NOT A FISHING REPORT...

My fall/winter training Duke, my springer spaniel continues. The nice forecast allowed us to head over to Ellensburg to hunt Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at Cooke Canyon hunting club.

My wife JoAnn and our dogs arrived for our 1230 hunt. The weather being so nice JoAnn hung out at the truck with Kenji, our cocker spaniel while Duke and I worked our way up the hillside of area 3. We had 7 hens planted and it short order Duke was sniffing them and I was (mostly) shooting them. We ended up getting 5 of 7, one was missed by me and one not found. Two highlights of the afternoon were Duke making an excellent two hundred plus yard retrieve on a bird I barely hit (I saw a few feathers fly off as she flew away, then drop to earth). No way did I think Duke would find the bird but he did and brought the hen back to me. Then, as I was packing up the gear, JoAnn was walking the hillside and Duke flushed another bird! JoAnn was impressed.

Sunday we hunted area 1 which more closely resembles terrain I've hunted in Montana with my son. Duke was super excited and unfortunately ranged out a bit too far and flushed a couple roosters beyond my range. We ended up 2 for 5. Highlight of the day was Duke flushing a chukar not once, but twice, and me missing the bird both times. No matter, it's all about getting him in front of birds this first year of hunting. We will continue to work on him not ranging quite so far out. He is responsive to my whistle commands for the most part. Got to continue to fine tune him. Cooke Canyon is the perfect place to work on these skills for a young dog and the owners and staff couldn't be nicer! Very lucky to have found this place.

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