Well, Now What?

[fabsroman]

You got really lucky with that skunk. I haven't had the pleasure of coming into contact with one, I am hoping that I never get that pleasure.

Glad to see that he is coming along pretty well. The only issue I see is that he is retrieving birds without you shooting them. Nitro has never done that before, and I still have a hard enough time trying to convince him that he cannot get the birds without by help (i.e., without me shooting them first).

[royinidaho]

fabsroman,

Heck, I'll take 'em anyway I can get 'em

[petey]

My labs bring me live pheasants all the time at the house. If those stupid stocked PA birds are dumb enough to step on my property, they are normally caught by one of them. Most of those stocked birds are runners not flushers, and that's why they get caught.

Shhhh, don't tell the PAGC. I'm sure they'll be hovering around waiting to pinch me b/c my dog hurt their bird out of season, if the local idiot reads this.

Like Roy said, take em anyway you get them. A lot easier than walking for 2 miles in knee deep snow . No BB's in them either

[fabsroman]

Petey,

The fun of the hunt is in how you get them. It would be a lot easier and cheaper to order pheasants and deer already butchered when compared to actually have to hunt them.

Allowing a dog to catch birds on its own could cause trouble later on because the dog might not want to listen to commands (i.e., it thinkgs it can get the bird on its own).

[petey]

Ah, I don't worry how things "should" be done. My dogs listen to general commands that count in my book. They have the run all day long on my property and they stay there. They are also lucky enough to have the basement to sleep in. I'm such a nice guy

They are retreivers, bread to retrieve birds. Alive or dead, they're gonna retreive it. I'd never scold my dog for saving me a .75 shotshell!

I may be upset cause I didn't get to slaughter it after walking 2 miles, but that's what I get for hunting public grounds with stocked birds that run and not flush. Those birds take their chances too, they can run and try to outrun one of my girls or flush and hope that I miss (which is rare). Come home with your daily limit here (if you didn't follow the stock truck all day) and you had a good day no matter how they were taken.

[fabsroman]

That is how I remember hunting in PA when I was a little kid. The pheasants were tough to get up. We would hunt fields after they were cut, and it was amazing at how well these birds would hide under soybean leftovers and in little patches of briar, etc. I think the most we ever killed were 2 birds in a day, but it was still a lot of fun.

[TreeDoc]

Originally posted by royinidaho
Ol' Griz went down hill pretty fast last week.

He hadn't been keen on food since I got him and was showing several varied symptoms of I have no idea what.

Plus he hadn't lost very much of the dull grey winter/puppy coat.

He was up and runnin' in the evening and wouldn't get out of bed the next morning. Things would turn to the opposite a couple of hours later.

Took him to the vet. Major pancreas problem. Cost me over 200 bucks (my harris tripod w/kicker money).

I guess the previous owners were feeding with the 'old dog' and things didn't agree with the puppy system.

We're off and running now. He's a whole new dog who now runs from anything that looks like a plastic syringe for dispensing meds into his mouth.

I suggest that you keep adding large sums of money to an envelope and hide it in your safe....you WILL be needing it!

3 weeks ago, I wrote a check to the Emergency Vet in my neighborhood (thank God they are there!) for the mere sum of $3000 dollars. Jack was inflicted with a very sudden and unexpected Gastric Torsion or stomach twist. We're not positive what brought it on but we suspect it stemmed from a young girl that came down the street to play fetch with him and she has a tendency to make him jump and twist for the retreive. He may have had a gut full of water at the time too.

I'm very glad I know my boy so well because had I waited any longer in getting him to treatment he undoubtedly would have died! It was a very close and lucky call.

At any rate....keep the cash on hand!

[fabsroman]

TD,

Glad to hear that Jack is doing fine after that. Regarding the need to have cash on hand, I have found that most emergency vet places are quite willing to take credit cards (i.e., $500 for Nitro one night on the weekend when I couldn't get a cyst to stop bleeding).