August 2006 Updates page 6
31 Aug
Family
Keith and son Mark from their past season hunting trips.
More about upland bird dogs...
Feedback on the earlier Traveling Wing Shooter dog concerns (29 Aug) includes that while we have porcupines they are not likely to be seen within the regions where we lease bird hunting land. A badger is more likely to be encountered and a badger will win any dog fight.
Barbwire cuts remain the most common injury for dogs while hunting and country veterinarians look forward to them each season. One told me this quote: "If I sew it up it will take a week to heal, if we let it go it will take about seven days to heal up." Another explained that the dog hunter will seek vet attention for his dog long before and country dog owner will. Many procedures [bird dog injuries] he performs are at the behest of the owner and not due to the dog's medical necessity. (In this latter case the discussion point 
specifically addressed through the skin barbwire cuts.) And, the most common dog injury overall is being hit by cars.
We have snakes to include rattle snakes both the prairie and timber, but they are not likely to be encountered. One example that brings this point home is that your MAHA land staff of two has seen one rattle snake over the years during summer land runs, spring turkey hunts and fall bird hunts and never has had a dog bit. That includes John's farm yard dogs.
29 Aug
Crappie
From this summer during the high heat, on one of the strip pits.
Duck
From Andrew captured this summer. Ducks and a pheasant in the same frame.
Traveling Upand Bird Hunters
It is that time of year our inquiries about first hunts come to surface. A recurring one for some is what beeper collar to use. We only offer that to use the one that works best for your own preferences. In the case of ours, we repeat these pictures of the one we use.
We bought ours from GunDogSupply.com and folks with 
smaller dogs report the model without the speaker on top and contained in the battery housing itself to be a better fit. The features (on/off and point/run modes) are easy to use and change without tools. Runs on an easy to purchase in the country and replace 9 volt battery that does last the entire season, point only mode for peace and quiet during the hunt and durability (I still have the earlier models dating back over 15 years ago and they still work).
Other concerns are of skunks and we have always advised the young dog owner to bring any one of the commercial skunk deodorizers such as SkunkOff.
On boots we recommend them to any one that has a dog not conditioned for a week long all day long hunts. That typically includes those that hunt the soft woods bottoms while grouse hunting or the one weekend day small fields of the east coast Sunday hunt prohibition states. Running prairie grass is far more abrasive to dog's feet than the grouse woods.
