Week #19 – Report “Our pick-up time has been established”

Spoke to Butch this morning and we are all scheduled to get Piper at 9:30am this Saturday.  The plan is to have me work Piper along with Butch to be sure the transition home is a good one.  I’ll be learning the language, techniques and the various ways Butch has been communicating with Piper so when I take over there is no confusion.  I also plan to set up a couple sessions for down the road where I can come back  and get some professional advice to help push through any roadblocks we might experience.  I’ve been through this once before with Reina so I’m fully aware that there will hurdles to cross and I want to be ready to move past them with the help of a pro.  September will be here before I know it and my goal is to have a title or two completed and more importantly to have Piper ready for the field.  After all the title of this blog was “Raising Piper, A Boykin Spaniels Journey From Puppyhood to a Performance Gun Dog”.  So while the tiles are nice my goal all along is to have a gun dog that anyone would be proud to hunt behind.  Thanks to Butch and the crew I have a great foundation to build on.

Now for the update.  As promised, Butch got Piper on some pheasants this week and she did really well.  He used pheasants for her marking drills as well as planting them in the field for her to hunt, flush and retrieve.  One bird she flushed was shot at and missed and it flew off about 240 yards.  Piper marked its fall, caught it and retrieved it to hand.  Under normal circumstances this isn’t necessarily what you want (allowing her to chase a missed bird) but at her age it was a great indication of her prey drive and her desire to get after that bird and return it to hand.  Going forward I’ll be working on being steady to flush but during that process I want to make sure I don’t discourage an aggressive flush.  Anyway, the final week at Parkdale is shaping up to be another successful one and with any luck I’ll be reporting on similar results once Piper is home.  We are now just 48 hours from getting her home and starting that adjustment to the good life!!!!!!

Week #18 – More to report…..

Scanning the skies

Got a last minute call from Parkdale that Piper was out of food so off Conner and I went to Rainier on an emergency delivery of kibbles.  Not the best timing but was great getting out there to see Piper and to talk a bit more with Butch about her progress.  After hanging up with him this morning Piper had a great showing in the field.  She did much better in the cover completing all her long doubles along with a 140 yard cold blind.  I was very surprised to hear about the cold blind but at the same time I was very excited.  That is a huge step and one I’m thankful took place before she came home.  With a basic grasp of the cold blind I’ll be better able to reinforce this when she is home.  I know from training Reina when she was a pup that I had loads of trouble getting this concept across to her.  Anyway, this news made for a great trip along with the fact that Conner and I had a great time discussing all things related to his baseball and football cards!

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Week #18 – Report

Transitioning to heavy cover!  Last week marked the start of marking in medium to heavy cover.  Piper along with some of the other dogs her age struggled a bit this week as they had to not only mark the birds but also put their nose to the ground to find bumpers.  Most of the marks that were missed were a result of the dogs blowing by the area of the fall without picking up the scent and zeroing in on the bumper.  With each new transition or building block new skills must be learned and last week was a great reminder of that.  So the work continues and Butch for the most part was happy with the progress and didn’t see any reason for concern.  He will continue to encourage Piper and the other pups to put that nose to the ground to find that bird.  Pheasant arrive today Parkdale so Piper will get some work on the one bird she hasn’t been exposed to at this point.  The timing is perfect since we will be attempting to get out at least once before the preserve season ends to treat ourselves to a pheasant hunt.  I have also been invited to be a “pick-up” dog at a Continental Tower Shoot with Deep Canyon Outfitters (http://deepcanyonoutfitters.com/wingshooting.html)  the end of March but we will see if Piper and I have enough confidence to get out there and attend.  Would be some incredible work since there will be 300-400 pheasant released resulting in a large number of retrieving opportunities.  Plus it would be a great chance to showcase what these little brown dogs can do in the field.  Who knows, maybe a family outing to Bend that weekend needs to be planned so Piper can get some work and the family can get some time on the east side of the state where the sun tends to shine!  Other than that were down to nine more days until Piper is back and that alone is reason to celebrate!

