Bill Nettles is a field trialer I met several years ago at the Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational. This summer Bill and his wife have been traveling and working dogs and I invited him to spend a few days training with us while he was in Minnesota.

Bill posted the following message on the Cover Dog Message Board about his visit.

“I benefited a lot from a recent visit to Jerry Kolter’s. Jerry did me a kindness as bracemate in the 2001 Invitational, by letting me know that there was ground water around the bend, thus saving me and my dog some time. This was the first chance I have had to look him up.

"Jerry seems to enjoy tutoring even the most minute details about best practices in bird dog training. He showed me how many seemingly trivial and unrelated aspects all fit together to bring out the best in a bird dog. Each day my thoughts ranged from ‘why didn’t I think of that’ to ‘I never knew that’ to ‘I had forgotten that.’ I just hope to remember most of his teaching. There was quite a lot of detail and he is very soft-spoken, the exact opposite of what I need as a slow learner, but I still learned a lot.

"Earl Crangle wrote something about how the better a trainer is the more organized you will find his gear. I could never maintain the obsessive neatness of Jerry’s operation, it is beyond my skills, but I do admire it. I think Jerry handled the last of Earl’s dogs which ran in competition, maybe it was Earl’s influence.

"We did not get to meet Betsy, but for a place to be that organized and clean, I suspected there must be a strong female supervisor involved there.

 

"This is all said by way of thanking Northwoods Bird Dogs and to state my observations. If anyone gets up there, note his kennel, which has expanded since the website. There is a grouse feather over his logo that is hard to believe. Minnesota must have some huge grouse, and that feather must have come from the granddaddy of them all.”

On Thursday, March 18, I was working dogs with friends Steve Snyder and Greg Gress and we saw the first woodcock of 2010. Steve was handling his dog, Kay, when she pointed in a mature aspen bottom next to an alder swamp. Earlier in the week, I found grouse in the same spot and so expected another. When Steve walked in front of Kay, a male timberdoodle lazily flushed at his feet. We then searched several other aspen cuts for migrating woodcock but without success.

Once again, Betsy and I are down in northeastern Oklahoma training dogs at Trail’s End Ranch. We are grateful to Jerry Myers for the use of this fine ranch, facilities and training grounds. This is our third winter here and we feel completely at home.

 

There was snow on the ground when we arrived but within a couple of days all had melted. The temperatures have remained somewhat below average with overcast days that are cool and damp. Looking ahead, though, we see sunny days in the 40s…..perfect training weather!

 

We have some very nice puppies here with us—maybe the best all-around group we’ve ever had. It is gratifying to work puppies and to see their development in each session.

 

We have email and internet access so please continue to contact us as usual!

I bought a Garmin Astro 220 dog tracking unit in June and have been experimenting with different features and putting it through its paces. Using this unit in different dog training and hunting situations has given me some interesting and useful insight.

 

The Garmin Astro 220 is a high-sensitivity, GPS-enabled dog tracking system for hunters and sportsmen. This unique system pinpoints dog location—especially valuable when the dog can’t be seen or heard. The unit records the distance the dog has traveled and average speed.  It is also a full-function GPS that can be used to navigate, mark vehicle location and record miles traveled by the hunter and total time out.

With this wonderful late season weather holding, we’ve been extensively working our young dogs in the woods on grouse.

We’re especially excited about two 10-month-old, female littermates, Chardonnay and Chablis. (This was our booze-themed litter.) They are incredibly talented dogs and possess the exact qualities we’re looking for.

In addition, both are fast becoming outstanding young bird dogs and point grouse every time out.  Chablis, for her age, is as good a grouse dog as we’ve had.

These two represent the sixth generation of dogs that we have personally owned, developed, trained and hunted.  We are thrilled as we look to the future of our breeding program and the contributions of these fine dogs.

Working dogs on spring grouse is quite different from autumn training.  The grassy cover is matted down and birds are frequently seen walking in front of the dog—quite a tempting situation for a young (or not-so-young!) dog—which also makes for great training. It’s common to flush two or more grouse in front of a point.

