Photos!...finally

Well I finally sat down at the computer long enough to whip up a quick gallery of photos from the 09 season. They are in more or less chronological order and include a good number of photos taken by my wife Lisa. She's really been enjoying carrying the camera around and has managed to get some great shots of the dogs in action.

Her shots of me however are not quite as good. For some reason, she almost always takes the shot while I am walking away from her. That usually results in a decent shot of the dog running near me, but only highlights the fact that I have no ass.

Click on the photo above or this one below to see the shots of the 09 season...so far!

The Season So Far Part ll: Henri's Got A Hankerin for Venison

I’ve had a number of requests for an update on Henri now that he is in his first real season (last year he was in gundog-kindergarten).

So I’ve drawn up a list of the good and bad:

First the bad:

• Henri somehow got the idea that he is allowed to sleep ON the bed, UNDER the covers....just like Souris. Sorry H, not going to happen.
• In the last three weeks, he's chewed up my cell phone, two credit cards and three pairs of glasses.
• He's learned how to escape from his crate in the back of the truck (but not from the back of the truck...yet. The cap is pretty sturdy, but I think he is working on a solution).
• He took off after deer the other day. When I saw him jump the doe, I figured "Great! now I can give him some e-collar juice and nip this in the bud". Unfortunately, the batteries in my transmitter were dead! He eventually came right back to the truck on his own after leaving me there for nealy an hour to bite my nails and get even more grey hair.
• A week later, he did it again!!!! And I was once again too slow to get on the "light him up like the Las Vegas strip" button and missed my chance to convince him that deer emit lightning bolts and should be avoided. Grrrrrr. Serious deer breaking lessons start tomorrow.
  

Now the good

• He can run. My GOD can he run! He is the smoothest running, highest headed, floating-over-the-ground Weim I have ever seen. I could watch him for hours just covering a field.
• He is all hunt, all the time. Put him on the ground and zooom, he's in hunt mode until you call it a day.
• His points are super stylish and intense (but usually a bit short...he still wants to pounce in)
• He handles well (...if there are no deer about...) and hunts for me, turns when I turn, usually without any command or whistle.
• He has a nice medium gundog range. He is not (yet?) a super big runner. In the open he's generally 75 to 200 yards out. He will make bigger casts out to 300+ yards but not that often. In tighter cover, he does shorten up a bit but needs to come in a bit more. 100 yards out in the thick grouse/woodcock stuff is a bit much for me. I prefer 40 to 60.
• His duck search is great! With almost no training, he hits the water and just flat out searches till he finds something.
• He's a horny son of a gun. If/when I ever decide to breed him it will NOT take any sweet talk or K9 Viagra. He would hump the crack of dawn if he could. And his girlfriend Maizie is more than willing (but waaaaay too young!)

Stay tuned for Part ll Uma and Souris, the dynamic duo and Part lll Zeiss and Vinnie, the boyz from the hood.

The 09 Season PART 1

The above photo features Maizie pointing her first covey of Hungarian Partridges. Many people believe that the classic pointing position is with a raised front paw. However, most pointing dogs never raise any paw while on point. They keep all four feet on the ground. In this shot, Maizie is actually raising her rear paw which some dogs do from time to time.

Two weeks later, that same leg was nearly run through with a stick! Read on to find out how...

Two words best describe the 2009 hunting season so far:

Roller Coaster.

There have been plenty of ups and downs since opening day way back in September. One day we’d see plenty of birds, the next day, none. Then suddenly we’d find a bunch more a day or two later!

And it’s been that way for grouse, partridges, geese, ducks and snipe all season long.

The weather has also been highly variable. In Saskatchewan we had to deal with +30 degree temps while back in Manitoba, only a week or two later, we were hunting sharptails at -5 as the snow fell sideways.

The fact that my shooting has been hit and (mainly) miss is par for the course, but even the dogs have had their share of good and bad. Lovely Miss Maizie (Uttara vom Fenriswolf) injured herself on what must have been a fallen tree branch. She was hunting a thick piece of cover for grouse when I heard a yelp. She came back to me limping, and I noticed a puncture wound on her inner thigh near the groin. It did not bleed very much but it looked rather deep. Upon further inspection at the clinic (Maizie’s owner, Dr. Skavinsky is a very talented vet ) it was discovered that whatever poked her, went waaaay in there...almost exiting the other side! Even more shocking was that it only missed the femoral artery by about a quarter of an inch!!

Ten days later, I’m happy to say that the wound has healed over quite nicely. Maizie is now 100% fit to resume the hunt. The only difference is that she’ll be wearing a skid plate in the woods from now on. Oh, and I have vowed never to return to the scene of the accident which coincidentally is exactly where Uma’s mother “Rage” received a similar injury several years ago.

Next up: Part ll Henri's Hankerin for Venison Lands Him in Hot Water!

Rare Birds Sighted in Saskatchewan

Ah yes, Saskatchewan.

It's where God hunts when he gets a day off.

To kick off the 2009 hunting season, I headed west. My destination was a small town in an area that is fast becoming a mecca for Hun hunters. It is in Saskatchewan near *******, just past ####### and a few mile before ^^^^^

Note: if the names of the towns above do not appear in plain text on your computer it is because you lack the proper security clearance for such highly sensitive hunting information. If you would like to learn the secret handshake and decode the names please send two bottles of single malt whiskey to my home address.

