Chase update - On some chuckers
Chase update - He is now 91/2 months old. Not posting to brag (ok...just a little), but to give an example of buying a started puppy.
Well.....the stars never aligned so chase could get on some wild birds, so, with a little nudging, I finally booked an afternoon with Chase at Ruffwoods for some chucker. Well I couldn't be more proud of my little guy! After discussion with Mike (I would not hesitate to highly recommend Ruffwood), I decided to go for planted birds, and use this opportunity as a training day.
I was by myself, and on my first pointer hunt. Chase knows way more about this game then I do. I entered the end of the field where the birds were planted, gave him a tap on the head, to set Chase loose. After only a couple of minutes he picked up scent in the air, zero'd in, and held a beautiful point about ten feet away from the bird. I was about thirty yards away. I walked up to his left, seen the bird, but kicked the grass around a bit to temp a creep. He was a statue. Here we go, now I had to do my part...I walked up on the bird, it flushed, I shot (real close, as I really wanted to get some feathers in his mouth), bird down (well what was left anyway). Chase was about half way to the bird before it dropped, he picked it up, and returned on a whistle command. Whew! Boy that could have gone wrong six ways to Sunday, but it didn't. I was so happy. He was always behind me, and I was by myself, so I think he was steady to flush, and not to shot.
Four more solid points occurred, and on one, I did a three sixty around him and he didn't budge. Never had to nic him at all, at any point. Great search and quartering till he caught the scent, then moved in to a nice long low point. Great on come back, this way, and hunt it up commands. Pretty sweet for a 91/2 month old pup. Only once did a chucker flush on him, but he was at least 175 yards from me, on point (boy can he range if you let him). I tried to get there but....didn't have a horse......looked like the bird was closer to him than he thought, or it just flushed without warning, hard to tell from that distance. Nonetheless, a good lesson that he can't catch them. He also had a wild flush with a pheasant, pursued him into the woods, but came out empty handed. Another good lesson for him.
Couldn't be more pleased with today. I'll try to get out for a few more chucker hunts, then move him on to some phez if he's still really steady. I'd say an unofficial NA score of 112 myself, but maybe I'm bias! lol .
No illusions though, there's lots of work yet to be done I'm sure! So far, money well spent on the puppy training, and trip out to Idaho.
Don.
