Back in action

Headed up to the Lake States summer trial this weekend. We were actually camping in Cadillac for the weekend and I got up early and headed over to Meredith for the day Saturday. I walked a few braces and the courses all looked good after the volunteers cut new courses and cleaned things up. I only entered in the Open Shooting Dog on Saturday since we were on a mini getaway camping. Coco did a nice job and had a woodcock in the last five of her brace earning her second place, her first action back since having her pups at the end of May. Dave ran Rogue and she also did a nice job racking up a few birds. I have to work next weekend so am not planning on going up for the Amateur Club. Just counting down until our trip to the U.P. for opening weekend. Also liking Mustache, the lil Elvis x Coco female that I kept, put a pigeon out for her and she pointed it for a lil bit before curiosity got the best of her.

Lil fellers

Pups at 6 weeks old

Pups are all pretty much ready for their new homes, probably next week for most, and a few are sticking around for transportation reasons. Coco is ready to get back in the woods, just needs to have some loose skin tighten up a little bit, and ready to rock and roll. Pups are all doing well on hard food and terrorizing the yard. Below the pups had reached the point of exhaustion and actually let me get a picture of them holding still.

Pups at 4 weeks

All the pups are doing great, got a round of wormer this week, and are all mowing down the food, and have been leaving momma out of there more and more. They are starting to explore life outside of their pen, and can get a little vocal in the process :)

Above: Male on left,female in front, male yawning, male with back to us, female with mark on lip, and male facing the right.

Above: Female on left, rest are all males. They say, "we are being good boss!)

Above: Male in way back left, female in front left with black tail, male next to her, female in back behind him, male in front right, male behind him, female all the way to right in front.

Above: Male on left female on right

Chow time

Male on left front facing left, female behind him with black ears, male next to her facing right, female behind him with black tail, female in front right wondering what its all about in her venture outside the box!

Rocko photo selected as finalist for Orvis Magazine Cover contest!

I think it was about 4 seasons ago now I snapped this photo of Rocko on the last day of our hunt in North Dakota. I entered it in a couple of more or less for fun photo contests and won both of them. The first one, the Coverdog Message Board contest, which I think ended up having nearly 400 entrants, and last year the No Limit Outdoors photo contest, which had nearly 500 entrants. This winter I was probably bored, and came across an outdoor photo contest for Orvis Magazine, and decided to enter it there. We have just been informed that we are one of 20 finalists for the cover, with over 13,000 entries. The final 20 photos will go to a panel of judges for a vote, and will find out in a month if we were fortunate enough to win. Either way, we are happy to even be considered, just goes to show how beautiful the outdoors is on a daily basis, especially when you are walking behind a setter!

Pups at 1 week

Luke is having a good time holding the puppies. He gets excited, but they are still secondary to tractors to him!

Below: The male pups, all 5 of them. Three have a tricolor even mask, one has a half mask, and the other one is pretty white with a few specks of black. Still have 2 unspoken for.

Below: The females, all 4 of them. Three have tricolor all on their face, and one is white with a black ring part way up her tail. Still have 1 unspoken for.

On May 21st Coco whelped 9 pups, 5 males and 4 females, all tri colors. All seem to be doing well, look healthy, and are feeding without any encouragement. I have possibly 1 female available and 2-3 males available, 616 438 1427 if anyone is interested. 

This was about an hour before labor, she looked very comfortable, oh wait, uncomfortable.

Getting Fat

Coco getting fat, she was bred to Terhaar's Elvis in March and is due around May 20th.

 This is Fricke N Banjo, he is about 14 months old and is out of Coco's last litter. He is coming along nice, I have been doing yard work with him for the last few weeks and am hoping to start breaking him sometime in the next few weeks. I built a new pigeon coop, and am waiting for my pigeons to call it there home before I get going with him.

 Luke is giving me a hand getting him whoa broke!

 He doesn't waste much time, has him in the field and ready to go.

 This pic is from earlier in the spring, he is good at hitting the button!

Training day with Luke

Luke will turn 2 this Friday. He has been an awesome kid, and we are truly blessed to have him. Once in a while some of my work friends will watch him who have plenty of kids, and they always send him back  pretty much saying he is the perfect kid, doesn't cry, always happy and polite. He also loves being outside, and once he has his mind on something its hard to redirect him, whether its going out to the tractor or the car or running the dogs. (Sidenote, as I just typed that he was in the kitchen picking up the coffee pot and dumping it all over the floor). I have a frame backpack and have pretty much taken him with me since he was about 4 months old to the woods, as we were trying to get dogs ready for the trial season. This last spring he really caught on and started singing to them while on my back, to the point where I was running Coco a month or so ago and had no idea where she was as he was just blaring in my ear. I just used the garmin and she stayed to the front. Here is a clip of him as we were working one of my Coco pups named Banjo.

