The new dog (are they still new when you have had 'em six years?) had a great day learning about bird hunting. But what few birds she jumped were apparently wearing flak jackets because my shot had zero effect on them.
Lena began to really figure out the game and actually began to behave "birdy" whenever she picked up scent. At one point she was birdy for a stretch of 75 hards or more and I knew she was dealing with a runner in the weeds. Sure enough, she pushed the bird to the edge of the field and up against a mowed ditch beside a gravel road where the rooster pheasant had to take to the air cackling in frustration. Pheasant season is weeks off, so I didn't test his ability to shed pellets. Lena backed up and worked the habitat repeatedly while I fixed a sammich, ate an apple, drank water, poured her a bowl of water and put out a dish of kibble. She spent a good 20 minutes rehashing that patch of cover, so I began to believe she actually understood what it was I was asking of her.
And that is pretty good considering the DNA test shows she is 1/8 each pit bull, German shepherd, husky, and Australian cattle dog, the remaining 50% is so muddled all they can say is she is likely to be dog on that side of the family. Not even sufficient clarity to say if that half has working breeds, toy breeds, sight hound, or whatever....just that it ain't likely to be coyote or wolf, just d.o.g. Ain't much in there to tell me she has what it takes to be an upland field dog. But there you have it, she likes flushing birds.
While she was pounding the weeds flat where she flushed the pheasant, I took the time to pull out the GPS I was carrying to help me keep track of public/private land boundaries, keeping me out of trouble. It was logging my walking routes. I diddled around with the settings and figured out how many miles I had walked so far that day. 5.4 miles. Suddenly I was tired of walking and thought fishing sounded better. Lena finally came back to the jeep, assured that there were no more pheasant spies hidden in the weeds. She piled in the passenger seat and we were off to Lake Waggoner. And that is where my 2 pc ultralight slew those two great water dragons in the a above photo.
Rest assured, I used steel shot because bass are waterfowl.
