My Hunting Dog Training Blog

The past few weeks I have been shown a few WMAs (waterfowl management areas) near my home. They are State managed lands where waterfowl and other wildlife can flourish in prime conditions. Today we explored a 560 acre WMA just a few short miles North of Richfield, Utah. It is bordered on the North edge by a sizeable reservoir and along the eastern edge by a river. After yesterdays big snowfall we thought it would be a perfect chance to get the dogs on some tight-holding pheasant. The dogs pointed quite a few hens but the lone rooster of the morning flushed out of range and flew across the river onto private land. I was impressed by the amount of cover available for the birds.

Up until today my only pheasant hunting exerience locally was at my neighbors pheasant farm. The public vs. private lands debate came to my mind as I wandered for hours on public lands only seeing one other hunter way off in the distance. I enjoyed seeing a large variety of birds and waterfowl, most of which I have never seen on the local pheasant club grounds. We were surprised to flush nearly a hundred mallard ducks that were resting on a bend in the river.

From a training standpoint it is nice to have easy access to both types of lands. The pheasant farm is a very controlled environment which is nice for training puppies on bird introduction or working on specific problems. As my pups progress it is fun to present them with new challenges in cover and conditions. The public lands are quite difficult to predict and much harder for the dogs to get lucky on. They learn to work smarter and to make thier searches a little more thorough. I am fortunate to have many types of terrain nearby where my dogs can hunt Chukar, Grouse, Pheasant, Quail, Dove, Ducks and even Geese.