Yesterday was our last day to hunt in the 2017 season. His rookie year ended on the best note though. Birds were scarce after 3 months of hunting and it was unseasonably warm. Bane tracked this old rooster down and he flushed at the edge of shotgun range. I winged him and 80 pounds of drahthaar went to work in waist high weeds. I just left him alone to do his thing and after about 3 minutes and a bunch of chaos, he came trotting out of the brush with the best pheasant of the season.
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Later, my son and I were trying to pinch some birds off in a weed thicket surrounded by picked corn. Its a small patch and the birds tend to flush way out of range there. After all of our training, my 14 month old draht stayed in the heel position across 200 yards of corn and remained in the sit position while watching my son slowly work up towards the weed patch. I gave him the break command and he cautiously entered the patch with both of us in position. Of course there were no birds there that day, but I was very pleased how all the hard training seems to have paid off. My only regret of the 2017 season was I wasn't able to get after waterfowl with him after a bunch of water training. That is on the top of the list for 2018. Sorry for the brag post but proud of my dog partner.