Looking ahead...

[Rick]

Launching long marks into crawfish water remains hazardous, as we're not very far along with his casting conditioning and keeping casts short. Couple mornings ago I launched a long one (using a bumper good for about 110yds barring strong head or tail winds) and found when i turned to release him (after marking the fall, myself) that our hero was watching blackbirds in the new rice behind us. Not wanting to lose a $20 bumper or go get it myself, we tried running it as a blind that he broke down and started hunting well short on, and I ended up having to wade out, cut the distance to the bumper to that which he'd gone straight and send him again - successfully that time.

Sloshed the next couple miles in shrimp boots that kept needing drained of my soaked-to-the-pockets jeans' runoff before trying to prove I'd learned nothing that morning. That time Call watched the launch and had a mark but got steered off course to it by a pair of low passing white bec croix/ibis. Wanted to kick myself with a still wet foot, but got lucky and a left cast got him from where his diverted line broke down to where he could scent and retrieve the bumper.

Better believe I looked both ways for birds before this morning's launch. Pretty sure, though that I've already posted where we ought to be with marks in the face of avian diversions before next season, but here's a clip of his predecessor, Marsh, maintaining focus on his mark amidst a swarm of birds, somewhat like marking what falls from a flight of ducks:


Have gotten away with something similar using short launches beginning with 50yd? fat canvas bumper only partly seated on the launcher, but the first time I launched a real flyer into a mess of bec croix was the first time I took a cold water soaking with Call. Won't try it again until his handling is much farther along.

[DComeaux]

I'll probably get a launcher in the near future. Rimi has calmed just a tiny bit and the need to cut my hands open has eased up. I actually started wearing gloves when handling her to help lessen the number of incisions on my hands. It's painfully slow going right now but I noticed a change this afternoon that seems she may be leaving her wild puppy stage.

[Rick]

I'll probably get a launcher in the near future. Rimi has calmed just a tiny bit and the need to cut my hands open has eased up. I actually started wearing gloves when handling her to help lessen the number of incisions on my hands. It's painfully slow going right now but I noticed a change this afternoon that seems she may be leaving her wild puppy stage.

Was a day of celebration when Call lost his last puppy canine right at 5 months. Still manic at times, but far less often. Don't know if it's his maturing, my sometimes literal steady bind on it or, likely, both. But there's hope!

[Deltaman]

Great video Rick! I still think of Marsh as a puppy, and look forward to watching Call progress as he matures.

Dave, totally understand the use of gloves At our age (you too Rick ), damn crepe paper skin sucks, and I sure wish we healed like we were 16 years old again.

[DComeaux]

damn crepe paper skin sucks, and I sure wish we healed like we were 16 years old again.

Nothing but the truth.

[Rick]

Hate it for you old folks.

[Deltaman]

Yeh, Yeh, Yeh............

[Rick]

Call hit another month mark today, his seventh, but I'm at a loss to report much tangible progress since the last such milestone. Can now fire a bumper into a wad of crawfish thieving cormorants without fear of them leading him astray and my having to wade, but that's about it.

Where two of his predecessors, Blue and Peake, were passing HRC Seasoned tests and working commercially in their seventh months, Call is still untrustworthy on even simple doubles, let alone triples or more in serious cover, and only sometimes taking handling casts correctly, much less consistently and as far as may need be. That, and he's still prone to periodic manic wilding sprees that my efforts and/or his maturing have only decreased in frequency and duration. Gator safe OB? Only sometimes - which ain't gator safe.

So Call remains, as his breeder put it, "a handful," but much of where he's falling short is on me. Need to get over the mindset that we've still six months to right our ship. Need to better organize our time and get after it.

[DComeaux]

I've given up on having Remi ready for this season, and I'm going to only focus on getting each command learned and polished. We'll get there in time. She just began her 5th month of life and is still very much in the puppy wild child stage, although it's dampening some.

