More Scouting Tales
Good temperatures, at least early on these last two mornings, and the dogs have done well finding some birds on our scouting missions.
Yesterday in New Hampshire, Bode started out hot, pointing a pair of grouse, then a solo woodcock and finally a lone grouse in heavy cover - he was at his best in the cool early morning conditions. But then it warmed up a bit, and he began bumping a few birds as the temps climbed … we would end up contacting 6 grouse and 4 woodcock in nearly three hours, which was pretty good considering the conditions.
Today in Vermont, Monty did very well as he had points on two solo woodcock and then pointed a group of three grouse, a couple of which would have made nice targets. He then bumped a solitary grouse to close out his 1.5 hours in the woods. Once again, the canine performance was best when the temperature was coolest. By the time we left the woods, it was getting warm again, well on its way to hitting 75 degrees today.
As you can see from Bode's picture, the woods are mighty thick right now, and that might not change too much over the next few weeks. Usually the cover is beginning to come down by mid October, and usually everything is down by late October. Good grouse cover is thick however, so we just have to learn to deal with it - after all, if you're not picking up your hat when you're going through the cover, your probably not in good grouse cover!
By the way, last year's clients can attest to my struggle with certain technology (beeper collars!) that we rely on out in the woods. I had been using TriTronics beeper collars over the years with dependable results. Since I run the dogs with silent beepers until they point, it is really important that my beeper collars work dependably, when they're supposed to.
Well, I started having problems with my old TriTronics beepers early last season, and I opted to replace them with beeper units made by Garmin, which, truth be told, seem to be the same technology as the TriTronics collars (Garmin bought out TriTronics a few years ago and continued the beeper units). Unfortunately, I found that the new Garmin beepers were not as dependable as the TriTronics units were - not sure why, but I had quite a few instances where the beepers were going off at inopportune times, and it affected my hunts as a result.
Taking the recommendation of another guide friend of mine, I purchased the Dogtra 2500 beeper/trainer unit this summer, and it has been a revelation. The dogs have adapted seamlessly to this unit, and it has been dependable for us this summer as we run it on silent until the point is established. There is a small delay in the beeper going off (a few seconds), but then the beeper goes off every two seconds and having the training function on the same unit is indispensible to ensure that the point is held through the flush (still working on through the shot).
For $300 approximately, the Dogtra collar is a good value if you also need a training unit as well - I recommend it highly.
Yesterday in New Hampshire, Bode started out hot, pointing a pair of grouse, then a solo woodcock and finally a lone grouse in heavy cover - he was at his best in the cool early morning conditions. But then it warmed up a bit, and he began bumping a few birds as the temps climbed … we would end up contacting 6 grouse and 4 woodcock in nearly three hours, which was pretty good considering the conditions.
Today in Vermont, Monty did very well as he had points on two solo woodcock and then pointed a group of three grouse, a couple of which would have made nice targets. He then bumped a solitary grouse to close out his 1.5 hours in the woods. Once again, the canine performance was best when the temperature was coolest. By the time we left the woods, it was getting warm again, well on its way to hitting 75 degrees today.
As you can see from Bode's picture, the woods are mighty thick right now, and that might not change too much over the next few weeks. Usually the cover is beginning to come down by mid October, and usually everything is down by late October. Good grouse cover is thick however, so we just have to learn to deal with it - after all, if you're not picking up your hat when you're going through the cover, your probably not in good grouse cover!
By the way, last year's clients can attest to my struggle with certain technology (beeper collars!) that we rely on out in the woods. I had been using TriTronics beeper collars over the years with dependable results. Since I run the dogs with silent beepers until they point, it is really important that my beeper collars work dependably, when they're supposed to.
Well, I started having problems with my old TriTronics beepers early last season, and I opted to replace them with beeper units made by Garmin, which, truth be told, seem to be the same technology as the TriTronics collars (Garmin bought out TriTronics a few years ago and continued the beeper units). Unfortunately, I found that the new Garmin beepers were not as dependable as the TriTronics units were - not sure why, but I had quite a few instances where the beepers were going off at inopportune times, and it affected my hunts as a result.
Taking the recommendation of another guide friend of mine, I purchased the Dogtra 2500 beeper/trainer unit this summer, and it has been a revelation. The dogs have adapted seamlessly to this unit, and it has been dependable for us this summer as we run it on silent until the point is established. There is a small delay in the beeper going off (a few seconds), but then the beeper goes off every two seconds and having the training function on the same unit is indispensible to ensure that the point is held through the flush (still working on through the shot).
For $300 approximately, the Dogtra collar is a good value if you also need a training unit as well - I recommend it highly.
