Henry P. Davis wrote that the best way to train your bird dog was to keep running them into coveys, until they learned that they could not catch the birds, and then they would be broke. He added a little, and the book was later revised to say something like, "Oh, by the way some people are now using pen raised birds." I didn't give ET the revised copy, for selfish reasons. I liked that part about wild coveys. Of coarse you have to know where they are for a 4 month old pup. We set out this weekend with a total of 7 dogs, and 2 UTVs to find some practice coveys for Yeats. We found 18 coveys, mostly all pointed. Here are a few of many pictures;

OOPS!!! How did this picture get in here. This was not one of the coveys. I'm not making this up. This was Cornel on a snipe, with Clifford backing.




This was the first of 3 coveys that Sandy nailed in around 15 minutes. A noticer would notice that ET has Yeats in his arms. That's a horse farm across the road.



Yeats is starting to back a little. ET thought he was smelling Sandy's butt.



Someone asked why use a Garmin. The Garmin told us that there was a bird dog pointing in here somewhere.




Duke and Cracker! Duke actually had the covey on this one;



Last covey of the day for Saturday. You should know these dogs by now.



No running in the field Payson;



Let's put a shorthair in here somewhere. This was Chuck Duran's Anne, on a covey this morning.



This picture should have been deleted, but I put it in here just for Blanked. He asked, "Why a UTV?" We could not flush this covey on foot. I had to drive into the rose hedge with my Gator.




Hold the press. Let's make that 19 coveys. We were hunting this morning just a few miles from ET's historic, restored farm house near Eagle Lake. He took Yeats and Zorro back out to a road which we skipped this morning, and Yeats found himself his own covey.

I no longer count the birds in the bag, but I cleaned the birds to get out of washing the dishes. ET ended up with 25 quail in his freezer.

Nice pics Bill and some good dog work there. Man I could only wish for a day like this.

Another thing for Blanked!! Cracker's DC 40 was only on her during the hunt, and relocations. (ET hosted a great lunch Saturday and we turned it off during the trip to his house for lunch.) The Garmin showed 49 miles, and 8.2 miles per hour. Try that on foot.

Nice pics and commentary.
I love seeing dogs in the field.

Thanks a bunch Kindall. I like pictures better than commentary, but let me explain the country, since I've had several PMs asking.

This is rice country. It's goose country. We saw a field full of lesser Canadians yesterday. There's not much pasture in that area, but there are quail even on the fencerows of the rice. I mentioned it on another thread, but you can hear quail calling all around rice fields while laying in a goose spread. We stopped this morning and talked with a goose guide. He backed me up. You can still hear quail calling while laying in a goose spread.

I'll go out on a limb, and predict that Yeats will point 30 coveys next year. He's already seen that many this year, but the light has not yet turned all the way on. ET is dedicated.

Nice work and it sounds not to far from where you live. Beats driving to S Texas for fewer coveys!

Here are some pictures from ET, which he posted on The Snipe Hunters Forum. I included a little loop on Friday afternoon to get to my 18 count. ET did not. You might have to go full screen for the Snipe Hunters thread. They do not restrict their picture size.

http://thesnipehuntersforum.yuku.com/topic/4041/Pointers-Setters-Retrievers-and-Geezers-and-Quail

Just to echo what Bill has already stated - We had a great time with a great host. Eliot is going to have one excellent bird dog in Yeats when he is finished. Yeats showed a lot of poise and intense prey drive when locating coveys and hunting dead birds.

I cannot say enough to Eliot, Payson, and Bill for allolwing me to tag along on these perfect days.

Thanks again to all.

Chris

well i will have to say that UTV does it all. flushes birds,
covers more ground and runs off the snakes. do you have a video camera mounted to it to follow the dogs.


does ET hunt snipe with pointing dogs?

Here you go Blanked. You questioned Yeats not yet pointing on another thread. He nailed this covey yesterday. Nine to 10 birds flew out of this bush;