I was after Huns and Sharptail grouse with a K9 crew consisting of Souris, Uma, Henri and Maizie. Now most hunters know that Hungarian Partridges are not native to North America. Nor are pheasants. Both birds were introduced to the US and Canada in the late 1800's. Sharptails of course are native birds and we managed to see quite a few of them and their foreign cousins during the hunt.

Surprisingly, we also came across two other species of bird that are considered extremely rare. One, like the pheasant, is originally from China, but has learned to thrive in the harsh Canadian climate. Its Latin name is Benihong Maximus and it looks like this:


Note the regal bearing and colourful plummage. Commonly referred to as the Ben Hong, this Asian raptor is a clever bird, always on the lookout for its main quarry: fresh brewed coffee and tobacco. It is quite a vocal species, fluent in at least three languages with a lovely sing-song way of telling fascinating tales and memorable anecdotes.

The other rare bird we came across was the Donisteese Americana. It looks like this:


Known for forming a unique symbiotic relationship with certain types of canines, many Don Steese birds prefer dogs of German origin. This may be due to the fact that despite Americana being part of its latin name, the species originated in Europe and made its way to this side of the Atlantic on the Mayflower. The Don Steese is known for a beautiful baritone call which it keeps in tip top shape by gargling regularly with fine Bourbon.

I should probably mention that Saskatchewan is one of only a handful of jurisdictions in the world that has an open season on both the Benihong Maximus and the Donisteese Americana. The limit is 1 each per hunter per season. Despite the fact that both birds were well within range when I spotted them, I passed on the opportunity. Seeing them thriving happily in their natural environment was enough for me.

And besides, I hear they taste like liver.

Staying Close to Home

I have no idea how many pairs of boots -- and visa cards -- I've worn out over the last ten years. And to be honest, I'm not sure I really want to know. In any case the number, whatever it is, probably indicates that I have some sort of mental illness.

Be that as it may, I'm typing this post wearing yet another new pair of boots. I'm trying to work them in before I head out to Saskatchewan tomorrow (For those of you unfamiliar with where and what Saskatchewan is, it's where God hunts when he gets a day off).

And the Visa card? Well it was on life support for a while, but it is feeling much better now since we decided not to go to Europe this year. Such a trip would have probably proven fatal to our bank account. It seems that the Canadian dollar is worth less than bathroom tissue in Europe nowadays and even worse, our 5 dollar bills are apparently so irritating to sensitive French 'derrières' that they refuse to use them even for a clean-up on aisle ass.

Anywho, despite the cash crunch, I could not resist a short trip close to home. So I headed out to small town Ontario. While there I met up with some old friends and made some new ones. I visited a really cool hunt/sporting club called Run-A-Fowl south of Toronto and photographed two Spinoni, a Bracco Italiano, a Small Munsterlander, a Springer Spaniel, a couple of GSP's and some really nice Weimaraners. The very kind folks who met me there were true Canadians...super-friendly, unassuming and absolutely addicted to Tim Horton's Double Double coffees. And their dogs were terrific. Here are my favorite shots from the day.

After small town Ontario I travelled to petite ville Quebec. My wife and I met Dennis D'Anjou and his lovely partner Johanne and photographed their absolutely beautiful Épagneuls Français. And let me tell you, if I were not a dyed in the wool Weim guy, I would probably have a small herd of the lovely liver and white 'French Setters' in my backyard. You can see some photos of them towards the end of the gallery linked above.

The Bottom, Bottom Line

This just in from the good folks at Garmin:

The only Astro Canadians can enjoy right now is the one owned by a fellow named George Jetson. Seen in a recent illustration (above) Astro Jetson seems to have fallen on hard times since the show went into re-runs about 30 years ago. However, Industry Canada continues to list him as 'approved for use in Canada'.

Unfortunately for all us bird dog folks up here, the other Astro, the one made by Garmin, is NOT APPROVED FOR USE IN CANADA. The information I posted in my last update of the blog is NOT CORRECT. My source at Raytech* was mistaken. There is NO Canadian approved model or version of the Astro. Period.

I recently received word directly from Garmin (finally!) about the whole issue. In fact, they have recently updated their own site with the following statement:

Due to varying international regulations, this version of the Astro is approved for use only in the United States. The sale and unlicensed use of the Garmin Astro GPS Dog Tracking System in any form is presently prohibited by the Canadian government. According to a document published by Industry Canada dated June 2009, the MURS radio frequency used by the Astro will be permitted to be sold and operated on a license-free basis at the end of a five-year transition period (June 2014). This Industry Canada ruling may be found in its entirety at http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/sp17-ps17-eng.pdf/$FILE/sp17-ps17-eng.pdf. Parties interested in the implementation of this spectrum utilization policy or with questions should contact their local Industry Canada office.

So it looks like my very first post on the matter was the most accurate. The issue is, and always has been, one of MURS frequency licensing. In the US the band is free to use. In Canada, you need a license...at least for now.

So, if you have an Astro, feel free to use it in the U.S. But don't forget to turn it off while you are in Canada.

THAT is the bottom line (I hope!)


*It looks like Raytech has removed all mention of the Astro from their website.