Summer Review
It has been a while since we were together, I need to apologize for that. Sometimes things just get in the way.
The bird season is in full swing in parts of the country. Here in my neck of the woods it is only the preserve season.
So we still have time to accomplish some of our training goals. Speaking of those goals, did everyone reach the goals that they set for themselves? We here at Wing Shot and Fall were making big gains in the middle of the summer in preparation for this season.
We were using pigeons in launchers and gaining on being steady through the shot. My young setter was actually there about a month ago.
Then we made the switch from pigeons to bobwhite quail. I was expecting some regression when I changed birds. However the wheels fell off the cart completely. He has reverted back to breaking at the flush. So needless to say I am glad that the wild bird season is not in right now.
We will make the adjustments and get back to where we were and I am looking forward to hunting with a young dog that is steady to the shot.
We also started a trained retrieve over the summer. We have a hold.
We also have a walking hold and he is only now picking it up off the ground.
So I am pretty excited that we are getting through that and it looks like we will be on track for the opener. This will make the season more enjoyable..
Even more recently we decided to enter a fun field trial. Now that Max is no longer a puppy we entered three different divisions. Derby, Bird Hunter and Shooting Dog. In the Derby we had one back and a run up. Not what I was expecting. Then in the bird hunter we had one back and that was it. To say that the conditions were tough would be an understatement. So in the shooting dog we had no business being in but thought one more run would be good. We had four finds and a handler error resulted in a NP being counted. I didn’t get permission to relocate when the bird moved out from under the point. So that wasn’t a bad run but if he was steady like he was over the summer I think we would have cleaned up but we walked away with a third place finish. Not bad but I would like us to be good and not lucky next time out.
So this is how things went for us over the summer and the first event of the year. Let me know how your summer went and if your season is open or you travelled to catch the opener somewhere let us know so we can all experience it.
Have a great season.
