Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Feathers and fun

I have been getting out a fair amount with the dogs for waterfowl plus one upland hunt. Decided this year to focus on waterfow thru to November then onto pheasants. We have been having a very good bird season for the dogs and for friendships in the field. From the looks of the weather birds will be around for a while yet.

Hope you enjoy the picutres from a few hunts.

Great Photos HughW.

I miss hunting those snows in my backyard when I lived on Lake Dauphin in Manitoba. What fun that was!

This one is my favorite and Happy Thanksgiving.

Awesome. !!

The not so little Toller is 16 months and doing very well on the retrieving side. His development has really been quite fast. Here he is with a 3 person limit (24) of ducks shot over water. Had a busy morning and still wanted more.

Beautiful Hugh !!

I'd like a grouse sometime.

Well done and a great looking dog.

Nice pictures. Looks like you had a great time

Hugh;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day's been kind to you and you're all well.

Thanks so much for sharing your always crisp and clear actions shots with us.

While I don't always comment, I absolutely do always enjoy them immensely.

Way back in the day we used to chase waterfowl, but I've never hunted with any sort of dog and always figured it'd be a cool, unique experience.

All the best and good hunting Hugh.

Dwayne

Nice dogs and photos.

He looks like a large Toller. Pretty cool dogs getting their job done. We don't see many down here.

Keep up the good season!

awesome.

I am really pleased with Brodie’s progress in the field. We had two training sessions with retrieving fresh snow geese of various sizes, with retrieves from short to out over 200 yards. Tonight he got to participate in the real deal.

18 snows, 4 specs and a duck all handled well. Some birds fell from height and broke skin - no fussing just brought them right in.

One he was bringing back to me, was a wounded flyer. He brought it in alive, was holding it just as I shot another bird — he let it go and it was skimming across the decoys until he nailed it again. So some work on hold while another shot is fired is in the future.

Yes he could use a larger T Shirt but that was all Value Village had. It is turned inside out with a superhero on the inside.

I have a few friends that cannot get out in the field anymore and love dogs. I started a Brodie diary back when he was a young pup on his adventures to keep their spirits up and get a few laughs. Here is one I put out to them on our Sunday goose hunt adventure.


Brodie Diary - Sunday October 15

Well Dad organized another goose hunt. This time with another fellow to see how I did with other people being in the field. I think this fellow surprised Dad as he was a food vendor (FV) -- aka the Treat Magnet.

As background for those of you that do not know me I am:
- Smart, fast and willful (have my own mind at times)
- I am a foodie -- treat time is my favorite
- I will forget to eat breakfast if Dad has his hunting stuff out
- I like hunting and know when Dad shoots - a retrieve is there
- I know lots of commands - At times I think of these as suggestions
- I whine to let my humans know they are wrong and need to change their minds to listen to me.

So we get to the field and Dad and the other fellow start setting out goose decoys. All is good -- normal stuff. Finn and I get to sniff around. I hear Dad say too bad this is a blue bird afternoon --- I have no idea it is super nice with no wind - I like it.

Decoys are out and Dad and the other fellow get their spots set up. I hear Dad say to the other fellow that he is not interested in shooting geese so all geese shots this fellow can have. My spidey senses are going --- Dad practices shooting alot --- does this fellow practice? Hmmmm --- could be a long afternoon.

Now they are in their spots --- this is where the other fellow becomes the food vendor --- holy smokes -- pepperoni's, beef jerky, ham sandwich - with cheese, cheeses, cheese nachos and other stuff. Man I have to visit him --- sit / stay are all suggestions. Did I say I did not eat breakfast? Dad never has treats in the field -- a milk bone back at the truck. This is new and a nice add.

Dad calls me back lots of times -- again I take this as just a suggestion for a short visit only, as the FV was still pulling out stuff. Even though I was not getting anything I went back --- perhaps whining would help change the FV's mind.

Did I ever mention Dad does not like whinners?

All of a sudden Dad says here comes a goose --- the FV is looking around and never sees it --- I see it and it fly’s away. Ok that is one.

A little later Dad says here comes another one. This one is so low I could jump and catch it. The FV is busy with Nacho's and does not see this one either. That is two.

Now Dad says here comes another one. This time the FV shoots and misses. It was right there. Ok Dad misses sometimes -- so we will give the FV this one.

Another one in and a miss -- that's four toes -- one paws worth. Not sure this is good -- better increase the whining so Dad knows.

Another one and then another --- all flying away. This fellow is a master conservationist. 8 toes -- 2 paws holy smokes I am going to lose count. Dad is trying to get me to stop visiting the Food Vendor who is still bringing out treats and missing. I end up on a lead.

Now the FV starts to hit birds and because I am whining Finn gets to bring them back --- I figure this out and stop whining and then get to retrieve some.

A goose lands in the decoys and Finn almost catches it. Finn is not as fast as me --- I would have caught it and saved Dad a shell.

Ended up as a good day --- I got to retrieve some birds --- only issue no treats were shared.

I heard Dad describe me as a PIA --- I will have to look that up as it sounds good.

Brodie out

Well with the snow fall our last water outing of the year was this past Saturday. I had scouted this pond for two previous days and it was full of snow & spec geese with huge numbers of ducks. We decided to get in and set up after sunrise and wait for the birds to come back from feeding. The only thing we did not count on was the birds moving out early due to the storm front coming in early Saturday evening. We ended up with 6 geese and 8 ducks. The geese were 1 snow, 2 specs and 3 large Canadas

There was shell ice on the edge of the pond and the dogs were in vests. The younger dog ended up with a case of cold tail that lasted for a day. He is good now.



This trip in I thought I would use my large game cart for hauling gear vs the past of dragging a sled. Glad I made that decision as the 6 geese weighed a fair bit. You can see in this picture the size of the one Canada goose laying on top of the rubbermaid that hold 2 Lucky Duck motion decoys.



A couple of the mallards were converted to next days dinner. Applewood seasoning and roasted to medium rare.



Onto pheasants and hopefully a duck / goose field shoot.

Thanks for the latest instalment

While we have been having great weather in our area with no snow on the ground and lots of geese still around, I thought I would change things up and head into a southern area to chase some pheasants for a bit. Both dogs did really well.

Finn as a 6 year old was 11 pheasants off of 300 and this was Brodie's first pheasant outing. We did a preserve hunt on 3/4's of land and we had it to ourselves. My partner cancelled at the last minute which created some challanges on working areas. I got them to release 12 birds for us and as we could hunt the full 3/4's it was a long walking day.

The area had snow - old and fresh. Bad and good. Bad as with crusty snow pheasants like to run a lot. Good - fresh light snow over night showed the fresh tracks of birds -- ours and the ones others missed. There was a fair bit of wind so shooting was tricky.

The dogs found 15, 3 flushed out of range, I flat out missed 2 and we came home with 10. I think of the 12 they released for us we found 8 so I was glad for left over birds from others.

Looking at the intensity on the face on the young dog bringing back the rooster you would not think that bird was still alive and only suffered a broken wing. He has a very soft mouth.

Beautiful photos and great information. My dad was a setter guy, we went through a lab phase together, and now that he's gone I have DD's. Don't know much about NSDTR's, but they sure are interesting to me. Keep up the good work!

I hate to mention it, but your dog dresses funny. Wearing white after Labor Day, no less! 🫤

Thank you for sharing the dogs with me.