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!
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