New to Upland and Birddog Training - North Central CO

[NoCoSportsman]

Hello everyone, new to the forum and thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself. I'm 24yo and a Police Officer here in Northern Colorado. I grew up around big game hunting, elk and deer mostly, but had never decided to dabble in the upland or waterfowl arenas until a couple years ago when I was introduced to my first 3-year old Irish Setter named Natalie. Nat came to me via the conformation show circuit and lived with me for about a year. She happened to also have several AKC field titles (unsure of which titles specifically.)

I fell in love with the crazy red headed setters and promptly started researching breeders to purchase my own from. In Oct 2011 I found a litter from a Senior Hunter/Champion dog and a Junior Hunter bitch that happened to be cousins of Natalie's pedigree and was located only 30 miles east of me. I picked up my now 1-year old Irish Female "Cassidy" and we've been training for pheasants ever since.

Nov 10th marked the opening of Pheasant season here in CO and Nov 11th and 12th were both Cassidy and my first Pheasant season. We spent the entire first day walking around fields with no signs of anything bigger than sparrows and a little night time research helped point me in the right direction. By noon on the second day I had landed us in a field where the pheasant was plentiful. In the four and a half hours we spent there Cassidy flushed and gave chase to six strong flying and one slow pheasant, almost catching up to the seventh.

I wish I would have found this forum prior to our first trip because after our second day I ran across an old thread from 2010 that informed me that the first pheasant season is "her season." She gets to busy and chase as many as she can and my job is to keep my mouth shut and enjoy her learning process. That's one tidbit of information that I would have loved to know prior to our adventure but nonetheless I counted the trip as successful.

That being said, thank you for this resource. I'm sure over the coming years I'll become a regular visitor to draw from the huge pool of knowledge that is collected here. As for now, I really only have one question so far. Is there anything else I should keep in mind for her first season besides the lesson that I already learned?

Thank you and I look forward to becoming a member of this tight knit community.

Mitch

[KwikIrish]

Mitch,
I'm from Colorado and own show bred Irish. Is this Natalie owned by Ashleigh? I'm guessing I know the litter your pup is from, too! Small world.
welcome to the forum and watch out, lots of breed envy out there
Kelli

[quackerjack]

Welcome to the forum! Wish you the best with your Irish Setter. They are definitely a gorgeous breed. Don't be shy about posting pictures!

[NoCoSportsman]

Natalie is owned by Ashleigh still, as far as I know! Natalie lived with me while Ashleigh was in the dorms at school so she could have her dog close enough to travel to shows with.