Layne’s a bird dog

Didn’t take long for me to realize that Layne was paying a lot more attention to what our hikes were about this summer than I thought. Grady, Layne and I made another trip to the mountains yesterday. It was a cloudy day and we felt maybe a dozen rain drops, but it was very dry. Once again, Layne outdid Grady covering almost 15 miles. She knew what we were out there for. No more chasing tweety birds or pointing meadow larks. She was looking for upland birds.

We had a better day at finding birds, but it still wasn’t what I was hoping for. I think there were more birds out there, but the scenting conditions are terrible. Grady was coming back for water a lot, but Layne didn’t seem to need it that much. I made her drink though. Every time Grady asked for water, I called her in and made her drink also.

Layne covers the country fast and so far doesn’t get much more than 250 yards away. I like that and she always seems to know how to relocate to me or Grady. I’ve been worrying that she’s moving to fast and probably misses much of the scent, but this hunt she took that worry away.

Her first point was over the ridge, 160 yards away. Grady was off in a different direction. I followed my Alpha to where Layne should be. She’s short, and when I was twenty yards away I couldn’t see her. Suddenly about twenty chukars took off screaming. I had a shot but didn’t take it because I was just assuming Layne was on point. 2 seconds later, out of the brush, she jumped and looked at me like “wow, did you see that”? A short little praise and the dogs were off to find more.

A little later, Layne comes running across the hill about 50 yards in front of me and suddenly locks up. It was a very staunch point with a flat back and the nose stretched out to get the scent. I moved in to get a picture and saw Grady behind her honoring. Her staunchness got a little loose as I was taking the picture and she turned her head as if to say, “what are you waiting for”?

Putting the camera away, I walked out in front of her and flushed the birds. Another covey of about twenty birds. I tried to pick out a bird and fired. Through the ashes of my previous dogs I didn’t see it drop. Layne ran in their direction but was soon off to finding more. About two minutes later as I was walking in the direction Layne had headed, Grady walked up to me with a young chukar in his mouth. I knew the bird I shot at didn’t fall, so I assume I hit another bird that flew into the pattern.

Shortly later, Grady went on point. I waited to see if Layne would come and honor him, but after about thirty seconds the small covey of birds flushed. I swung to take a shot, but realized with the darker cloudy day, I couldn’t see them very well and didn’t shoot. I realized what the eye doctor told me last week was true. More on that later.

It wasn’t long after that I saw Layne on the opposite slope moving very slow. I started her way and within seconds could see her freeze on point. As I headed her direction the Alpha told me Grady was on point. I looked hard and could see him about ten yards ahead of Layne. I don’t know if she was pointing the bird scent or if she just was honoring Grady. It didn’t matter. I walked down the draw and back up the other side to where the dogs were about 100 yards away. Once again, as the birds flushed, my eyes couldn’t focus on the birds and I didn’t shoot.

We had a pretty productive morning but I was ready to go home and wait for another day. On the way back to the rig, Grady had one last point. I waited for Layne to get into the action, but the single chukar flew and I once again didn’t get a shot.

I had a very succesful day in knowing that Layne knows what her purpose in life is. She just needs about fifty more trips to the chukar hills and she’ll “be a chukar finding pro.”

Back to the shooting part. I went to the eye doctor for my yearly check up and he told me he was surprised I was still driving. At our meeting a year ago he said I was getting cataracts. They evidently progressed faster than he thought they would. So I’m scheduled to get that fixed. One eye next Wednesday and the other two weeks later. He said I’ll be amazed at how clear everything will look when he’s done. I know two dogs that are excited about that. They are both tired of working so hard to find birds and never getting to put one in their mouth.

So, I don’t know how many times I’ll be getting out the next 4 weeks. Besides the eye thing, I’m having another ablation in my back the 28th of this month. I have no idea of how much time I’ll be recouping, but I promise I’ll be out every chance I get. It’s the shits getting old, but aren’t we lucky to have all the advancements in medicine to help keep doing what we love? I’ll be ready soon after that first frost hits and I may not get too many birds, but between Grady, Layne and I, we will be keeping the chukars and huns hopping.