getting good/great bird work from all the dogs.  It has been a great summer.

 

 

 

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill