We went to visit my parents this past weekend in Southern Utah. They live on the edge of the desert and have taken to feeding the local covey of quail. We enjoyed breakfast on the patio and watched as the Quail would come into feed on the free buffet. It was fun to hear them call and I couldn’t help but think of grabbing my shotgun and taking the dogs out for a romp. The neighbors would call the cops in a minute, and my parents would banish me forever. But, still the thought did cross my mind. I would guess that some of the best Quail coveys in the southwest are considered pets for the homeowners that choose to live on the edge of suburbia. They bathe in the water features and dine daily on the mountains of wild bird seed tossed into the brush. There is nothing cuter than a Momma quail leading her brood out for a morning jaunt. When your into gamebirds you start seeing them in the darndest places.

Russ was kind enough to invite the fathers and sons in our town for a pheasant hunt. Many of the youth had never shot a pheasant before or had seen pointing dogs at work. Russ always starts with a safety talk and gives some pointers on shooting. Each of the boys in my group were able to shoot a pheasant. A few of my neighbors commented on my dogs “Wow, we didn’t know you had this kind of dogs”. I was proud of Abby and Annie, they looked sharp. Thanks to John Jacks, Sterling Lee, Wade Peterson and JJ & Jeff Brewer for volunteering as guides and dog handlers. We had a 1:1 adult to youth ratio which helped to keep things safe and fun. It’s always fun to bring young people into the field and teach them to hunt. All of the boys learned to clean their own birds and we had a delicious dutch oven dinner with smoked pheasant and taters. Thanks to Tom & Bess Christensen and Russ & Carol Peterson for preparing the meal. The hunt was a big success.

Yesterday we snuck over to the Rooster Valley Pheasants hunting preserve to get our fix until next season. We took our new land-lord Jared J. Jensen with us since he loves hunting waterfowl. He couldn’t decide which shotgun to bring on a pheasant hunt and I told him a 10 gauge was a little much. After some searching he finally found a couple boxes of number six shot in his arsenal. The hunting was tough since we were hunting “wild” across the river from the preserve. Jared was able to knock down a couple of nice roosters and we had a great time working the dogs. Sterling Lee and John Jacks were also hunting with us. Their dogs Biff and Trigger did well.

It was fun to take some time to visit with Russ Peterson after the hunt, as the owner of Rooster Valley Pheasants he always has some good tips to help us find some birds. He said he had just jumped 3 more roosters while working a puppy of his along the river. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go and chase them down. We hope to get out again next week. The season at the hunting preserve closes on March 31st.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to volunteer as a guide/dog handler at the annual Southern Utah Youth Fun Hunt. What a great experience for young people to be introduced to hunting upland game with pointing dogs. This was my first time participating and I was really impressed by the organization of an event of this magnitude. My hat goes off to the founders, sponsors and organizers of this year’s youth fun hunt. The kids had a wonderful time and I was told they ran over 200 kids through in two days of hunting.

This is my friend Robert Well’s dog Toby on point during one of the early braces. Robert has been volunteering at this event for several years and invited me to attend this year with my dogs Annie and Abby. Toby was a real joy to watch work and is a classy german shorthair.

Safety was our first concern with each brace we started with a safety talk and went over the rules. When the dogs went on point, the handlers would physically restrain them while the youth hunters were walked around to get ready for the shot.

With the shooters in place another would kick the pheasant out of the bushes. Upon the shot we would release the dogs for the retrieve. We were able to get at least one successful bird shot for each kid. Towards the end of the day a big storm rolled in and the wind cranked up. Kent Forbush is pictured below with the gathering storm.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about trainng my hunting dogs, is making new friends and hunting buddies. Dog people tend to stick together but hunting dog folks are an even tighter group. If you are trying to train a new hunting dog it is essential that you find others to train with and to learn from. Not only from a knowledge sharing or educational level, but also for moral support when things go awry. At times training a hunting dog can be frustrating and many common mistakes can be avoided by training with others.

I had a chance to make a new friend this past month in my little town in Utah. I drove by this house under construction every day on the way to the training grounds. I couldn’t help but notice the guy had a Tri-tronics decal in the back window of his truck. I knew he had to be a hunting dog owner. I stopped by one day and introduced myself, and it turned out he was a hunter and a german shorthair owner. We have been hunting a few times since then and I’m glad to have another hunting buddy to learn from.

If you live in a small town you may be surprised that you are not alone. You can sometimes find fellow hunting dog people online on forums like Gun Dog Forum or Shorthairs.net. I recently discovered an online forum for specifically for hunters and field trialers in my area called Utah Bird Dog Forum. I even found a new vet by stopping and talking to a lady I spotted walking her shorthairs, turned out she worked for a vet up the road. Haven’t been to another vet since.

Chased some pheasants this morning before going to work. Abby was in fine form and was slamming her points with style. My buddies dog Biff was getting the hang of backing Abby when she would find a bird. Biff is a good hunter as well but hasn’t had near as many birds as Abby. It has been amazing to watch Abby progress over the past few months as she has gained more experience on both wild and released birds. Each bird pointed is so valuable to the growth and development of a pointing dog.

She backed Biff on one of his points but today it seemed that Abby brought her “A” game. She retrieved 3 roosters that were shot over the water and dropped into the river. We had one that dropped on the other side and she didn’t see it fall. Couldn’t get her to do the blind retrieve thing. She kept looking at me like I was an idiot. Besides the blinds on water, her retrieves are to hand every time. Abby is really shaping up to be a classy hunting dog.

Guided a group of pheasant hunters this week at Rooster Valley Pheasants in Annabella, UT. The weather was beautiful and the dogs were dialed in and finding birds. There were 12 shooters in this large group of hunters, so Russ split them into 3 hunting groups. I took this small group and worked the canal and the river along the Northeast edge of the property. We had a good safe hunt with some good shooters who only missed a few roosters. I think we ended up with around 25 birds at the end of the hunt. Some real nice guys and a great day of hunting pheasant.

I really enjoy the opportunity to get my young dogs out on some more birds and get valuable experience. The roosters were running on us a bit more than usual and the dogs didn’t take long to figure it out. We had to hustle a few time to catch the runners but we only had one give us the slip. Abby looked sharp and was holding her points very well. The wind was just right and she was slamming on point about 20-30 feet in front of the bird. Abby and Annie fought a bit over retrieving but they always brought the bird to hand. Annie had a great find on a wounded bird that lit across the river. She hadn’t seen the rooster dropped so I sent her blind across the river. She was hesitant at first but swam the cold water and finally found the bird 50 feet back in the brambles. I was so proud. Not bad for a couple of young dogs. Annie (Brittany) is 18 months old and Abby (Shorthair) will be two in April.