Good few days

[bpenn1980]

Took a few days to head out and hunt this week. This was our first real hunt together and I'm super happy with my partner in crime. She has crazy energy and drive. She was eating up the ground, taking direction on where to hunt, changing direction with me, and most importantly, she was birdy as I've ever seen her. We got in a Sunday afternoon hunt and she experienced her first wild quail flush. It was a switch in her brain and she went nuts. I was worried about how she'd act with a 12ga, so I started her off with a blank pistol, firing when she was staring at them or chasing them after the flush. She was in the zone. After the second day I switched to the 12 ga. She didnt even seem to hear it, or maybe it made her even more crazy to find birds. I was good and held off shooting any birds, but on the 3rd day she got a flash point on a quail that flushed right at the same time. I took the shot and the quail sailed over the ridge, gone. Hot on its tail, my young friend was on top of it and held it down (bad shot ) until I got there 60 seconds later. I quickly finished it off and let her sniff it and play with it while I poured love on her. Satisfied with the day, I headed off back to the truck and posed for a proud papa shot.

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Unfortunately our week ended 6 hours early today after she had an encounter with barbed wire.
I took this pic before I saw a much larger and nastier looking cut on her back leg. I promptly broke down the gun and carried her a mile back to the car.


$266 later, a lesson learned (hopefully!), and we're back home enjoying the luxuries of the modern world.
Brad

[Ditch__Parrot]

Sounds like you had a nice time out with her. You will never forget her first bird.

Unfortunately I see barbed wire as just part of the life of a bird dog. At least around here the stuff is just unavoidable. Good news is it seems it only takes one good run in with it for them to learn to give it a little more respect. My oldest lost a small chunk of meat a few weeks ago to it. But she backed out of it minimizing the damage. As a pup she got tangled in some and thought she could just push threw it. She ended up with a large flap of skin hanging off and I ended up with a vet bill. Since then she's a little more careful. My youngest I thought I'd be smart and do some prep work with her crossing back and forth in a controlled manner. About our 3rd or 4th time out hunting this seaseon she still ended up with a pretty good scrape after crossing a fence at about mach 2. At least it wasn't a vet bill though. Since then she slows down a bit for them.

[bpenn1980]

Thanks ditchparrot.
I hope you're right and she has connected the dots between barbed wire and pain. The back cut was so big I could actually smell dog meat on the drive to the vet. I kept trying to figure out what the smell was and then I realized it was her wound. Very nice.

Also, in case anyone ever reads this it could help. The vet said that the margins of the wounds were almost dead and would have had to be cut away if it had been much longer. The time from the wound to the vet operating table was 3 hours. If I had had a bottle of saline I could have moistened the gauze and kept the wound from drying so quickly. Just a thought

[Ditch__Parrot]

Also, in case anyone ever reads this it could help. The vet said that the margins of the wounds were almost dead and would have had to be cut away if it had been much longer. The time from the wound to the vet operating table was 3 hours. If I had had a bottle of saline I could have moistened the gauze and kept the wound from drying so quickly. Just a thought

Good info, thanks

[Elkhunter]

Good looking dog, those first couple of encounters are always the funnest part. My GSP's first wild find was a covey of like 30 birds and they exploded in his face and he was off to the races.

[natetnc]

sometimes it takes another denial by the fence but she will learn, they all do if you hunt enough fences. mine will recognize fence posts real quick and hunt a little more carefully around them, however they still end up with a nick or two from time to time.

looks like the both of you had a good time, cheers to that!

[pointerbritt3]

Seems like my dogs are always getting cut up and hurt while hunting. Most recently in Kansas shortly after Christmas. Noticed a big gash on the chest of my pointer from who knows what. Got her back to the truck and put some gauze on it (with saline). Punched in "vet" on the GPS and was able to get turn by turn directions from "middle of no where" dirt roads to the nearest vet. 11 staples and $136 later back at it with my other two dogs. This really sold me on the value of a GPS (it is the least expensive out there).
In the past I have found a vet in advance just in case and wrote the numbers down. Still not a bad idea but the GPS is really neat. In the end the dogs are pretty tough but it always hurts me to see them cut up and in pain.

[mudhunter]

looks like a good hunt!

The barb wire is bad but nothing compared to the Constantine (spelling?) wire that you find on large military bases! I was hunting in Ft. Bragg with my brother and that stuff is every where, his dog got stuck in it one day and needed an unreal amount of stitches (I can't remember how many but it was a lot)! These dogs are tough!