My Hunting Dog Training Blog

We had a cold snap and a pretty good snow a few days ago that kept me and the dogs from getting out much. Actually, the dogs don't care about the cold but I try to avoid bird hunting in a white out. The weather warmed up enough on Monday to take a few of our friends out pheasant hunting. Annie performed admirably retrieving several pheasant to hand for me. This big beautiful rooster was the best of her retrieves and she marked it nicely. She had to work efficiently to beat Jared Moss' shorthairs to the retrieves.

Since she was just 10 weeks old Annie has had a nack for finding stinky smelly things. During our hunting today she brought me a squashed racoon roadkill, a chunk of smelly deer hide and a rotten rabbit's leg. Each time she brings something I try to praise her for a good find and then get her back to work finding birds. Towards the end of hunt she brought me what appeared to be an old dead hen pheasant from a previous days hunt. When I took it from her, I found that it was still warm with obvious shot marks. Turns out that she had found a wounded bird that some hooligans had shot earlier in the day. They were poaching pheasants on the pheasant farm from a nearby farming road, shooting from their truck. I was pleased that Annie smelled and located this bird and retrieved it to hand.