Today, for the first time in 13 years, I don’t have a child in daycare, preschool, or at home with me. The youngest is off to kindergarten and as much as I’ve looked forward to this day for so bloody long, it still hurts a little. But I’ll be back to substitute teaching English at the high school the day after tomorrow, so that will be exciting. And there’s always the dogs.
It has rained every day since we’ve been back from vacation, so they haven’t gotten a good long run in for awhile. It shows; they are a bit rammy on their walks out back. Yesterday, Sam finally met the new intact male pitbull that moved recently in a few properties over. I was very nervous, but the pit is probably several years younger and 3-4 inches shorter than Sam, so nobody was questioning who was dominate (thank God).
Fall is Coming
In case you hadn’t noticed, fall will be here soon. The dog cult of Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds will be re-assembling in 10 days for the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Field Trial. We’ll go ahead and run Fire in the Amateur Walking Puppy and Amateur Walking Derby stakes. The following weekend, we’ll do the same thing at the same place with the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Lincoln. Those trials fall on each end of my work week trip to Maine, August 25-29 for AWPGA National Specialty, so it will be a very doggy week.
Speaking of the people who hang around Branched Oak, I’d like to give a shout out to Kahne Packer, and his folks Dana and Chad. Kahne is bud of my kids at dog events and was featured in the Best in Show photograph for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Nebraskaland Magazine Photo Contest for 2014.
Kahne Packer and his German Shorthaired Pointer anxiously wait to set foot afield at a youth mentor pheasant hunt at Cub Creek Hunting in Beatrice. Photo by Kaleb White
Sharptailed Grouse and Statewide Early Teal
We will skip opening day of sharptailed grouse on September 1 and instead head out there on Friday the 5th to chase them, with statewide Nebraska early teal opening on Saturday the 6th. If you go out for early teal on the 6th, make sure you take the time to properly identify what you are shooting. This season is under evaluation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and if we harvest too many non-teal ducks, we will lose the season. TEAL ONLY. Please download the NGPC Waterfowl Guide to your phone or tablet prior to going out into the field for further guidance: http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/hunting/guides/waterfowl/waterfowl.asp
The battle of the over/unders: the SKB Model 505 vs. the Browning Citori Lightning
We have a way of winning big ticket items at Pheasants Forever banquets. Charles and Conrad both have Nebraska Lifetime Hunting and Fishing licenses. I won the 12 ga. Browning Citori Lightning O/U four or five years ago. I used to shoot a 20 ga. SKB 505, but I don’t get a chance to shoot skeet that often, so I needed the extra reach of a 12 ga. to put more birds in the bag. Plus, it took me several years of hunting to work up the upper body strength to carry a shotgun all day and not end up with a black shoulder from bad form. Charles would have taken the Citori, but it is just too long for him.
An array of Browning Citoris, from pafoa.org
I have fought with that damn shotgun since the day I won it. It has driven me to tears. Both the Browning and the SKB have the safety on the top of the grip of the stock, just behind the receiver. With the SKB it is a simple thumb push forward to take the safety off. On the Browning Citori Lightning the safety and the O/U switch are one in the same, where you push the same switch side to side to choose barrels, then forward to take off the safety. If the O/U switch is not properly engaged, the safety will not turn off. And it is just enough to send me into a complete hissy fit and makes me lose my focus on the shot. So good riddance, Browning Citori Lightning O/U 12 ga., into the safe to be a loaner gun. Or maybe one of the boys will have more patience for it than I.
Unfortunately, SKB shotguns are not currently in production. About three years ago, the family who owned the SKB factory in Japan decided that they no longer wanted to carry on operating it once the family patriarch passed on. So, SKB USA, which is headquartered right here in Omaha, Nebraska, is building a new plant in Turkey to continue to manufacture these functional tools. Sure, it is cool to look at a Kreighoff, but what happens when I fall into the swamp (again)? But luckily around Christmas time, we found a 505 12 ga. in mint condition here at Guns Unlimited (aka SKB USA headquarters), so I am super excited to get her out in the field and shoot some stuff. Oops, I mean harvest the sacred game.
SKB Model 505 12 ga. field grade. Photo from skb.com
Vacation selfies
Looking back on my vaca post, I realize that I edited myself out of the photos. Here I am, “Hi!!”
Great Sand Dunes National Park kicked my arse. Photo by Charles.
Charles and I at the Grand Canyon. Photo by our 10 year-old son, Conrad.
Pupdates
We received Ben’s OFA certification back and it was Good. He is a 3 1/2 year old male out of Sam and Sue that we’ll be breeding on to our co-owned female, Velma. I can check that off of the list.
Ben’s OFA certificate
Ernie up in North Dakota has been working with his 5 month-old pup, Duncan, and the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter towards the Natural Ability test. Duncan is from our 2014 “H” litter of Sam and Mae. He said, “Duncan is doing great, he has more natural ability than any other dog I have ever seen at this age. He is picking up on the obedience training very quickly. The guys at NAVHDA are sure he could do his NA test now, but I will wait until spring. Hope you have a great hunting season.”
He also sent along a video of their training:
As it says in the credits, thank you to Ernie for the great video, and to the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter for the training opportunities!
Duncan on a fishing trip, waiting for hunting season.
Also working with the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter is TracHer, with Susan and Tom. TracHer is from our 2012 “C” litter of Sam and Mae. They sent along a GoPro headmount video of working with her on steadiness. I appreciate them sharing a video of a work in progress, as training steadiness is challenging. If you are sensitive to motion, you might want to start the video at 1:15 or so. I also film with a GoPro and know that getting anything of quality is lucky, so thank you again Susan and Tom for putting in the effort to share this.
Matt up in South Dakota has been out with Josie, Duncan’s sister. He called me up and said that she’s gaining her independence in her puppy adolescence, but they are getting her reined back in by having her drag a check cord. She had a bit of random nervous barking early on, but they resolved it quickly with a no-bark collar. Matt guides upland and waterfowl near Vermillion when he isn’t doing his day job, and I learned something interesting from him about hunting waterfowl along the Missouri River. They do not use any type of collar on the dog up there, for fear of having dogs snag on the numerous logs and branches in the water. We have yet to try and take on the Mighty Mo here, it is a big deep channel, but that is a smart tip.
Josie sitting
Josie in the field
Josie with a bumper in the yard
TracHer’s brother, Chester, out in New York was caught on camera by his trainer, Steve Anker. Charles hangs out on the versatiledogs.com forum and showed me this. I loved it so much that I had to snag it. Chester is working on his NAVHDA Utility Test with the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter, and is pictured with his owner, Sal.
Sal and Chester up to serious training business. Photo by Steve Anker.
Okay, not a pupdate, but still a silly griffon photo from my pack. My brother Ron had Mae out on Main Street in Valentine, Nebraska while the bar folk were about. I didn’t ask the details, but he titled this one “Mae Meets the Party Girls”.
Mae giving love to the party girls
Time for me to get on with the day. Party on, Mae.
Bluestem Kennels 