Every Dog Has Their Day (or not)

Last weekends Chukar Hunt was not Hazel or my best day. She spent the day busting coveys and I spent the day missing shots. Hazel was pushing really hard. It seemed as if she was competing with my brother Shawn's dog Sage. We found a lot of birds but the dog work was not where I would like to see it. Most days this year Hazel has been awesome so I'm not upset about it. I just consider it an off day and an opportunity to do some training on wild birds. In her defense it was a very gusty, windy day and I'm not sure if she could locate the birds very well. She'd point hard like normal but would break down quickly and relocate and thats when the birds would go up. And with the wind I'm not sure if she could hear me calling whoa. She busted 2 nice coveys in about 20 minutes. It was not her best day. Hazel had to do a lot of standing at whoa where the last infraction took place. All while the other dog got to hunt. She wasn't happy at all about that. Hopefully the training and message sunk in. It was still an enjoyable day in the mountains. Shawn brought one home off a beauty of a point by Sage. One more weekend and the 2010-2011 Utah bird season is over.


My wife is relieved that the hunting season is nearly over. There is a long list of chores that I need to get working on. Basically we are remodeling 3/4 of our house. Nothing too major, just repainting most of the upstairs and remodeling two bathrooms, (one bathroom is a complete gut and rebuild), putting in a new ceiling in our basement family room, repainting and retexturing the basement, adding aother new bathroom and adding and painting trim around everything down there. Or however much we can stretch and get out of our tax return. I am not relieved that hunting season is nearly over.