Time in the Praries - Part II

Monday, October 18, 2010

The dogs slept very well last night and don’t seem to mind lounging this morning inside where it’s warm. The day broke clear and cold. Outside temperature on the window thermometer read 28 degrees with a constant 10+ mph wind. Then about 8 a.m. fog came in and it is currently gloomy outside and quite cold. We will go out again this afternoon.

I have concerns of the dog’s physical ability to make the full week. It’s only the second day and there are numerous abrasions and scrapes, a slight cut on Scarlet’s pad. I will definitely try to limit each dog to about an hour and a half hunt each day.

Public Walk in area sign

This is all entirely walk in hunting, no quads, nor horses.  All on foot.  I also will see how my feet hold up. After one afternoon of hunting, I have large blisters on each heel. It won't let it stop me, but it may slow me down.

We returned to the area we hunted yesterday. Today I decided to carry a different gun and see if I felt more comfortable with it. Apparently – YES! The first bird came up and one shot it was down!

Each of the dogs ran about 1 1 /2 hours. Hank seems to handle big country better than the narrow ravines and treelines where he easily separates.

tighter cover at Little Moreau Recreation Area

He had several sharptail grouse finds today and I managed to bring down a few birds for the dogs. Nellie had much fun in the corn fields and then a section of prarie grass adjacent to the corn where she had numerous points on hen pheasants and a few wild flushes of sharptails.

Mixed bag of South Dakota Rooster Pheasant and Sharptail Grouse

Tuesday, October 19th,

Today we decided to give the girls a day off. They are stiff and sore. Hank seems to be getting stronger if that’s possible. We decided to try our hand hunting Sharptail on the prairie with him. The first section we ran he handled well and though it looked promising, no birds were found. We moved to another piece of ground a mile or so away that we’d gotten sharptail contact and took a bird on Sunday. Hank opened up on this huge tract of land. We started off running into the constant 15 mph prairie wind and as he reached out, he could no longer hear any whistles or signals to change direction.



Rod Michaelson heading to Hank on Point (clik on picture to zoom in)

 Hank is home. To see this dog run on the wide open prairie in South Dakota is spectacular. I wish I had a horse or quad that we could use for these hunting areas we have access, because the country is so huge. He swallows ground so easily that we are working mile square tracts of ground and he covers all of it. When he was able to see me waving on top of a rise, he returned from his cast that the Garmin said 673 yards away. He came in to me and I gave him water. He’d been running for nearly an hour and stood next to me not even panting. I’m so impressed with his strength, stamina, bottom and drive. He’s an incredible dog – but he’s not made for hunting pheasants in tight treelines or draws.  As Rod and I agreed after listening to Atlas shrugged for a dozen hours of the drive - "A is A" and Hank is Hank.

A  happy tired Hank sporting his new cold weather coat

The secret power of Vizsla

As many of you now know, we've had more than our share of recent medical issues.  First with Janet's roading accident and most recently the tumor and my loss of vision one would think we'd be pretty down.  Though we have had our moments of self-pity, they have been surprisingly fleeting.  Why?  Here's my theory.

The secret truth - is two fold.



First - it's virtually impossible not to smile when a counter surfing tail wagging bundle of pure happiness is in your presence!  When I walk in even my bad eye can make out Hank's entire body wiggle from stem to stern like there could be no greater thrill than to see me again!  (This is basically when I go into the garage to run the door down and come right back in the house). 



Hankster's - Whatya think Dad?  look



Then there's the full on lap scrunching snuggle!  Who needs a "as sold on TV" blanket with arms in it when there's a Vizsla close by!



Pregnant Tessa napping on Janet's Lap

Secondly - as great as the first is, the hidden beauty of being owned by Vizslas is the world of people that become true friends through the common love of the dogs.  We have received such an outpouring of love from our friends it's almost overwhelming.  We feel truly blessed in knowing the people we have come to know through our dogs.

So there you have it.  The secret is no longer secret.  The secret power of Vizsla is Love.

Hank - my heartbreak boy

Hank is my Buddy. He climbs in my lap most every night for a nap and wiggles everywhere when we see each other. He's the sweetest guy ever. He's also a real handful in the field...

You see Hank can RUN and he has BIRD on his mind when we're out running a trial. Though he's gotten much much better at handling, he still thinks there's times when he knows best where the birds are - and he's right! The problem is that the course and judges want to go on a different direction at some point, and that's where Hank can have a problem.

He's had some really great runs, always to front, good finds, high style and tearing up the course - and has in my mind won a bonafide first at least three times. Yet, he keeps getting second, whether it be a judge's buddy's dog, a pro handler that also runs the trial, or just "flipping a coin", second place - it's getting old... especially when you're braced with the dog that was put up first and it's out of gas 5 minutes before time is called...

But then, that's the heartache for all field trialers at some point in time! All we can do is go home, train more and keep running. Eventually all those knocks on the door, it's gonna be our turn. And it will be all the sweeter when it is!