Hi Dave!

Wait-a-minute..? Is my phone bugged or sumthin'?? Actually - the other night, I was chatting with Eric about exactly that same idea..!??!

Honestly - it's something I would love to do - Grouse hunt in Northern MI so that evening I had Mapquest out trying to figure out drive times and distances... It would be a pleasure and honor to meet up with you and Eric this fall during the season.

My thanks!

John

A couple years ago at our yearly youth hunt I handled my old Elhew for one of the young shooters. That gave me a chance to take a few pics. First Ringo finds the bird for the young shooter; I flush it and the darn thing U turns for the pond. The youngster nails it over the pond and we kid him that he's going to have to swim for it; but, Ring who can swim like a Lab makes the fetch. Ring is 13 now so I brought on a young Elhew (Pete) and all that did was to get Ring to work harder. I hope it's not too hard on the old boy, but he sure doesn't want to go down as a porch hound.

Good stuff boys, particularly with the water work.

Destry

My dog ( the one over here on the left ) is a great deer retriever. A couple of years ago we had a wounded buck in our pond and ole Rex here went out and drowned the buck and brought him to shore, darnedest thing I've ever seen. Needless to say we had some good eating that night.

Dave, if you and Eric are thinking about having John out to Michigan to hunt grouse, better look at this picture of what happened to a small Kansas town when John kept missing shots on pheasant.

Bruce.....

That was ONLY ONE DAY I did all that damage... And damn - the wind was a bit hefty that same day...

Anyone up for a hunt??

;)

HEH!!!

JD

Yea we do water work but we got a little upland game going too

Bruce,
We will limit him to two shells per day.
That should keep the damage to a minimum.:)

My Setter Sam. A rainy day point on a stone wall a few years ago. I'm slowly starting to put pics in my user profile album as I find time.

http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/s...4life/Sam3.jpg

I just have to brag for a minute....
 

I figured you folks would understand if I took a minute to brag about the training session today. You see - as I mentioned earlier, I fostered this French Brit (Epagneul Breton) who I got hooked up with through NBRAN (my thanks Anne!!) .. And after a year of training and about 5 months of field/bird training - it all came together today!! I'm like a "proud papa" - as the long days of work came together for her.. :)

Today - in an abandoned field, we planted 3 birds in the morning. This afternoon - with temps reaching about 90 degrees and a strong breeze, I didn't have much hope that the birds hadn't moved off a distance. Anyway - I started working the field with Briahana, knowing it would be a short session due to the heat & humidity... She was excellent, cutting back and forth, staying about 10-20 yards in front and working a swath about 40 yards across, and then would cut back. Wonderful.... If you train your own dogs - you know what I mean. In fact, I would have been pleased just to see her work in this fashion without a point...

About five minute later, while working this pattern - she locks on point. First bird... I quietly "whoa" her and make her hold for a minute or two. Then - I flush the bird and let it fly away... She holds till I call her off and start her working again...

Ten minutes later - she locks onto bird two. This time - make believe I can't find the bird (which is about 10-15 feet upwind) - and release her from her "whoa" to "easy forward"... She creeps up, halving the distance to the bird - and locks up again...

Bird three has wandered a bit (well - the length of the field!! :eek: ) and again - she locks up on point after a 15 minute cast back-and-forth...

I am thrilled.... But - shes done all that before... So why is today different?

We water and rest her for a bit, and during that time - Dave goes out and hefts a chucker into the overgrown weeds. I ask Dave to bring his shotgun - and let's see if we can't bring it all together. He agrees...

Off into the field again... About 15 minutes later - we are working those weeds - and Briahana locks up on point. I whoa her and Dave readies the shotgun. So - I step forward and flush the bird. Briahana holds point - while Dave downs the bird about 30 yards out. She holds after the bird comes down - looking at me like "OK - so what's next??".. I call "mark - fetch" - and BY GAWD - THAT DAWG FETCHES THE BIRD TO HAND..!!! She comes running back to me - bird in mouth - and puts it at my feet (I was too slow to take it from her mouth - as I was dumbfounded..)

Months and months of working on whoa - easy forward - working with blank pistols - fetching - mark - holding - all paid off.. Simply wonderful.. And if you do your own training - you know what I mean...

I am so damned proud of her... And to think - she was going to be put down by a shelter because someone "dumped" her in mid-winter in Maine.. And when I got her - she wasn't even house-broken nor had any training at all...

I am so proud of her - I could "burst"....

And oh - two pics from today - from the first point (Jen took these two as I was working with Briahana - first is on point - and second is me steadying her on whoa, but gives you an idea of her size. She is tiny...)...

John