another hreat day with my cocker

[16. ga hunter]

headed down to cattaraugus county this am with my cocker spaniel to go aftewr some grouse. ended up having a great hunt she worked excelent really covering the ground put up 2 grouse at our first stop i missed both. went to another cover and she put up a hen pheasant before i even had the gun loaded beautiful shot opportunity though and another grouse missed again. then worked around a pond and connected with a grouse bailey dead hunted excelent and brought bird to hand in a short time,although she had ripped out the tail feathers. went and found them where she had pulled the dead bird out from some brush. we then hunted our way back towards the car but saw no more grouse near the car she pushed a turkey out infront of us i don't thinnk she knew what to make of it. we both had a really good time and there is nothing better than watching your dog qaurter through the brush while she zeros in on the birds very rewarding to see even when you don't take the birds.

[Doewhacker]

Another good day for you out there I see, I took the both dogs out for a run yesterday too but no hunting just a training run. I was working my pup on quartering the field and range, man does he run now. Our training club starts up in March and because of this mild winter we are months ahead of where we would be other wise, its great! I am confident that I could run him in his Navhda NA puppy test and he would pass today but we have till June for that.

Have you ever considered adding a pointer to your house hold? That might be fun for you, the flusher could put the bird up for you and the pointer could do its job too.

[16. ga hunter]

this is true however i currently live in a trailer so i don't really have room for a large sized gun dog at the moment. i have never hunted over a pointer before so i don't really know. growing up my father always had upland trained black labs so i guess it was just natural for me to get a flushing dog and being that i often hunt alone it also come in handy having the birds flushed at a good range for shooting. the biggest thing is training your flusher to work at a respectable range. and im not confident enough in her training yet to have her working with a ranging dog. im sure i could keep her in but also don't want her thinking it is ok to be working at some of the ranges i have seen pointers at. maybe somet ime in the future i would consider a pointer just not now.