Mick's First Road Trip

                                   When I first talked with the Breeder about this line of Setter's he said these dog's developed sufficiently to do quite well at the first year mark. I believed this was true with Mick especially being just rock steady on point and having worked both wild and released birds around the farm for month's now.
                                    In the last ten years I had done a lot of hunting in Iowa,South Dakota and Kansas with a friend of mine who I would describe as the most passionate Pheasant hunter I have ever met. Bernie a semi retired cattle and grain farmer just lived to hunt these birds and come fall went from one destination to another until the season closed. We traveled most of the time from State to State with 3 or 4 hunters but would always hunt one on one with our dog's. These trips were always fun as Bernie was quite a character and had scoped out the territory, accommodations and eating establishments by the time I started hunting with him. In regards to the territory the phrase" We can hunt here" applied sometimes true sometimes not! The accommodations ranged from a pop up camper held together with duct tape to cheap hotels and old farmsteads we rented. The eating establishments ran the gamut from the local Moose club to small town cafe's. The only qualifier for supper besides having to be the cheapest was the place had to have "Tapioca Pudding" as this was a staple of Bernies diet! But wherever we went or stayed Bernie talked to everybody and it didn't take long in a rural area for everyone to get to know him. He has one of those high pitched voices where the tone goes up at the end of the sentences and he love's to talk, tell stories and listen to AM radio. I always considered this side show so to speak almost as much an experience as the bird hunting. I hadn't hunted with him for 4 or 5 year's as not knowing if you were going to get your ass chewed or not for being on the wrong side of somebody's fence wore on me after a while but didn't phase him one bit.
                                        So all things considered in December since I didn't have any plans myself yet I decided to touch base with Bernie about the Kansas trip that was always the second to last week of January. I was in luck as he had one spot open so there would be 4 of us. Anxious to break in Mick to life on the road in real bird country I said I was on board knowing full well what I was in for but like I said trips with Bernie were never dull and I had frankly missed the company of these die hard Pheasant hunter's who always went from sun up to sun down and then some!
                                         The time came soon enough and I boarded Beau and Molly for the week a couple miles down the valley from me at my neighbors boarding kennel. Convenient. And I fully trusted these dog lover's with my pup's.
                                          When I arrived at Bernie's farm to load up in his red Ford crew cab truck with topper on back he said Mick could ride in the top dog box along with "Sarge" Steve's Shorthair. This was a surprise as I had planned on using a crate with a cover for Mick but there wasn't sufficient space. Right off the bat Mick was having a new experience as we put him up and I hoped we wouldn't hear any disagreements from the two of them as we had a full day of driving ahead of us. All was well as we continued to pack the vehicle and then we were off!
                                          We were headed for north central Kansas farm country. An area with grain farming and some cattle interspersed with gentle rolling hills. The weather was quite cold with some snow on the ground and more on the way. In past year's we had actually used snow shoes as the snow cover was so deep. But it currently was around 6 inches. The only issue being if it warms up the Kansas soil turns to a slippery gooey mess difficult to walk on and makes the secondary roads sometimes impossible to travel. Bernie's truck was new and his wife Mary had given strict instructions to keep it clean! Ha Ha! But as always we did our best to keep the vehicle in good shape but it was the roads we had to worry about.
                                           We arrived late in the evening to what were nice accommodations having rented  a local farmers renovated farmstead a traditional 4 bedroom 2 story house in the country the only drawback being dog's were not welcome in the house so Mick was going to have to rough it in the dog box for the week. The other guys had no problem with this but I live with my dog's and am used to them being with me wherever I go. So I made sure I spent some time with Mick after supper before I turned in for the night.
                                              By this time of year we were hunting what I call educated birds mostly in milo stubble and fields of CRP. But we hunted it all if it would hold birds. Mick adjusted well to hunting in unfamiliar surroundings and since he had spent some time on wild birds knew they're tricks. I had a bell on him and also had along an electronic beeper to track him in heavy cover but he did well checking back and keeping an eye on me. I didn't like either device but preferred the bell I guess it's just that I don't like any unnatural sound breaking the silence as you hunt however loosing track of your dog on point is worse I guess.
