Thought I would finally get an update out to you guys after seeing your Facebook post. Cal is doing really good. I have been out quite a bit with her but the last two weeks have been consumed with deer season and she is getting the bird itch. Commands are going good and she is really learning every time we go out how I want things don. I don’t really need any correction for distance and she cuts the field up pretty good when out with a couple people. The only annoyance I am having is she finds more field mice than a cat would and she likes to dig but it’s not that bad. It’s pretty easy to break her with a hey or a buzz on the collar but do you suggest anything to really get her off the mice fetish? She knows when we are going hunting when the guns come out and is pretty birdy which is surprising on how fast things clicked for her. However, I still can’t get her into the water, will have to wait till the summer. I am very impressed with the dog she has become, I will be back next summer and hopefully make it to some seminars.
Thank you for forwarding us the information on the Youth event from the St. Croix Valley Brittany club yesterday in Milaca, MN. My son Reed took Mikko up there and put on a show.
They ran 2 dogs at a time and quail were replaced as they were flushed. Mikko and I waited as Reed followed the first
pair of dogs to see how it went. There were 2 quail pointed, one by each dog. Reed was impressed and was anxious for his turn. Mikko was next released with a “field trial-seasoned” Brittany-because she was an expert and Mikko was so young! Ha, Mikko pointed 4 quail and held tight on them until Reedo flushed them up. The more seasoned “expert” brit pointed one quail and was absent for 5 minutes and took off for another 10 minutes while Mikko was holding a bird. The trainer there kept telling Reed how impressed he was with his dog and was asking me if I was going to field-trial her, because she is so fast-Greg’s “pocket rocket”
Reedo then took scores from each of the other handlers and their parents and found that Mikko had 4 quail and of the other 5 dogs, 2 quail was the top pointed. He was so excited and made 4 phone calls on the way home to tell relatives and hunting partners how Mikko had done. We are so happy with her and how easy she is to handle out in the field. Michelle and I are so happy with her, and are looking forward to this season. I am not sure if we are going to field trial her, but if you or Greg could let us know what that
would take, I would appreciate it.
Thank Suzy for our wonderful dog, we are very happy! Rich and Michelle Kadrlik
Farmington, MN
Chilly has now had 12 full days of hunting since she returned from camp. She has been on two separate trips to the Harvey area of ND, and one game farm hunt at Traxler’s yesterday. There have been some ducks, but the majority of the work has been on roosters. I have not kept precise track, but conservatively I would say she has flushed close to 200 ringnecks. She’s retrieved about 20 mallards from cut corn, and 3 from the water.
All I can say is: “WOW!”
I could not be more pleased with how she’s doing. Her bird work on pheasants is terrific. She hunts close and never gives up on a bird once she has winded it. There have been a couple of times where the roosters have run and I haven’t kept up well enough to get a shot, but other than that she has always provided my hunting companions and me with great opportunities to shoot. She seems to understand that we are hunting as a team, and that it not all about her.
I would have to say that the best thing about hunting with Chilly now is how she responds to the e-collar. A couple light taps to turn her or to bring her in a little is all that is required. No yelling, pleading or whistles. I have hunted with some guys this season that spend their whole day doing this, and it certainly does detract from the experience.
After the shot, her retrieves have been great as well. Having a dog that will heel and then retrieve to hand is the best! I must admit that I was skeptical as to whether or not she needed to go through the trained retrieve process because she was doing an adequate job in her first season. However, there is just no comparison to the quality of her work now.
On waterfowl, we are not as far along. To a great extent this is just because we have not spent as much time or seen as many birds. On the positive side, she is well behaved in the blind. She stays at heel while calling, doesn’t take off running every time a shot is fired.
Her first experience with mallards was in cut corn, and it was quite a shoot! It was one of those deals where the ducks could just NOT stay out of the area we were set up. We would whack them for awhile and then send the dogs out to retrieve. At first she would run out and sniff a duck, and come back. I would cast her again with a stern command to fetch. She brought birds back eventually, but certainly not with the same joy and enthusiasm she has for ringnecks. Do you think this is just the way she is, or will it grow on her as she gets more experience?
The next day we were shooting over decoys in a fairly good sized pond. The bummer was that over night that water had frozen and there was about an 1/8 in layer of ice. You know Chilly loves to swim, but there was no convincing her that she could break the ice and go after the duck. On another occasion we were shooting over open water and she was anxious to retrieve, but because we were sitting in high reeds, she couldn’t mark the birds. I spent some time (and money) throwing 3 1/2″ steel shells in the direction of the bird so she could find them!
So all in all I could not be more pleased. You did a great job, and I thank you for all of your hard work with a dog that I am sure was not always a model student. For me, it was time and money that was extremely well spent. To have a dog that is not yet 2 years old hunt this well for me really is a dream come true.
Thanks Greg!
Rick
P.S. Yesteday’s shoot at Traxler’s was with Jeff Willett. He was really complimetary about how Chilly hunted. He has a new lab puppy at home that he will be looking to train before long.