 

The spring grouse woods in Minnesota can be tough on a dog.  The terrain includes spots of ice, soft mud, cold creeks and many obstacles in thick cover. It is no small effort for dogs to constantly twist, turn, jump and navigate and all at a good rate of speed. It’s important to have the dogs in decent condition. Some of our dogs’ worst injuries have occurred in the spring. 

 

We love working dogs on spring grouse and woodcock…..and we basically have the woods to ourselves.

Late on the afternoon of March 23, we found the first woodcock of the year!  Routinely, we had been checking a 4-year-old aspen cut about 300 yards from the kennel. The cut is on a slightly southwest facing slope that thaws early and so usually holds the first woodcock. Since then, we have been finding woodcock regularly in the normal, young aspen cuts as well as the more open, wet edges that they seem to prefer in spring.

 

We are also pleased with the number of grouse we’re finding.  Some are singles but many are in groups of 2 – 6 birds and are in very open cover.  Our theory is that the single birds are probably males establishing drumming territories and the groups are females.  We haven’t heard any drumming yet, but we heard and saw the first woodcock sky dance in our yard on April 1.

We had great success training in Oklahoma this winter.  The weather was beautiful and the ranch was groomed to perfection for dog training.  The high temperature varied from 55 – 70 degrees and even Betsy was sad to leave when it came time to head north!  We are extremely fortunate that our friend, Jerry Myers, allow us the use his beautiful ranch and facilities.  We couldn’t have had a better experience!

We will again be training at the Trail’s End Ranch near Welch, Oklahoma from February 8 through the middle of March.  Magic’s Rocky Belleboa may be traveling between Oklahoma and Minnesota during our stay.  If you are interested in breeding to him, please contact us as soon as your female starts to cycle.

    

We will have email access and can also be reached by phone at 651-492-7312.

I’m always surprised when someone calls or visits and says, “You’re a field trial guy, right?”  I have to say “Yes” but it’s only part of the story. 

 

Things have been going gangbusters this summer at NBD with a kennel full of excellent gun dogs and puppies.  While some are dogs we bred and sold, it is wonderful to have other bloodlines and breeds such as Brittanys, shorthairs, pointers and a beautiful vizla. In addition, we have recently sold several young started dogs that will be outstanding hunting dogs and companions for their new owners. 

 

We placed three johnny houses in the back cattle pasture and are building one more.  We space these houses about ¼  mile apart so we can work them individually or flush birds out of each house and then work on four-wheeler from house to house.  Chukar partridge are in one house and they seem to be recalling well.  The other two contain bobwhite quail which have always worked well for us. 

 

Due to plentiful rainfall this year, the cattle pasture has ideal cover for working birds.  With all the grass to choose from, the cattle have been eating only the choicest plants which leaves excellent cover for the birds to hide in—bare patches in places dotted with three foot high clumps.  Next to wild birds, it’s hard to beat good johnny house quail to work dogs on and it’s a hoot to turn loose a group of puppies to hunt, point and chase these birds!

Ahh, the middle of July!  It’s an exciting time of the year as I start looking for wild birds to check out how the spring nesting season has fared.

 

Early one morning last week, I took CH Magic’s Rocky Belleboa, Bud, out to look for broods of sharptail grouse.  We were headed to a neighbor’s 1,200-acre pasture that is used only for winter grazing, leaving the native cover perfect for sharptail grouse.  The low, grass-covered, rolling hills are surrounded by mixed aspens and alders.  Last year there were at least four coveys in the area.

Happy New Year!

 

It’s time to think about winter training trips and this year we’re very excited about our exclusive agreement to set up our training facility at Jerry Meyers’ Trails End Ranch in northeastern Oklahoma.  Jerry is an avid quail hunter and has owned English setters for many years.  He has been very successful with his Trail's End setters, most notably CH. Trail’s End Tomoka.