Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Free agents

Dickey
This rolling drought is really tough on a southern bird hunter. The Comancheria (Texas, Oklahoma,,Colorado and Texas) opportunities have dwindled to a very meager wild bird population. Dixie fared even worse by losing it's birds before before the drought. Only the Who Do Man knows why.  We have started try to learn to hunt woodcock to utilize our bird dogs. Our progress has been limited. But I have always believed adversity creates opportunities. The number of nice bird dogs sitting in a pen not hunting has risen dramatically. We found a bargain at Woods Fairchase Kennel in Adair, Oklahoma. Tommy Woods has been our go to trainer for pointy dogs for quite some time. After he heard of Bobby's death, who he had trained, he called with a couple of choices to look at. Anna and I chose Dickey. He will fill the void in my pack that Bobby left. That gets me to "The Sweetheart of the Rodeo" Judith. We think she is probably two years away from being the star of our show along with Cap'n Pablo, our Boykin Spaniel.
  Anna and I made another trip to Kansas this last weekend, stopped in Oklahoma and gathered up Dickey and gave it the ole college try. The hunting pretty much sucked but we had a great time looking at the different raptors that we don't see in the Mississippi Delta. Dickey pointed, backed and whoaed and was just a real all around nice dog to be hanging with on the Great Plains. We hope that we are able to get him in some birds to see what we have. If you ever wanted a bird dog now is the time to pick up a free agent for a discount price. Birds go through cycles and when the rain returns birds will also. We hope. We will be ready. As always click on the picture to enlarge.

3 comments:

  1. i found this blog recently. I have a fine boykin, who will be 3 in February. We hit Montana last fall, and had every intention to hit KS over Christmas, but i'll be saving the gas money. Luckily i have ducks here, and she will at least get some retreiving work. woodcock are where you find them and no where else. If you've spent time hunting sharptails, you might understand that commetn. You can walk miles and miles of territory that looks right to you, but not to them, then stumble into one small patch that will produce limits for the season. Woodcock, being migratory are even more finicky. they will be in the same coverts year after year.

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  2. To me she is amazing, full of energy,love and desire to please. She has her faults, but i'm sure thats more of a reflection on her master and training than her genetics or intelligence. We found some woodcock this weekend, so they are probably all well past you.

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