A short clip of Otto using his nose to find a rooster that got out in front of us.

It was one of those days but the little guy performed well.  My training helpers couldn’t make it so it was just I and the little guy with the Iphone for video.

Not the best combination when you have to plant the birds, then go back get the puppy and bring him in vicinity of the birds, try to manage the check cord, steady the dog, flush the bird, shoot the bird, and send the dog.  Just not enough arms and legs for that operation but we made it work.

Otto did great this afternoon though.  Almost ready to keep the check cord off of him.  Just need some catching up to do.  My fault not his, just need to work less and play more.

It’s getting depressing around these parts.  The great southern migration for all species seems to be way behind.

By all account the ducks are two to three weeks behind.  The weather has been cruddy.  Too warm and a strong Nor’Easter for the past week sure hasn’t helped any.

The ducks are few and far between.  Not much to report on the woodcock front either.  We should be thick with the little timberdoodles by now but they haven’t even shown up in any numbers yet.

Hopefully the wind and the weather will turn in our favor soon.

Bah Humbug…  Spoil ‘em rotten they deserve it for all they do for us.  A generous amount of kisses go a long way also.

To all the folks afraid of the ferocious Wirehairs out there..  Try a smooch, it goes a long way!

The hard winter certainly hurt the pheasant population in North Dakota but as near as we can tell there are still lots of birds around.  As unbelieveable as the past two years have been folks were very gloom and doom this year.

Well…  our solution to that – Get Out and HUNT!  The basic premise of what we do is hunt likely covers and let the dogs do their thing.  Yes there are less birds than last year but we certainly didn’t have any trouble finding them.

Hunt Smart…. Eat Good!

Much of the pleasure of coming to North Dakota is enjoying the scenery.

We had a great morning looking over a spot so pretty it should be a waterfowler’s postcard.

Just amazing.  All this and lots of birds also.  Unfortunately we didn’t shoot as well as we would have liked.  Bad Ju Ju arrived two days ago and it is really beginning to settle in.  More on that later.