Steve Snell’s Gundog Blog

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Friday 8/28

We finally got a really cool, cloudy morning. Unfortunately, we also had a 20 mph wind. I’ll take that over the heat.

We ran Cash and Merle first. I was much happier with how they both ran compared to the first day. Both dogs handled well and covered the ground. They were working together well.

We made a big loop in a large CRP field. Merle busted open a flock of 10 sharptails and both dogs chased as far as they could. I expect we will see some nice bird work out of these two soon.

We ran several of Dan’s dogs next with similar results. We were not finding a bunch of birds, but we were seeing birds every round. The scenting conditions were not the best.

We ran Sage. He handled well but had no finds.

We had a real nice showing on a Calico’s Thrillogy female.

We also had a nice brace with Click and Will – a Wipporwill Wild Agin pup.

We got them into a nice flock that stayed on the property after the first flush. We worked these birds a couple of times.

During one of the braces, I was running one of Dan’s dogs and I had an equipment issue. The dog I was running was going the wrong way so I went to turn her with my SportDOG 1825. I got no reaction. I raised the level multiple times until I was at the top but she would not turn.

We galloped the horses toward her and finally got her going the correct way.

I got off my horse to check the collar and see why she didn’t feel it. The collar was not turned on.

Before we ran this brace I was showing some of the features on the SD 1825 to Dan and I had turned the collar off. I neglected to turn it back on when I put it on the dog.

Back at the office, we call that “operator error.”

Always check your ecollar before you put it on your dog to make sure it is on and that the transmitter and the collar are matched up.

After that the sun came out and it got bad hot again.

Time to head back in and wait for cooler weather.

Around 6 pm the clouds came back and the cooler air came in.

I roaded Em 1 1/2 miles. She is getting stronger every day.

Around 7 we took Brandy out and found a few groups of young pheasants getting gravel on the road side. She got to chase a few as they flushed. It really lit her fire.