Week #17 – Report

We have advanced to double marks and sight blinds this week!  Butch was very encouraged with Piper’s work this week as they transitioned to working double marks and sight blinds.  The set up was basically at 100-120 yards with two birds thrown.  The second mark was at about 30 degrees to the right with the addition of a sight blind another 30 degrees to the right of the second bird.  Piper performed very well on this sequence of marks and resisted the temptation to be drawn back to a previous fall when being sent for the next pick up.  Piper showed a lot of confidence on all her work this week according to Butch!  This is great news for me since she will be coming home at the end of the month with a solid foundation on some advanced marking drills that I can build on going forward.  Butch is also going to expose Piper to some pheasants this week so that will play in nicely with my plans to get her out for a few preserve hunts before the end of March.  A reward for her and all her hard work and lets be honest, a reward for me as well since I have missed her in the field this fall.  Anyway, another week of encouraging news out of Parkdale Kennels thanks to Butch, his training crew and all their hard work with Piper.  Already looking forward to my weekly call next Friday.  16 days until Piper is home!!!!!

Week #16 – Report

Just a quick report this week form Butch as I caught him just before he was ready to head out and train for the day.  We are having amazing weather at the moment and Butch, like all of us, is trying to make the most of it before it turns wet again.  Last week we talked about some hunts I had planned for Piper when she returns and my desire to make sure Piper had been exposed to shotgun fire not just from the hides but from directly over head simulating a real hunting situation.  Well this week Butch introduced this scenario and from the sounds of it the experience was more or less a non issue.  Piper wasn’t disturbed by the shooting and promptly went out and picked up her ducks.  Butch was also encouraged by the fact that a few of the ducks weren’t hit as well as they should have been and she didn’t hesitate to get in there and return them to hand.  Piper had an awkward transition from the smaller birds to the ducks initially resulting in her wanting to carry them back by a wing or a tiny mouthful of feathers.  Learning to carry these bigger birds is very important for obvious reasons but especially when she starts picking up pheasants.  She won’t be able to get away with “the feathers grab”  because they will simply fall out leaving her with only a mouthful of feathers.   Training for this proper pick up, carry, hold and delivery is so important and from the sounds of things Piper is doing quite well.  In addition, she continues to work on the T-drills, marking and lining drills we have talked about in earlier posts.  Another good week at camp!  GO Piper!!!!!!

Out with a whimper……

The sun sets on another great season!

I think most of us dream of that epic hunt that ends the year on a high note.  The type of hunt that fuels our dreams until the start of next season.  I had plenty of those moments throughout the season but this last week went out with few shots taken.  There were many reasons for this but the main one was the weather, it couldn’t have been more mild.  Blue skies, sun and little rain pretty much summed up the last few days. This left us staring into the sky in search of those very distant, well educated flocks of birds.  When we did get some shooting it was primarily pintails.  Nothing wrong with the prospect of pintails pitching into the decoys except for the fact that our bag limits call for only two per day.  The latter part of the season often resulted in 2-3 quick limits of pintails in the group and many more groups pitching into the decoys throughout the rest of the day.  While it never gets old watching them splash down within range it is in some ways a small form of torture.   So now that our season is officially over I’ll be shifting my focus to Piper in an effort to make sure come next September she is ready to roll.  Our spring and summer will be filled with training sessions and running HRC events to test our progress.  Already I feel like she would be an asset in the field at just 9 months of age but my goal is to have a true performance gun dog come next fall.  Time will tell if we reach our goal.

Week #15 – Report

“Piper did very well this past week” to quote Butch.  Love when our conversations start that way!  As far as her work goes she continues to focus on the back pile and the T-drills with the long single marks.  Her focus continues to improve especailly scanning the horizon for birds.  Here bird pick up also improved this week as they are working almost exclusively with ducks.  She had been having issues with the carry, only wanting to pick the birds up by a bit of skin and feathers, but Butch seems to have gotten over that little bump in the road.  So we continue to make progress in the right direction.  Also ask Butch to start shooting over top of Piper and not just from the “hides” where the birds are being launched.  I plan to treat both Piper and myself to a few preserve hunts before the end of the season and don’t want that to be the first time she has guns shot over top of her.  So by the time I pick her up she will have already been conditioned to the shot and should be ready to focus on finding and retrieving our pheasant.