                                              I preferred hunting Mick in the Milo stubble where I could watch his every move which I enjoyed as he attempted to circle around and cut off the advances of these wily birds and coming to a hard earned point finally. I had shot a few birds for him in this cover then was disappointed when we lost a couple Mick was unable to recover. He was just not aggressive enough and when he caught up to these runners would try to just pin them gently with a paw while wagging his tail allowing them to just escape. I knew he would learn with time so I just tried to really hit the birds hard knowing he had some learning to do on recovering wounded birds.
                                                Mick was getting to work a lot of birds which was the goal and the work I had done on field obedience was worth every minute with this young dog. We were in unfamiliar territory so it was important he responded to my direction when needed. I don't direct a lot but I always put a dog on the down command after we shoot a bird to get them settled before we resume the hunt to avoid them getting over excited and bumping other birds that might be in the area. Also heeling in and out of the field to the vehicle avoids any danger of the dog running into the road if you're hunting where there might be traffic. My dog's learned to actually anticipate this routine and would naturally heel up when we headed for the vehicle although I always give this command to make sure we safely kenneled up.
                                                One morning we had about 4 to 5 inches of new snow and my run was to be the Post mans 320. This was a field of CRP bordered by wheat stubble on two sides. As I said we hunted alone with our dog's and would drop each other off with set times we would pick each other up later in the day. I had asked Bernie if he had talked to the guy and he said "Oh Yeah he said no problem. You just go ahead and hunt that Bernie but I'll be out of town on vacation so if you run into anybody else there just tell them I gave you permission" I had learned before that Bernie may have been given permission to hunt but that may have been years ago! He just didn't give a shit! So I had Steve one of the guys drop Mick and I at the northeast corner of the section. My plan was to hunt across 160 acres of wheat stubble and cross the fence into the CRP where it funneled into a ravine on the corner. I had hunted this in year's past so I knew where the birds concentrated. As we came across Mick worked several hen's and I could see a lot of tracks in the fresh snow moving toward the fence line in the direction we were going. It was a very quiet cold morning with bright sun. Beautiful. I stopped and decided to take Mick's bell off as I knew these birds were just running ahead of the sound. As we approached the CRP on a slight rise along the fence line I looked in front of us at a lot of fresh tracks! The plan was to cross over and work this little ravine on the edge where I could see now the birds had funneled to as I anticipated. Mick proceeded cautiously as he sensed there were birds here somewhere. I fully expected a huge flush any minute as we slowly and ever so quietly walked forward then suddenly I didn't see Mick! Bright sun, new snow with brush bending under the weight of the soft powdery white stuff but no Mick. I took a few more steps slowly slowly and looked again turning in every direction. I knew he was very close I just couldn't see him yet. Then my eyes caught him 40 feet ahead on my right with his head pointed under some bushes bending under the weight of the new snow. Blending in with the contrasting lite and dark cover. Rock solid on point! My heart was pounding as I approached finally making it to Mick. I readied myself and took a step ahead when several birds burst from the cover back in the direction we had just come. I picked out a rooster and brought it down hard. I knew this bird was dead so we headed that direction and Mick located his prize which I put in the game bag then took a minute to give Mick kudos for a job well done. Knowing by the amount of sign in this ravine there were probably more birds here we turned around and started back down the ravine. Mick was once again moving cautiously ahead of me and at the point I lost sight of him just moments before he went on point again this time on the other side of the ravine. These birds must have been pretty well dug in the cover here I thought. I moved ahead once again and another group flushed. This time I quickly took the first Rooster and we had our second bird in just minutes! So we had moved probably 20 birds in only a few minutes and had several hundred yards of cover along this side of the run to go but we didn't make it. Mick was all business and knew what was ahead. Within 50 yards he was on point again! I knew we had probably walked by some birds and even more were probably running ahead judging by the tracks but Mick managed to pin another bird down. I enjoyed just looking at him as I approached closing the distance between us thinking to myself how glad I was to have decided to bring him on the trip. He was gaining confidence and knowledge with every bird he worked. I got to Mick and came around the side flushing the Rooster and bringing it down in the soft snow against a sunny blue Kansas sky. After the shot it was still once again with just the sound of Mick and I moving to the bird and by this time Mick wasn't quite as shy as he picked up the bird and turned to look at me with tail wagging!
                                       We had our final bird of the day as we turned and headed back to the pick up point with quite a wait before the truck would arrive. Mick worked some more birds as we crossed the wheat stubble again on our way and we talked with some other hunter's we met at the road as we waited near an old cemetery. They knew the Post man too! It was a beautiful day. One of many Mick and I would spend together in this way.