Gun Dog Forum

Does she always come when called and truly eager to please?
What you need is to get her in the middle of 40/50 turkeys going to roost!

Got home yesterday afternoon with only about 15 mins of daylight left, race to get pup out of her kennel for her daily run session out back. When time allows (once or twice a week) I'll plant a couple of birds to keep her honest and intense, didn't have time yesterday just wanted to stretch her legs.
She's beginning to run a little wider and covered the 200 yard fencerow to the treeline really fast then absolutely locked up at the opening of a thicket, I'm talking sixty to zero slammed down! We don't have any wild birds on our place so I'm thinking by the time I get to her she will have moved on.
Pup with head and tail high never budged, as I approached her she cut her eyes at me all bug eyed and nostrils flaring!
Now I'm certainly no expert but have raised and hunted bird dogs,coon dogs,rabbit dogs and squirrel dogs at different intervals all of my life but what i witnessed next defied anything I'd ever seen with a dog.
I took one step into that thicket and not only did the ground erupt but pup and I were under air attack as well! Literally birds running and flying in every direction! Even took a lick to my cold ear from a wing! It took a moment to figure out what just happened (and to check my drawers)!
It's not uncommon to see lots of turkeys around here but apparently this was pups maiden voyage on the turkey train.
What is uncommon was to see how my well mannered little girl who generally does as I ask, just went absolutely bonkers,I'm talking nuts! She'd run 40 yards,point one on the ground just to take out after another overhead where she would lock up on another on the ground 60 yards away just for another to come running by and she'd give chase. I realized early on no amount of me yelling was gonna stop her and couldnt catch her even though by now it's about dark outside, so I just watched and had a good ole belly laugh.
After several minutes the turkeys all flew together over to a treed hilltop a couple hundred yards away where I finally found her on point (treed to be exact) and both of our hearts beating 90 miles a minute and one of our ears bleeding!
You gotta love pups,
Scott

adds a little spice to the afternoon walk
brandon

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing!

Scott, she was tryin for a mixed bag! lol Sounds like you got your lil pup comin right along. Have you took her wild bird hunting yet? DL

Awesome story, thanks for sharing!!!

That is a fun story. Thanks,

It is funny how big there eyes get on turkeys. Still Remember Mercy's first time in a Spring training session, with 2 day old birds running through her legs with the Mercy Pointing the hen from just twenty feet.
RIck

Dereck Layne wrote:Scott, she was tryin for a mixed bag! lol Sounds like you got your lil pup comin right along. Have you took her wild bird hunting yet? DL

Hey Dereck,
She's doing really well for the opportunity she's had, usually she'll hold birds for 90 seconds or so before she breaks but I guess that many birds was so intoxicating she held for a good while.
Hunted 4 or 5 times over the Christmas holidays at some old places that used to produce but didn't find a single bird. Hard to say if she didn't find them or they weren't there. Still looked awfully birdy so I'm guessing she missed. Gotta remember it's been 6 or 7 years since I've hunted these places.
Took her to stretch her legs on Jan 2nd at Williamsport WMA, kinda last minute thing and wasn't 100% sure of the regs so my son and I didn't carry guns. Let her out of the box, she ran less than 100 yds. and locked up, we hustled up to her and she broke when I was going in for the flush, small covey maybe 5 or 6 birds.
Gonna continue to work her on the post and bench during the week and hunt her weekends till seasons end.
Then gonna concentrate on breaking her.

I ran into a small flock a couple of weeks ago, and my dog got real birdy for a good 100 yards before we got to them, she pointed them and they took off flying, she was watching them fly in all directions, when they all passed she got up on her hind legs and barked at them for a good minute or so, and this is a dog that never barks, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen..

Rod

The only birds my pup and I see while excerising are pigeons and crows. Must be nice to have all that space and woodland to romp around in as your backyard.