Lastly, the BSS National Field Trials in Clinton SC  (www.boykinspaniel.org) .  I had originally set this as a potential goal for Piper and I to attend  9 months ago and hear we are just two months away from the big event.  I spoke to Phil Hinchman today to get some additional information on the event and to give him an update on Piper and he mentioned that the Brandywine dogs had an incredible showing at the Upland Nationals representing about 50% off all the ribbons handed out over the various divisions, incredible.  So needless to say he would love to have Piper and I make the long journey to SC to help represent Brandywine Creek.  From his test description Piper is ready, especially in the Puppy division.  She would also be ready for Novice but would be running against a much larger group of dogs.  My biggest concern would be the water work since it has been a long time since she has been in it.  With half the retrieves being water marks I’d have to be damn sure she was solid in the water before finalizing any plans for a trip east!  Anyway, it is a very long way to SC so the odds are more than likely  stacked against us getting there but it is fun to think about.  I know based on what I’ve  seen and Butch has relayed to me that Piper would make a good showing and represent Brandywine Creek well.

Change of Plans…….

Much like life, the best laid plans do change.  We had originally planned to pick Piper up this coming Saturday but because of my upcoming travel schedule and the lack of available daylight before and after work for training we have decided to leave Piper at Parkdale for an additional 3-4 weeks.  Not an easy decision, difficult even writing it, but I think it is the best based on all the contributing factors.  In addition, Piper has been making great strides in her training and if I were to get her this weekend the reality would be that we would only get 2 significant training sessions in per week on the weekends.  All my other work would simply be in the garage or on our walks in the dark, neither of which would accomplish much in terms of us reaching our goal.  Do we miss her, hell yes we do, but in the long run this will allow us our best chance of completing for either a HRC Seasoned title or an AKC Senior title by the end of summer.  I also plan to get out to Parkdale on a more regular basis to work with Piper and Butch so ensure we have a seamless transition in our training.  I can tell you from my visits that there is no issue with her forgetting me. The old cliche of “absence makes the heart grow fonder” would definitely hold true in our case.  I have nearly been mauled to death by dog kisses on every visit.  So with that, I’ll sign off with a bit of sadness related to the extension and a bunch of excitement for her return.  We are well on our way to achieving our goal of a performance gun dog and with a little luck along the way I’m thinking that the 2012-13 hunting season will be one to remember!  Not only should Piper be performing at a high level in the field but I have every expectation that she will be an incredible companion around the house.

Week #13 and #14 – Report

Been out of town for the last week so I wasn’t able to get my normal update from Butch and get it posted on the site.  It wasn’t easy waiting but the news was worth it.  Once I got in my truck and left the “Red Lot” at PDX I was dialing Parkdale (hands free of course) in hopes of catching Butch in the office.  Fortunately he answer and I got the update I was hoping for.  He said Piper had a great two weeks and is performing at 90% on the back pile and T-drills and is running them with confidence.  He also mention that she continues to make great progress on the three station single marks she is running out to about 150 yards.  Her focus and her ability to scan the field when told has really improved her marking ability.  Again her confidence is there and she is running with purpose.  This past week also market the start of working with big ducks.  She is picking up and retrieving them but isn’t carrying them like he would like.  Somehow she is able to grab them and return without fully getting them in her mouth.  The result is good but the technique needs some work so they spent part of the day inside on the table reviewing force fetch with the big birds.  She got the idea quickly on the table so hopefully that translates into better form tomorrow when they back out in the field.  I’d like for this to be squared away before I pick her up this coming Saturday.

Speaking of this Saturday, we get our little girl home!  Everyone is anxious for her return but at the same time we are all a bit nervous.  It has been quiet around here the last few months and we are well aware of the fact that this will change come next Saturday.  There will obviously be a transition as she goes from kennel life back to the “good life” but I don’t expect to may hurdles. We might be teaching the bell ringing again at the back door when it is time to go out or simply getting her used to obeying our commands but either way we’ll get past it and it will be great to have Piper back under our roof!

7 days and this will take place at home!

Sunny Afternoon Goose Hunt…..

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