Buster has been carrying the load at the pheasant farm this past month as Annie has been out of service while caring for her litter of brittany puppies. The puppies started eating solid foods a week ago and I thought Annie could use a break for a few hours. This was Annie and Buster’s first time hunting together as a team and I was real pleased with the duo. Sometimes 2 dogs just don’t work well together and you can’t fix it. Other times two dogs can seem like they read each others minds and truly compliment the other. We had a great pheasant hunt even if it was a bit cold and snowy, the dogs did well and our clients got 10 out of 12 birds released. It was fun working the ditch banks on these large alfalfa fields and the birds were holding good with the snow cover. All in all it was a fun day but the pups were glad to see Annie when we got back.
Pheasant Hunting Journal American Brittany, Annie, Hunting Preserves, Pheasant Hunting
Back in September I made some great friends at the Dave Walker training seminar. Two of them are Ruth and Mike Zangara of Overton, NV. They have a small brittany kennel down there called Medicine Rockz Kennel. Their nice little female Chloe was due to have puppies right after Annie and they whelped a beautiful litter of brittany puppies on October 19th. You can see the puppy pictures here and their pedigrees. Should be some very nice puppies for hunting homes and Mike and Ruth are great to work with. If you are in the Las Vegas area looking for a good hunting dog puppy, give them a call.
Choosing a Puppy American Brittany, Puppies For Sale, Seminars
We are so proud of Lizzy and how she is doing in the early stages of her bird dog training. She is a joy to be around and is great with my kids and other dogs. She likes to retrieve things and play fetch, and man is she one bird crazy dog. I have some bird pens in my barn where I keep chukar and quail and she will stand there for hours watching the birds. I usually have to physically remove her from the bird barn. It is worse when we go to the pheasant farm because the flight pens are quite lengthy and she goes round and round it pointing birds.
We have introduced her to clipped wing pigeons and some quail and she has the bird-drive in her. Can’t wait for a few more months when we can get a little more serious and start introducing the gun. She follows me around the yard when I do chores and loves to ride in the truck.
Choosing a Puppy American Brittany, Gun Dog Training, Hunting Preserves, Puppy Names
A few months ago I sold my Polaris Ranger and have been looking around for a new dog training/hunting outfit. My neighbor helped me find this little Ford Ranger V6 4X4 at auction that had rear-end body damage. We got a good deal on it (2004 with 74,000 miles) and popped the bed off. After a bit of searching we found and ordered this aluminum flatbed from a company called Aluma in Iowa. It was hard to find a flatbed for a small truck, but I wanted to be able to have access to all sides for loading and unloading dogs and gear. I am waiting on a custom dog box from Diamond Deluxe to finish the truck. I enjoyed the Polaris but was disappointed with the gas mileage and buying new front tires all the time from driving on paved roads. I thought a light truck with a flat bed would be just right. So far, I love it. Thanks to my neighbor from JRS Auto Repair for helping me find the truck at auction and mounting the flatbed for me.
Dog Training Journal Dog Training Supplies, Gun Dog Training, Hunting Gear
Buster got his first chance to guide at the pheasant farm last week. A client from Las Vegas was on his way home from a Colorado elk hunt and stopped in for an afternoon of pheasant hunting. Buster did just fine. He located and pointed about 8-10 pheasants before getting popped out because of the hot/dry conditions. This was mostly my fault for not having him in top physical condition because I was waiting on my new dog training truck. Buster retrieved pretty well and seems like he will be a good hand at the pheasant preserve this fall where I work part-time to get my dogs on more birds.
Pheasant Hunting Journal
Mowgli has been working with Chris Colt at Cove Mountain Kennels on some basic obedience and introduction to birds. He is a unique dog in that he is so full of energy it has been hard to get him settled down enough to learn. He is getting better at his birdwork and just started really standing his birds this past week or two. We really struggled with his “sitting” problem where he would sit anytime he was under pressure. But, Chris has pretty much brought him through that using Dave Walker’s training method of stand up – stand still.
Chris has recommended getting him out on some wild chukar next month where he can really stretch his legs and never catch a bird. That is the one drawback to dog training with pigeons. Sometimes they don’t flush very well at all and the dogs learn that they can jump in and catch them. Our quail are looking good for this year and we are anxious to set up or recall pen for the fall training season. The picture below is Mowgli’s first real point this morning, I was late on the snapshot but he initially had his front leg up and his tail high.
Dog Training Journal American Brittany, Gun Dog Training, Hunting Buddies, Pigeons for Training, Steady to Wing
Just sending in Tony’s papers for the Central and Western futurities put on by the American Brittany Club. There were quite a few litters nominated with Tony’s in 2008 but I think less than half will actually be entered in the competitions. There are events for Show and Field and the events are designed to showcase and promote excellent litters bred and whelped in 2008. I am hoping to be able to attend the Western futurities down in Arizona to see Tony run in January. To see the dogs that performed well this year (2007 bred litters) you can click here for the Central, for the Western results click here and for the Eastern Results click here. It will be exciting to see how Tony and his litter mates stack up against other young Brittany dogs.
Dog Breeding all age, American Brittany, dual champions, field trials, Show competition
Buster came to us as a finished dog and will be a big help as we head into the fall pheasant hunting season. We have taken him out on live birds and he looks great on point and is nearly whoa broke. Buster is a product of Dave Walker Brittany’s and his sire is FC Ricoche-T and his dam is Sweet Dreams who is heavily bred on DC/NFC Ban Dee on the top. We are hoping to use Buster as a stud dog in the near future. He has a great natural retrieve and is a pleasure to have in the kennel and in the home.
A side note: Annie came into heat this week and started spotting today. We are planning a breeding between her and Buster if all goes well. Puppies would be expected around October 17th and would be ready for their new homes right around mid-December. These should be excellent hunting dogs with a calm nature, strong nose and a natural retrieve.
My Gun Dogs American Brittany, Breeding, NSTRA
After a few months of loafing and enjoying the lazy days of summer the dogs tend to lose some muscle and get pudgy like their owner. With the fall pheasant hunting season only 2 months away it is time for our daily runs to get back on track. With temperatures reaching into the high 90’s during the day we usually go for our run first thing in the morning when it is still cool out. The dogs are a little soft so it will take a couple weeks to get back in shape and running hard.
Yesterday we picked up this white and liver brittany dog named Buster. He is a nice sized 4-year-old male out of Dave Walkers brittany kennels. Buster’s sire is FC Ricoche-T or “Rico” and his dam is Sweet Dreams who is a Beans Blaze bred female by DC Chick’s Blaze’N Sawtooth Sam JH. We are excited to add Buster to our brittany kennels and look forward to shooting a lot of pheasants for him this fall at the pheasant hunting preserve.
Dog Training Journal American Brittany, Breeding, Dog Breeds, Gun Dog Training, Health and Nutrition
