Mark Your Time in Seasons - Football and Hunting, That Is!

Jet and Trap, heading out to their trialing field.

Trap the German Shorthair starting out his hunting. Hunt 'em up, boy! Doesn't he look happy?!

Trap, retrieving his first bird of the trial. He knows what he's doing, and he loves it!

This is Jet and Trap, immediately after their first run. I don't know who's more excited!

This past weekend at the field trial, I met a young couple named Jet and Stephanie. Actually, I met Jet a couple of months ago, at Pet Smart. Zanna the WonderPup and I were at Zanna’s puppy training, and this young man comes up to the window to introduce himself to me. Seems he has a young shorthair named Trap, and he and his wife seemed pretty new to this area. I told him about the field trials, and the Llano Estacado Bird Hunting Association, and he told me he was interested in getting involved and meeting other hunters. Jet is a football coach, so he told me his time would be limited until after football season was over.

This weekend was Jet’s first field trial with Trap. Though I attended, I didn’t hunt - just trying to get 100% well after my bout with the respiratory junk. Another young man ran Zack for me.

Jet comes up to greet me, and I went over to meet his wife, Stephanie. She’s a sweetheart, and is a teacher in our local school system. We visited for a while, and while talking, I asked her how long they had been in town. Her response?

“Two football seasons.”

I cracked up, thinking “Uh-oh. I’ve got to introduce her to shooting. Once Jet gets addicted to hunting/field trials, Stephanie will have two seasons by which to mark her time. she might as well be involved in one of them.” She laughed, as well.

We visited for a while, then I went on to take care of some business. It was almost time for Trap’s run, and Jet comes up to me again. He asks me to take pictures during his run.

I just could not turn him down. How many people get to document their first run?

Jet and Trap did well, and as I predicted, Jet got adrenalined up - he now loves field trialing. And so does Trap the German Shorthair! Here are some of the shots, for your enjoyment. I know you love good hunting pictures. (I’ll convert all of you yet!) Oh, yeah - and now, Stephanie’s ready to start shooting!

Hunting Field Trial and More Hunting Dog Pictures

Okay, I have to show off pictures of Zack the Wonder Dog and Zanna the Wonder Pup from this weekend. They are so awesome. The dogs, I mean. The pictures? Yeaaaaaah, they're okay, too.
My friend Steve put out a live quail for Zanna to chase, and chase, she did! She caught it, and is bringing it back to me. With zero training. She is so funny!
And here are a couple of Zack the Wonder Dog on point. I never get to take these pictures, but this time, Kellygirl was with me, so she held my gun while I took pictures. And then, yes, I shot my quail. But that's another story unto itself, right, Kelly?
This is Steve's dog, Abby the English Pointer, on point. She's a beautiful gal.And this is Steve, walking up to flush the bird. Notice Abby never breaks her point? She's stout, stout, stout. I think she's beautiful.
And of course, LB1, who spent the weekend with me. The little guy woke himself up at 4 a.m. and stayed awake so I wouldn’t be late for the field trial. At 5:30 a.m., he knocked on my door.

LB1: Miss Janie?

Janie: Hey, little dude.

LB1: Time to get up! We don’t want to be late. Can we go get a burrito on the way out?

The kid is a bottomless pit, I swear. I can’t keep him filled up. God bless his Mom. I don’t know how she does it! We ordered a large pizza for supper, and he ate everything but the two pieces I had. He does love him some pizza! (Notice, Kellygirl, he has on your snake gaters!)
LB1 was so great at the field trials. He loved driving the golf cart, and timing the events. I think his second best thing to do was to blow the horn at the end of the timed sessions. He is such a funny, bright young man. I love hanging around him!

Here are Zack and Zanna, tied to the tail end of my new ride while awaiting their turn. Well, Zack's turn, really, since Zanna's too young to "hunt" yet.

Zanna asked to be put in her crate after Zack kept running over her while tied out. He just will not settle while hunting's going on. He thinks he has to be in on every run.

I’ve had a rough weekend, missing That Man I Love. It's been six weeks today since he's been home, and I’m more than ready for him to come back to Texas. Zanna has already doubled in size, and you just wait until Zack sees MLH. He will flat go crazy. He loves that man so much!

