April Scouting
Perfect (though unseasonably chilly) weather for spring grouse and woodcock scouting. Temps have been in the twenties and thirties, and our woodcock have returned to our northern coverts, which is always a harbinger of spring.
This is also a great time to reinforce those commands ("WHOA!") that have become fuzzy in the canine memory over winter. While we are a bit limited in where we can go (many of the logging roads are closed to allow them to dry out from the snow and ice of winter), there's still plenty of spots that we can get in to.
The dogs have been doing well in their work. While Monty looks like he's ready for the season now (4 grouse and 3 woodcock contacted the other day in New Hampshire, and he had two staunch grouse points and a point on a pair of woodcock), Bode has some more work to do. Bode and I ran in to a lot of birds yesterday in Vermont - 8 grouse and 4 woodcock yesterday morning, and while part of the problem on at least half of the birds was wind direction (we were coming at the birds with the wind at our back - you can't always be on the right side of it unfortunately), he managed to bump most of the others.
His one bright spot was on his one grouse point (pictured) - guess you have to start somewhere!
This is also a great time to reinforce those commands ("WHOA!") that have become fuzzy in the canine memory over winter. While we are a bit limited in where we can go (many of the logging roads are closed to allow them to dry out from the snow and ice of winter), there's still plenty of spots that we can get in to.
The dogs have been doing well in their work. While Monty looks like he's ready for the season now (4 grouse and 3 woodcock contacted the other day in New Hampshire, and he had two staunch grouse points and a point on a pair of woodcock), Bode has some more work to do. Bode and I ran in to a lot of birds yesterday in Vermont - 8 grouse and 4 woodcock yesterday morning, and while part of the problem on at least half of the birds was wind direction (we were coming at the birds with the wind at our back - you can't always be on the right side of it unfortunately), he managed to bump most of the others.
His one bright spot was on his one grouse point (pictured) - guess you have to start somewhere!
