Just got back from my second Upper Peninsula grouse hunt with a friend and his dad. Hunted four or five different spots on public land. Populations were generally down, suppose its related to where they are in the seven year cycle, but we had 4 or 5 finds each day. Our missed shots brought some looks of disdain from the dogs.
Ruby managed to find a porcupine and this time I ended up with about 30 quills to pull out of her face. Luckily no damage done, except perhaps to her ego.
I’ve noticed when we hunt she really assumes the alpha female role with other dogs. She’s been well socialized and unless the other dog is really aggressive, she’s pretty easy going. But when she gets her collar on and the hunt is on, she really doesn’t have patience for dogs that want to still play and not work. It’s never more than a warning, but she puts them in their place and gets to work.
What was a bit unsettling this trip was the amount of wolf sign there was around the areas we hunted. Looks like they are coming back with a vengeance up there. One of the locals told me not to run her on a beeper collar as the wolves think of it as a potential dinner bell. Not sure if he was pulling my leg, but I ran her with a swiss bell, which required more paying attention from me. We saw two wolves from the truck late one day. Amazing how tall they are.
I took Ruby to a field trial in Michigan recently. The trial was interesting and I think she did fine. Met some nice folks and her trainer was there running dogs as well. I borrowed a horse for part of the trial and learned I’m certainly no horseman. But I managed through.
After the trial four of us went up to north central Michigan, southwest of Traverse City a bit in Wexford County (as I recall.) I was a great trip, good group of guys and the Brits were a lot of fun to watch.
It was Ruby’s first time on grouse and she really acquitted herself well, running with the vets, honoring points, finding birds, holding her point. One set of dogs ran with Swiss Bells and while it was certainly traditional and also soothing to hear the bells jangling, im not sure I’m comfortable enough yet to give up the beeper on her collar. It’s probably more me than her. Well actually it’s the fear of what my wife would do if I lost her for a while!
I’ve not been on public ground groomed for grouse. It’s pretty interesting how they manage it in some areas – four corners are cut in cycles so that one is almost old growth, one is what I think most would consider prime, one quadrant is younger growth approaching prime, and one is pretty much young growth. At least that’s how I understood it.
Ruby found a porcupine and luckily didn’t tangle with it. I am glad she didn’t end up with a snout full of quills!
We saw quite a few birds and Ruby had a solid handful of finds and points.