OD'd on Setters...

How this season could get any better... I'm stumped. I hunt alone 90% of the time but sharing some recent experiences with friends has me embracing the social opportunity's.


This good looking Setter is a litter mate of my pup Teigen. he's now owned by Tim Powell out of Emigrant, Mt and recently tore it up in the Quilomene country of Washington.

The pup gets really excited about Chukar... ;)




I'm encountering some odd behaviour from Teigan lately. In fact I've made reference to his technique of "setting" while on point. Well it turns out this may be due to pressure. Not really any pressure I have put on him but more than likely his reaction to not wanting the birds to flush when other dogs approach to back or when I approach to flush, perhaps even a bit of anticipation. He has only been doing it the past several weeks but it seems to be increasing. However, when I hunt him solo, he does not do it.

We hunted the local birds tonight and he stood his birds nice and high.


Erik and his 5 month old Shorthair, Duke, joined Teigen and I for a day in the Sage country, chasing Partridge and Sharptails. This is Erik's first bird dog and first dog ever! He is very fortunate to have such a fine pup. Although Teigen initially found the covey's, little Duke wandered right in to point staunchly two nice coveys of Partridge.

Here is a series that I'm attempting to get better at and almost got it with Duke, Eric and the covey flush. This photo is weak but we'll get there soon.

Teigen had a nice point during the "magic " hour.

All of my efforts to capture the "tail"shot have been weak as well. Sometimes this is all you see...While in Canada, I debated with some Italians the benefit of a high tail. They feel American breeders have ruined the classic Setter and that a high tail is not a beneficial attribute, I respectfully disagree.

Perhaps my favorite hunt of the year was shared with Tim Powell and Luke. Tim has been running dogs for 40 years and chasing Chukar for almost as long. I can only hope that I will still be able to run dogs and chase birds when I'm his age with the same passion and appreciation that Tim does. We hunted the high steppes with the brothers only on the ground and what a pleasure to see those pups working together, their high heads and tails along with effortless strides creating an illusion that made it difficult to tell if they were actually really moving. Not until they disappeared over a ridge line or dropped into a hidden draw on the horizon did it become obvious that they were covering ground.

The wind was howling once again but it certainly didn't seem to affect the dogs and I'm still convinced that wind at those speeds simply allows the dogs to find birds at a extremely far distance. Large coveys made up of mature late season and savvy birds is what we experienced and I'll take that combo over any other species, any time, anywhere for pure sport,challenge, dog exposure and bird contacts. These birds will keep hounds honest and hunters humble.