January 2008 Archives

As most hunting seasons are coming to a close, I am getting my pigeons ready for their training season. During the Spring and Summer I often use pigeons in my bird dog training drills. Pigeons are cheap to aquire, easy to feed and house, and they breed like rabbits. My small flock of pigeons doubled last year with all the new squabs that were born. If you can provide ample nesting space and good nesting materials, they will keep you stocked with fresh pigeons for dog training year round. I like to use homing pigeons so that I can release them for training and re-use them the next time. They simply fly back to the coop and usually beat me home from the training grounds.

When you are working with a dog on gun-fire and holding steady to shot it sometimes becomes necessary to shoot one or two pigeons. I usually pick the old birds that are on their way out the door anyway. Seems a little harsh but you can only do so much training without shooting a bird. Plus, most dogs view the shot and retrieve as their reward for a good point and hold. They love to get their mouth around those feathered friends. I have a neighbor who raises roller pigeons and he sells me his worst rollers for cheap. I don't mind if they don't happen to roll very well, they still fly and home nicely.

Posting this for a friend who had bigger than expected litter of puppies, 11 puppies in all. This is a picture of one of the 5 week old male german wirehaired pointer puppies pointing a wing. You can see a lot more photos and the litter pedigree at his website brucegwp.blogspot.com. Sounds like a real nice litter of hunting dogs for those that like the GWP. If you are interested you can also call Bruce Jabaay directly on his cell phone (616)443-6718. He wants to make sure he finds good hunting homes for thes fine puppies.

The past few weeks have found us covered in a solid layer of white stuff. Winter can seem depressing when the sun is gone for days at a time. I find it refreshing to actually have a Winter after moving here from the Southwest where the snows rarely fell. This morning we were able to get the sidewalks shoveled of fresh snow and take the dogs up for a romp in the hills. We were thrilled to be the first set of tracks in the new snow. Max always loves to ride in the Polaris Ranger with me to run the dogs. He tells his Mom we are "goin up a mountain, shoot a Deers". He loves to be outside so I can rarely sneak outside without him by my side. We have been seeing Mule Deer nearly every day now as the weather pushes them down into the valley for food and water. The dogs are learning not to chase the Deer and the training is going very well.

Over the holidays I was lucky enough to enjoy some pheasant hunting with my two Brothers-in-Law Kyle Simmons and Phil Cherry. Phil is raising a pair of lab pups and is an avid shooter, but this was Kyle's first time hunting pheasants.

About 20 minutes into the hunt Abby set up on a nice point and held tight. Kyle moved up from the right side to kick the bird out of the cover.

Kyle squared up on the flush and squeezed off a very nice shot. There were feathers flying everywhere and Kyle was all smiles. Abby retrieved the bird to hand and I was very pleased with her performance.