Well, it was finally time to take Chukar out on an actual "hunting" excursion. The idea was to get him in the field, expose him to shotgun fire and maybe stumble upon a grouse or two...We met part of our goal :)
To give some additional background as I haven't posted many details lately, we have virtually done zero training with or around live birds (and it shows). We've spent time in the back yard with wings and scented dummies, but that is the extent of it. We have worked very little on "whoa" training and directional/range commands have been something Chukar and I have developed while spending time on hikes, etc. Well, here is how it went:
We started of Friday morning heading out to the grouse woods, we made it to our initial destination at about 7am. I popped the hatch on my car and left Chukar in his crate. I grabbed the 20 gauge and some shells and I headed out to 100 paces...I fired off two quick shots. I could see Chukar peering though the grates of his crate, not much movement. I walked about 20 paces closer and fired off a couple more rounds, same thing. Finally, I walked to within about 20 yards and fired off the last 2 rounds. All I saw was Chukar sitting there in his crate waiting to be "released". I went over to him and praised him and got him excited to hit the trail.
We started off up a pretty steep grade and right off the bat he was smelling a ton of stuff that he was interested in, including some TP and associated mess that someone left 4 feet off the trail. A couple "leave-its" got us going again...He was going crazy, covering areas to both sides, up and downhill and up ahead. He is pretty good at staying in front of me, but there are times when he gets onto a scent trail and ends up behind me. Anyways, we continued on up the grade, seeing a ton a different berry patches, for sure I thought we would see something sooner, rather than later...Nothing. Chukar kept working the trail and surrounding area and I was trying to keep up with him.
We kept on up the hill, with me reeling Chukar in and sending him back out. I truly thought we were going to bust a grouse...or a bear at any time!
We approached the end of the trail...or the part of the trail that I wasn't willing to tackle on this day and decided to head back down. No sign of a grouse, bear, deer or any other living creature besides a squirrel and a crow or two. Before we headed back down the trail, I decided I would "surprise" Chukar with a couple quick shots to see how he would react. Bam, bam, he came running toward me to see what was going on, but he didn't jerk, cower or show any other sign of being spooked. I was pleased to say the least.
We went on another hunt, with similar results. There were no birds to be had on this day.
With the first hunt completed, I was feeling pretty good about exposing Chukar to the gun and his reaction or lack there of...At the same time, I realized that we both have a TON of work to do. Here the three things that became evident before we left the woods:
1. Bird work is super important and is something we are going have to do in the near future. I could tell that Chukar was on scents numerous times, but those scents could have been squirrel, rabbit or grasshopper...I am hoping the bird work will focus his attention to bird scents and keep him from or limit his chasing of the other scents in the field.
2. Whoa. There were a couple of instances that Chukar looked birdy, but nothing materialized. I am thinking that his lack of training in this area could have potentially lead to at least an instance in which there may have been a bird nearby, but he chased it away without me noticing. How is he supposed to know what to do if he has never been trained? :)
3. Directional commands/Ranging. I have to figure out how to keep him within range and in front of me. There were times when he was well out of site and there were other times that he started off ahead of me and popped out behind me on the trail. I have a couple ideas here, but I haven't figured out exactly how I want to approach this.
Overall, it really was a great day. The weather was awesome, watching Chukar work the woods was a joy and learning the things that we need to hone was enlightening. Dead birds will come in time.
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