Haven't posted lately so I figured I would give an update. Stella is just over 7 months old now and doing great. My wife and I are really enjoying having her around. She can even hunt a little bit too. I went out to ND a couple of weeks ago with a buddy and 2 of his dogs, a shorthair who is about 18 months old and a wirehair who is 3 or so. We hunted 2 days and limited out both days, most birds were shot over points. We had some great dog work and I was able to shoot stella her first few pointed and retrieved birds. Of course I missed a couple that she pointed and held for me really well. I think it was just the pressure I put on myself but what can you do...
First two birds pointed and it was cold and windy out
Retrieve on her first pointed bird. She didn't want to come back to me right away so we are working on it.
Dogs relaxing after the days hunt
Was able to get out to ND again over thanksgiving. I could really see improvement in how stella moved, hunted, retrieved. The birds were pretty jumpy and they were running quite a bit but we did get a few that held nicely for us. I'm sure Stella appreciated the fact that I shot better too.