Spring Trials

Have made it up to most of the Grouse trials this spring with Coco. She had a nice go in the Lake States one hour stake but didn't place with a couple of woodcock finds, had a good race going last weekend at the Ruffed Grouse Club's trial and lost her in the cut at the end standing somewhere, after looking for about 20 minutes I think the bird left and she eventually heard me calling and came back with little time left. She then did a really nice job this weekend at the Beaverton Club. She ran in the 5th brace on course 5 and did a nice job on the ground, as we crossed the road at about 23 minutes I heard her go up through a cut and fade out, and didn't have her bell. As we got up to where I thought I had her, Scott Chaffee's dog Sadie also stopped. I had sent in a scout about a minute before his dog stopped, at that point I thought maybe his dog was backing her in there somewhere. The scout held up as he didn't want to get in between them, so we all went in, just as we got up to where the scout had been, he said a grouse just lifted, but we hadn't found the dog yet. As we went in a little more Scott's dog was seen to the right and facing away about 40 yards. As we walked in a little more we didn't see Coco in front of her, so we went a little further left of her, and Mike Bentley, the judge pointed her out about 70 yards to the left and facing the opposite direction of Scott's dog. As we got about 10 feet from her, I heard a grouse blow out, didn't get a chance to see it, and shot my gun. We then went on to finish with about 5 minutes left. After that it was almost lunch time, so we went to Alibi hall, then went and milled around for an hour or so, and waited at the hall for the other braces to finish up.  After a little bit a gentleman came up and said they wanted us out at course 13 for a call back. As we got out, they informed me that they never saw or heard the two grouse go from Coco's stand, and they were putting a few dogs down based on race and wanted to see them on a bird. The first dog was down about 15 minutes and couldn't come up with anything. It was then Coco's turn, she didn't disappoint as I blew the whistle, clicked my stopwatch, and had her standing in about a minute and a half. As we walked up to her her intensity was radiating off her and I would have bet the house a bird was going to get up. As I approached, a woodcock lifted, all was in order, and she ended up getting second place in the shooting dog. This was her last trial for the spring, as we are having Luke's birthday party next weekend, and she appears to be showing some signs of being pregnant, so I am just going to let her milk out the spring on the couch. We have a nice looking male out of her last litter that is about 13 months old that should keep me busy in the mean time getting him ready for the fall derby season. I didn't run him in any trials yet, just wanted him hunting, usually don't worry a whole lot about the puppy stakes, just hoping he can come out in the fall and point some grouse in the derby stakes. Thanks for reading, will keep updated as pups progress.

Woodcock

Terhaar's Elvis on a woodcock saturday morning, you can see it in the first little clump of twigs just to the front and right of his head.
Coco above and below on a woodcock saturday morning, we moved a good amount of birds as they are just starting to show up

Spring

Banjo, a Coco x Rocko male (littermate to Roxxy) on a pigeon today.
Maizey (Elvis x Springpond's Grace) has been coming along nice, she is a littermate to the male below.
Mo, above, is about 11 months old now, this was from January as you can tell it was a nice light winter here. He is currently for sale, a real nice pup but am looking for a male with a little more size. 616 438 1427
Roxxy above, is the Coco x Rocko Female and she is also about 11 months old. She is fun to watch, and loves birds. She was pointing grouse at about 4 months old.
Coco, above down in the hollar of Kentucky. Excited to get in some trials this spring with her, last spring she had pups rite in the heart of the spring and basically washed out the whole trial season, only running in the Region 13 Championship.

Spring is sort of here. The last weekend of February we got it started by heading down to the hollar in Kentucky to train at Kenny Purvis's farm. We headed down there with dogs all packed in, and had a good group of guys in Dave Terhaar, Harold Holmes, and Joe Wolfert. It was good to get some sunshine and sweatshirt weather, and also find some birds. We had some quail to work the pups on and found a good share of woodcock with the shooting dogs. As always, the hospitality was second to none, a big thanks to Kenny, Missy, and Sammy Purvis. Last night I went over to Dave's and we ran a shooting dog shift and Coco and Elvis each had woodcock. We then did another short shift around the house and hit some likely spots, Daisey had a grouse, and we didn't move any other woodcock. Going back Saturday, hoping a few more birds pile in. Hoping to update a little more this spring, hope everyone was able to get out this winter a bit more than normal.