German Shorthaired Pointers are pullers

Well, I have had these two dogs for some time now and have found that due to a few reasons they are a pain to walk on a leash.  After each walk my had hurts bad.  Well I went to the pet store they other day and decided to try a pinch collar on Autumn.  Well, it was like a switch for her.  I have been walking her and Willow with the pinch collar the past three days, and I love to walk them now. 

Some of you may think that they should both know how to walk on a leash by now, and I agree if they were normal house dogs, but they are not.  These dogs were trained from a young age to be field dogs, and leash training was not very important to me at that point.  The only reason I even put them on a leash is due to cars, as they would never run away, but I don't trust that they won't go in the street if they see a bird or in someones back yard.  Well, now my daughters have been asking to go on walks with the dogs, so I have been working hard to make it so both my kids, 5 and 9, can walk both dogs.  Right now I know know my 9 year old can walk either of them, and am confident that my 5 year old could also, but I have not tried that yet.  I will keep you undated on leash training. 

3/92014. Last hunt of the season

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp_wmPDtJk4

This was the last hunt of the season.  Cover is really getting bad and birds were running all over the place.  We ended up taking 12/16 and the dogs did good considering.  Willow ended the year at 103 and Autumn  ended up with 23.  Next year Autumn should be on fire with the birds.  I will periodically post some videos and info on the dogs during the off season.

2/22/14 Hunt

Well, I missed a ton of birds today.  For some reason my shot was just off today.  We ended up taking 9 of 12 birds released, but missed a bunch.  One of the birds we downed floated away in the fast moving creek.  I wanted to jump after it, but thought better of it.  It was a fun hunt with a new friend.  I have fun Adam, hope you did as well.  You will need to send some pictures of you new puppy!  I am hoping to have the link to the video by tomorrow.  Well I had a hard time keeping track of which dog pointed on which birds that we took.  I am going to say they each pointed at least five of the birds we got, so I am putting Willow to 97 and Autumn to 18.  If they both point the bird, I am giving them both credit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPsUOAr6xQU

Hunt Scheduled for 2/22/14

I have a hunt scheduled for Febuary 22nd.  I am hoping the weather holds up, as my dogs were bummed last weekend when we had to drive home from the club without getting out.  Although I was bummed we didn't hunt, I was happy the closed the club, as it was the worst I have ever seen with blowing wind.  I really want Willow to get to a hundred birds this year, but it seems that nobody can make it out this weekend, so I am only releasing four birds.  Maybe we will see some scratch birds this weekend.

Watch this video of Willow the sled dog.  Unfortuantly youtube has blocked this from some moble devices.

Scheduled clean up hunt for 2/17/14 and bird totals for each dog

Well I have a cleanup scheduled for next Monday.  I am hoping to get a few birds, but we will see I guess.  Also, after last weekend Willow is up to 92 birds and Autumn is up to 13.  Autumn actually pointed more birds last week than Willow.

Well this hunt got cancelled. As I drove out to the club conditions started getting really bad with very low visibility with strong winds and blowing snow.  Here is what the roads looked like.

2/9/14 Hunt A Good Day with Mark and the Dogs

We booked this hunt mid week and the forcast looked a bit rough, but each day I checked the weather it got a little better.  It ended up being about 20 out with light wind and sun.  The only issue was the deep snow, some drifts being mid thigh deep.  Well we got out and had a great hunt.  We released 8 pheasants and ended up taking 7, missed one, but we picked up a scratch chucker, it was Mark's first chucker.  I had the go pro out again and am hoping to have the video tomorrow some time.  The only part of the hunt that frustrated me was when two birds spooked up ahead of us before the dogs could point them and I shot both of them.  The irratating part was I didn't have time to hit record on the gopro, so I missed the filming of my first double.  Also, Willow hit some fence and started limping a bit, so we put her back in the car and Autumn got her first go at a solo hunt for the last hour.  She pointed the chucker and retrieved it after Mark hit it.  I am looking forward to seeing what kind of footage I got of that.  Watch for the video tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWKu_SEFDn8

2/1/14 pheasant hunt

Well Friday I decided to schedule a hunt for Saturday.  Well I make it out with about 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and slow still falling.  I only released 4 birds and I finally got as many as I released.  Actually, I downed five birds, but unfortunately one of them was hit to close and ruined.  I am getting better with the gopro, but still missed a lot of the hunt.  It was a good day dispute walking through the deep snow.  I hit some spots that were past my knee.  I am working on the video and will have it up soon.  Lots of double points today, i am going to put Willow up to 85 birds and Autumn is up to 9.  I hope that Willow can get to 100 this season, as it's her first real season out and she is doing great, but in think Autumn may end up being an even better hunter than Willow when she grows up a bit, I am just hoping she learns to hold her point a little longer at times.



A new link will come soon.  YouTube muted that video.  I guess Blake Shelton doesn't want his music on you tube.  Weird it got busted on that video, I heard he served venison at his wedding!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFOptzSn9SI