-Day 1: 20 flushes, 15 grouse 5 woodcock. She bumped every one, ran right over the top of most of them and was having a great time running around like a maniac. We didn't shoot any of the birds she flushed (which was hard). Boy was I frustrated. What the heck happened to her beautiful stylish points???? I know everyone says this is what will happen with a pup the first time on wild birds, but not my dog, right, she's perfect.
According to the Garmin astro she did 20 miles and she looked it. She was real beat and scratched up.-Day 2: 18 flushes, 4 grouse 14 woodcock. She slowed down a little bit, but still was bumping and flushing birds. She was really searching for them, but would not point. Just as we were quitting for the day and I was thinking that my GSP has turned into a flushing dog, All of a sudden I heard her bell stop and she was on point on a grouse- but only about 8 feet away from it, it flushed before she got there but she didn't bust it, she was just too close. I started to get some hope. According to the Garmin Astro she did 10 miles, and was beat up even more. Once we got back to the cabin she ate, fell asleep, and didn;t move until I made her get up to got outside before going to sleep.
Day 3: We only had about 1.5 hours to hunt before we had to leave. 5 flushes, 3 grouse 2 woodcock. I have a pointing dog! Something clicked and she got it down. 5 staunch points. The two woodcock I missed
, I had one eye on the dog and was not ready when they went up, 2 of the grouse flushed so that neither I or my hunting partner could get a shot, but the last one was a beautiful point, I had a marginal shot and missed, but my buddy made a great shot and brought it down. Boy was I happy. Garmin said she went 4 miles, she slept all 6 hours home and didn;t move until this morning after we got home. I could not believe how she came around. She even handled the woodcock differently than the grouse. She pointed the woodcock pretty close, and they would not flush until you almost stepped on them. She pointed the grouse from much further out and they held until we could get up there and flush them. I don;t know if this is becasue the grouse have a stronger scent than the woodcock, or she was differentiating between the two and how she handled them, but either way it was effective. It was a great trip and it will definitely be a yearly pilgramige for us.
I am now a firm believer in the "let the birds teach the dog" philosophy when you can get them on wild birds.
