Deerfly Diaries

Good Bird Dogs Come With Time, Training and Patience

This past week my younger German shorthaired pointer, Elsie, turned three. A week later my older GSP, Porter, had his sixth birthday. The birthdays were a reminder of how quickly time passes and how important it is to give your dogs as much experience on birds as possible.

Glenn and I celebrated the dogs' birthdays with a bird hunt near Hotchkiss, Colorado at the North Rim Hunt Club. Hotchkiss is in the North Fork Valley about 70 miles southwest Carbondale on the other side of McClure Pass. The weather tends to be more temperate over there, so there is very little snow and the cover is still excellent.

I decided to hunt Elsie first as I know that she needs all the experience that I can give her at her age. Elsie quickly found a hen pheasant, but after that she had a long dry spell with no finds. The 39 pound rocket covered a lot of ground in short time, worked the cover and listened to me well, but she wasn't finding birds like I had hoped she would.

After an hour and a half we switched out dogs. At 65 pounds Porter lacks the speed with which Elsie hunts, but what he lacks in energy level, he more than makes up for in his level of training and experience hunting. At six years old, Porter is in his prime. He methodically worked the cover and located birds in the same cover I had just hunted Elsie.

In Elsie's defense, due to time and financial constraints, Elsie hasn't gotten the same level of experience at her age that Porter got at the same age. She certainly has the genetics, the drive, the nose and the energy level necessary to be a top bird dog, but it takes time, training, experience and patience to cultivate those skills. I suspect that her drive to cover a lot of ground was overriding her experience. In essence I think she was running so fast that she was missing the scent in the dry cover.

The take home message for me was to stick with my training with Elsie and do whatever it takes to get her as much experience as possible. There were times when Porter was young that I wasn't sure if my training was going anywhere, but I stuck with it and now it has paid off. It is a treat to hunt over Porter, a dog who I trained from a pup and that is now a pointing and retrieving machine. I have no doubt Elsie will get there too. I just need to stick with her training and get her out in the field and on birds as much as possible.

Sue Melus is a public relations pro for hunting and fishing businesses. See here website at MelusOutdoors.com

One-Year Anniversary of Writing for Carbondale, CO's Newspaper, the Sopris Sun

The Sopris Sun celebrated its first year anniversary on Thursday when it published its 51st issue. The Sun replaced the defunct Valley Journal as the only local Carbondale Colorado newspaper. Trina Ortega was the editor who helped get the 501 c3 newspaper get off the ground. Terray Sylvester came on-board midway through the year as the new full-time editor. A big thanks goes out to Terray, Trina and everyone else who has helped make the Sopris Sun a success.

Local Outdoor Columnist for the Sopris Sun

This also marks the one year anniversary of my monthly outdoor column in the newspaper. The column is kind of a local extension of my online blog, Deerfly Diaries. I covered fly fishing, turkey hunting, upland hunting, backcountry safety, the disabled vets shooting skeet and trap, etc.

Profiles of Locals in the Outdoors

My favorite columns to write, so far, are profiles of some of the amazing locals we have in Carbondale and the Roaring Fork Valley. This past week I was fortunate to get a few minutes of time with adventure photographer Tyler Stableford. Tyler found a new outlet for his work this past year that helped thousands in need in Ethiopia. You can read my story on Tyler Stableford on Suite 101.

Sue Melus has a PR and Communications business for the outdoor industry. She is currently handling the PR for Columbia Sportswear's hunting and fishing divisions.

Skijoring Clinic at Redstone, CO Winterfest 2010

This weekend was Winterfest in Redstone, Colorado. The quaint historic mining town of Redstone is about 15 miles from Carbondale on Highway 133 on the way to McClure Pass. Traditionally the town hosts sled dog races each winter, but this year they decided to mix it up a little bit and include ice climbing events, a snowshoe race, chili cook off and beer tasting.

The dog lovers in the crowd still got some great action with the addition of a skijoring clinic. Skijoring is a combination of nordic skiing and dog mushing, where the people and the dogs work as a team (you hope) to traverse the snow. The sport has tradition in Scandanavia where is has long been used as a means of winter transport.

Louisa Morrissey, owner of Skijor-n-More in Silverthorne, CO, helped organize the event. Participants brought their own skis and dogs,and Louisa provided the dog harnesses, bungee lines and tethers.

 

After the dogs were harnessed up, it was time to get on the track. There wasn't a lot of time for instruction; just keep your dog moving ahead, stay untangled and try to avoid other skiers and dogs.

I skied with both Elsie and Porter separately before I worked them together as a team. Elsie's drive to run and be in front helped her to pick up on it right away. She loved it! Porter was a little less enthused about the control aspect. As a team they did GREAT. It helped that they already know basic commands like whoa, high-on (to go), come around (to turn), etc. There is a whole set of commands for ski joring, but bird dog commands worked well too.

 

 
 
The day was a lot of fun and there were lots of participants and tail wagging dogs. As far as I know, no one got hurt. Below is Louisa skiing. She was on skate skis, which looked like it had an advantage over classic skis.

 

 
 Check out the rest of my images from the Redstone Winterfest to see some of the other fun activities.