Luci had a pretty good year. She had aprox. 40 quail shot over her. She didn’t get any wild birds over her, Where we live and hunt the pop. is just so low we can hunt for days and not see a thing. I didn’t think she was quite ready to hunt with a larger group ( of dogs or people). So on our trip to SD I would set aside an hour or two a day to work her by herself. I really wanted to drop a big juicy rooster for her wrestle with, but we didn’t have too great of luck. I forgot to bring a long lead with me, so we tried to hunt without. Kind of funny story we started into this field and she started getting birdy bumped some hens and off to the races. While she was at full speed, a rooster flushed in front of her and they crashed into each other. She sat up like what happened and when she realized what it was she was about 1 tail feather off his ass across the whole field. My dad was with me and said “I don’t know if I’ve
ever seen a dog cover so much ground so fast”. But hunting late season SD can be frustrating for a pup, lots of birds, just not a lot of close birds.
So we still need to work on the basics, as you know whoa, and come can be a little tough for a young, bird crazy dog. This puppy sure is a lover/snuggler, but also a naughty lil shit most the time. But it seems to be getting better, I think. Matter of fact she should be old enough for an ecollar don’t you think? That should help (a little hearing aid).
I attached some pics of her. If you have any questions or input feel free to message. Also we like to see the info you send on your kennel, and competitions.
What an interesting year Al and I have had. About this time last year, resulting from a “bug” put in my ear while friends were here hunting, I found out that Al had mentioned he was ready for a new hunting pup! (it took me almost an hour to start the “hunt”, pardon the pun.)
We finally located a litter of Llewellyn English Setters that would be born around the end of January. Long story made short…Al’s pup “Tuff” joined our empty nest in the early spring, entertaining us through the spring blizzards, spending his summer months learning to quarter and watch his “boss” in the field…and at the ripe old age of 9 months, began showing he was a true hunting partner to Al.
What a joy after almost 17 years without a hunting dog around. Perhaps Al’s greatest joy is watching the grandkids learn the thrill of hunting and enjoying nature. He came home one day and said “Now THAT is what hunting is ALL about!”
I thought I would give you a short update on Parker, now a little over 5 years old. He is doing well and is definately part of the family (even demands his meals at the same time each morning and evening). He is very driven, with a motor that runs at a high level all the time.
Here are a couple of pics—two includes his buddy Jackson (our 5 year old English Setter) honoring Parker’s points and one shows a great water retrieve Parker made this past weekend on a wounded pheasant that went down about 50 yards out in a small lake.
Hope you are well and enjoying the hunting season.
1st place at the PHU Nebraska State Pheasant Championship
I would recommend Greg at High Fly’n Kennels for any training your bird dog might need. My 3 year old Brittany, Rizzo, spent 7 weeks with Greg during the summer of 2008 working on the trained retrieve.
Rizzo is a very driven dog yet very stubborn and hard headed. She would be a challenge to most professional trainers…Greg was up for the challenge. I was more than pleased with her development while at High Fly’n Kennels. It did not take me long to realize that I made the right choice in sending Rizzo to Greg. Her drive and willingness to retrieve only seemed to increase. Greg gave Rizzo a great foundation for me to build on with future training. Greg returned to me, a retrieving machine in Rizzo.
With that training, she went on to have a great trial season. Rizzo and I took 1st place at the PHU Nebraska State Pheasant Championship in the puppy division and topped it off with a 5th place finish at the 2009 BDC Nationals. Without Greg, that would not have been possible.
I give Greg & Carla at High Fly’n Kennels an “A” and highly recommend Greg as a trainer for many reasons. Their facilities are clean and well maintained. Greg’s communication before, during, & after the training is more than anyone could expect or ask for. In keeping with my word, Chip, my new pup will be headed to High Fly’n Kennels this summer for a little of the same. By the way, Greg and Carla also have fine looking Llewellin Setters puppies available High Fly’n Kennels.
Kritter Hayes
Hawkeye Hayes Brittanys
Adel, Iowa
515-689-8909
[highlight type=”dark”]Congratulations to Kritter & Rizzo from HFK![/highlight].
I got Hallie from High Fly’n Kennels she was about 9 weeks old. One thing that was very important to me being in my later 50’s was not getting a big runner. I have had Setters for 20 years and big runners are great when you are 18 but not 58. I made it very clear what I wanted was a close working dog that was a hard pointer.
Hallie is a very friendly dog like most Setters but when the Gun comes out she is all business. We have went out with 5 people and she hunted for them all never broke on point by the end of the day they all knew when Hallie slowed down and started to get low to the ground they would start to yell bird coming and in a bit she would stop and soon the bird took flight. We had one person Hunting with us with another type of dog Hallie got all the birds and he took his dog to the Vet thought his dog may have had a sinus infection it didn’t.
Hallie was 10 months old at Hunting season in South Dakota we did our training months before but we hit the field and we had no big running. That was so important with a young dog you have a chance to correct them.
Hallie has had many birds shot over her in some of the tuffest country you could imagine. I made a bad shot the bird flew with his legs dropped so I knew it was hit. The bird flew about 200 yards and went down. Hallie was after him already went to the area where he went down was junping around and stopped I walked up she was pointing the bird. The bird jumped up she got him Hallie was 11 months old.
I would buy again from Carla at High Fly’n Kennels she delivered what I asked for.
I own two Llewellins and our “Ruby” is a Pearl daughter. I can’t say enough good things about Greg and Carla Fryar . They both hunt and are first-class breeders with first-class pups! We are so pleased that we sent our puppy with Greg to North Dakota for her gun/bird introduction last year. She is ultra “birdy” and has been a fabulous family pet in the house.
