And the Countdown begins....

With just 23 days remaining till the Montana opener, the focus has really shifted to increasing the dogs fitness as well as my own. Luke has moved on to bigger and better things, and the veterans and the newbies are all getting reps to freshen up. We've been taking advantage of cooler weather and running more on wild birds.

Speaking of wild birds, I can only speak of the local condition's and hatch but with everything considered; weather during the Spring and Summer, good grass and a infestation of Hopper's, seems to have aligned for a successful early hatch. Most of the birds we are seeing, at least in regards to Partridge and Sharptails, all seem to be fairly mature, with only a few exception's.

We continue to work the dogs a bit on Pigeons but have been giving them opportunity's on wild birds at least a couple times a week. Our Homer's are really coming through for us and the dogs seem to be transitioning well to wild birds.

Local weather system's have been creating some drama... Eric, Leaf and I got caught tonight in a grumpy squall that douched us pretty good......






Darby, now at 5 months old is figuring it out....although she stole this point from Teigen, she held this Sharptail well till we walked in for the flush on an evening when conditions were not very favorable...no wind and still warm on young birds putting out very little scent. She also had a back on Eric's pup, Duke. Once she really starts stretching it out in a couple of months, I think she'll be very productive. She's still a tiny little thing.



On Pigeons she's finding her birds, holding steady and the tail is getting higher and higher each time.

I've been spending some time working with Bell to shore up her backing....although she backs with intensity, she likes to creep in with the gunner, so I've been working on her discipline...she'll be ready in a couple of weeks.

Teigen is doing great, although he seems to be showing some sensitivity to heat....recently we had a little scare in 65' temps, with plenty of H2O but he showed systems of heat exhaustion or perhaps Hypoglycemia....I'll need to monitor his temperature for a while in warmer weather. Admittedly, it could be lack of fitness since most of the summer sessions have been only 30 mins on average.

I'm beginning to really enjoy Rawly...he's a bit goofy and tends to flag but with more reps and exposure to wild birds, his confidence seems to be growing and his tail seems to be getting higher. My concerns with him at the moment....his gait or conformation seems to be a bit odd....you just have to see it. His pads seem to be suspect to wear but he may just need more mil age. However, he has a good nose and is very staunch on his birds. He bumped a few Sharptails the other night but you can see each time he seems to be getting closer to putting it all together....just a bit more time and I think he'll be fun to hunt behind.