The kids schedule has been making it tough for Hank and I to get in much bird work. On Tuesday, we headed out to the conservation club. He's always so full of energy to start with I've taken to getting him a run/walk in prior to putting any birds out. I've been using this time to work on recall and range. He generally does okay with both, but does tend to range farther than I'd like. If I felt more confident/comfortable with his pointing I don't think the range he wants to be at would be a problem, but we're not quite on the same page yet. After our walk, I put out a pigeon in a launcher and took him on a circuitous route downwind. Though he's not consistent with it, but he picked up the scent about 50 yards from the bird and quartered into the wind and locked up on point. He held it for a good couple of minutes as I made it a point to take my time getting up to him and flushing the bird. It was a good day.
Yesterday I took him back out to the club for more of the same. However, two other members were there and I scrapped my plans and worked with them. Though a bit earlier than normal, there are quite a few woodcock in this part of IN right now. We had 3 dogs out, all under 2yrs of age. In 90 minutes we put 13 woodcock in the air! Hank didn't really lock up and appeared to have no idea of how to back the other dogs points, but he hunted hard and got the scent of a new bird in his nose. I hope to get him back out there soon to see if he can figure out the woodcock on his own. Great experience, but I won't lie and say I was "happy" with how he did. As well as he's been pointing pigeons I was hoping he'd do a bit better. Maybe next time...
