Halo’s first Thanksgiving

It has become a Thanksgiving tradition of ours to spend the holiday with our friend Tim and his Weimaraners, Gavi, Caymus, and Stoli.  This was our 5th year, so we couldn’t break our tradition of a good ol’ hunting trip.

Unfortunately, the drought this year has made the pheasant population in Colorado dwindle. We considered going back to South Dakota this year, but Jenny has been traveling a LOT, and we really didn’t want to make a huge trip.  We also wanted to make sure Baby Halo got some good bird contact.  What to do?  We decided to try and hit up our favorite hunting preserve, Laybourns, in Cope, CO.  Laybourns is great!  They have these huge flight pens where the birds can get up and really fly, making them flush and fly a lot more like wild birds.  They have 2,500 acres, half of which is dedicated CRP land…perfect for wildlife management.

Since we would be close to home, we opted to stay in town on Thanksgiving.  We met up with Clare and Gauge in the morning to go for a nice long run.  It was good to see them both and burn off some energy so our kids would rest while we went to Thanksgiving dinner.  Tim was kind enough to host down at his house.  It was a fun group and the food was awesome.  Over the past five Thanksgivings with Tim we have eaten at several Pizza Huts while hunting in various locations.  In fact, it was Thanksgiving at a Pizza Hut in Winner, SD, that Tim’s late wife Liz started complaining of not feeling well.  Less than two weeks later, we heard that her Leukemia was back after two years in remission.  Needless to say, it was so nice NOT to be at a Pizza Hut this year.

Friday morning, we met up with Tim at Laybourns.  We suited up the pups and hit the fields.  It was so good to watch the dogs work the field together again; it had been far too long.  Indy was especially fun to watch.  He is such a grown up bird dog, evidenced by the fact that he DID NOT chase the **THREE* jack rabbits he kicked up.   A few years ago, we would have had a hard time getting him to break chase, but this weekend he was wise.  We could just picture his internal monologue, “Ooh!  Bunny!  I love bunnies, but BIRDS.  I love birds more, I should keep hunting, I’m never going to catch that bunny, and Karma might get my birds.”  It was pretty cute, and we were really impressed that he didn’t take off on the glorious bunny chase.  Indy did an awesome job, and we only had to remind him once that he isn’t allowed to break at the shot.  (And by remind, we mean hold him by the collar — we don’t use e-collars on our dogs.)

Karma was a good girl too, but she wasn’t as polite about stopping and holding at the flush.  She honors beautifully, which made it easy to keep a hand on her collar during the flush and while Marc & Tim were shooting.  She’ll get there, we just need to take some time off agility to focus on her field manners (easier said than done.)  The only one that gets away with breaking at the shot and stealing retrieves is Gavi.  And Gavi gets away with it because she is the oldest (12!) and she was Liz’s heart dog.  🙂

In between hunting and during breaks between our fields, we worked baby Halo on her first Chukar.  It was too cute.  She is a retrieving fool, and just wanted to retrieve the whole time.  We happily obliged.  We kept her bird time short, sweet, and made sure she had tons of fun!  Seeing Halo retrieve made the day complete…love for birds at all levels; Indy the Master, Karma the enthusiast, and Halo the beginner.  It was too perfect.

After a long, but successful day of hunting, we kicked off our shoes and checked every inch of the dogs’ feet for thorns. When we were sure the dogs were comfy, we let them rest while we watched football and enjoyed some chicken n dumplings.  It was a pretty perfect couple days with great friends and dogs.