Janie: Hey. Can you hear Zanna snoring on the bed, through the cellphone? She is flat rocking out some ZZZZZ's!

MLH: No, I can’t hear her. Is she as big as Zack yet?

Janie: She’s about half his size. She’s grown so much. You know those moms that start talking baby talk when they’ve been around their munchkins nonstop24/7?

MLH: Yes?

Janie: Well, I feel like I’m talking to Zack and Zanna every minute of every day and night allthetimenonstopdoyouknowwhatImean? I’m probably going to start incorporating my doggyspeak into my normal workday. You know, "Down, boy! " " Heel." "Hunt 'em up!" "Come arouuuuund!" "Fetch dead!" Oh, that won’t work at all. (MLH is laughing.) Oh, hang on, Zack has to go outside.

MLH: He’s probably just trying to fake it so he can grab Zanna’s rawhide.

At this point, Zanna wakes up, and runs to the door to be the first outside. She may be small, but she’s totally dominating Zack. And Zack? Doubles back, hops on the bed, lays down…and grabs Zanna’s rawhide. I am not even kidding you.

MLH is just heehawing on the cellphone – I guess I’ve given a narrative while I laid down the phone, or he figured it out by what I said to Zack. Which I’m not even going to repeat, so don’t go there.

Okay, enough whining already. Have a great week!!

Janie's Version of Field Trialing

I thought I would take the time to explain a field trial to you.

Preparation: (this week, without MLH).
1) Load collapsible cage into Yukon.
2) Load guns, shooting bag, vest, collars, leashes, dog bowls, water, shells into Yukon.
3) Corral dogs, who by now are visiting every house in the neighborhood.
4) Load them into said cage. Zack self loads. Zoie acts like a girl and needs a little help...she is almost as big as Zack. (She's plenty able to self load.)

Then, I drive to the field trial site, which is about 30 miles away, in the country. Way in the country. And. It. Is. Still. Very. Cold. The wind is blowing about 30 mph. Gonna be fun.

I get lost. Have to call my partner. Then I get lost, again. Have to call back one more time for clarification. Ten minutes later, I find the field. I get there, and find the field is filled with stickers. I have no dog boots. So, I have to borrow duct tape, and make boots for Zack. Zack is so excited, I have to get help to control him while I put the boots on. (Zoie is howling loudly, “Please, let me out of this cage. I can too hunt! I’m big enough now!”)

It’s time to go. We have to get into the “blind” so we can’t see where the birds are being planted. Birds are ready, they release us. I have to loop the leash around Zack’s belly to control him, he is so excited and ready to go. We go to the edge of the field, and I take Zack’s leash off. I load my gun, and signal my partner. We’re running doubles, double dogs, and both shooting. And, we’re off.

Zack and I go left, my partner and his dog, Ram, who happens to be Zack’s litter mate, go right. The hunt is on. It's a timed, judges walking with you observing your every move, twenty-five minutes of hard hunting in major tough terrain, complete with mega-stickers, making sure your dog doesn’t get overheated, trying to find 6 birds, shoot them, and bag them, and go again. In huge wind, and very dry conditions. It was a hard day. The terrain was very rough, very sandy, and hard to traverse, especially in a fast walk. I was exhausted, and Zack was, as well.

Zack worked like a dream…he is such an amazing dog. We didn’t place, but Zack and I both got a good workout and he is a happy, tired dog. It was fun hunting with Zack and Ram. And we’ll get better at this. I’m improving at simultaneously handling my gun, my dog, my whistle, and my commands, all the while staying within the field boundaries. If I did it every day, I’d be a skinny minnie! It’s hard, hard work.

And now, you know a little more about field trials! I’m heading over to the Ugly Dog Hunting website and order the ZZ crew some boots. We’ll be better tricked out for the next round!

Field Trials with Zack and Zoie

I’m leaving to go to a field trial with the ZZ clan. For those of you that are having Zack and Zoie withdrawals, I’ll try to post some new pix later this weekend. Wish us luck!!