[Rick]

Call flushed a pair of blue-wings from the same spot on a farm road levee the past two mornings, so I'd guess they were considering it for a homestead - a bad idea give how much coyote scat can be found along that road. Yesterday they flew off, but only went 40 or so yards before landing this morning, so Call took it upon himself to move them along to hopefully safer ground. Have had to run a few pairs out of similar trouble spots several times before they got the message in springs past.

[Rick]

teal pair was in their spot along a coyote-traveled farm road again yesterday but not this morning, so we, or the migration urge, may have moved them on to a hopefully safer homestead.

And Call was doing short doubles in hinky enough places to display the real, honest to gosh focus and memory that his previous lack of had been worrying pee out of me. Also nailed a long launch into patchy duck potato for good measure. So things are continuing to look up on that important front. Still well behind his predecessors at his age, but his future is looking bright.

[DComeaux]

Glad it's starting to come together.

[Darren]

Shallow ponds on Grand Isle were full of blue wings over the weekend.

[Rick]

Our blue-wing pair, or another with the exact same taste in real estate was back in their spot yesterday, and flew just far enough that Call didn't follow-up before landing - to await our passage? The few others we're still seeing appear to have safer preferences, but it's still much too soon to say if any with summer over.

[Rick]

Turns out our rotten old front oak is good for something besides busting holes in the roof:

002a.jpg

And one of them pulled a new to me trick today:

020a.jpg

Was enough of a feat just to find a trace of color in its silhouette against a nearly white sky, but I'd have loved to gotten Call staring up at it in the frame before its mate drew him under the oak and beyond that possibility.

Thinking now of Call, he made it to eight months yesterday without one or both of us taking his life. We both continue to get better about managing his manic spells. For instance, being called an asshole sends him flying in circles that cut ruts around me, so I now stick with "bunghole" which only evokes a "grinning" fit.

Really is usually a fine little (now 54lb) pup whose shortcomings are mainly those of a trainer who'd rather hike farms and watch marks than do repetitive handling drills in a boring location.

[DComeaux]

Turns out our rotten old front oak is good for something besides busting holes in the roof:

002a.jpg

And one of them pulled a new to me trick today:

020a.jpg

Was enough of a feat just to find a trace of color in its silhouette against a nearly white sky, but I'd have loved to gotten Call staring up at it in the frame before its mate drew him under the oak and beyond that possibility.

Never saw that before.

Thinking now of Call, he made it to eight months yesterday without one or both of us taking his life. We both continue to get better about managing his manic spells. For instance, being called an asshole sends him flying in circles that cut ruts around me, so I now stick with "bunghole" which only evokes a "grinning" fit.

Really is usually a fine little (now 54lb) pup whose shortcomings are mainly those of a trainer who'd rather hike farms and watch marks than do repetitive handling drills in a boring location.

I laughed. My trigger word is good. It causes her to hop on her hind legs and go nuts. Any praise is a reason for her to over celebrate. I'm waiting for her to mature a whole lot more before I start on anything else other than basic obedience, and this is only on check cord or leash.

[Deltaman]

WOW, the BB on a wire has got to be one of the rarest duck photos I've ever seen for sure!
Glad to hear the updates on your young hounds

[Rick]

Been getting bolder about betting $20 launcher bumpers and/or recovery soakings on Call's marking and, if need be, handling, and popped one into a flooded cut of fairly thick bull tongue a crawfish boat was working this morning. Thought the boat might prove enough distraction that Call would miss the mark, and I might well have to handle the pup. But it was me who got distracted and missed the mark's landing place when the launcher's recoil jarred the phone/camera from my hand.

Luckily Call held up his end better than I mine, as he was soon swallowed from sight and possible handling by the tall emergents, anyway:


Sucks that I no longer have access to gator safe flotant to acclimate him to.

[DComeaux]

Nice work. I seem to be far, far from what I just watched.

[Rick]

I seem to be far, far from what I just watched.

Trust you'll note he's quite a bit larger than she. And I'd still not have bet anything I really cared about that he wasn't going to go meet the boat. Baby steps...

[Darren]

What a great spot to work a dog, complete with distractions. Looks like it went just fine other than the camera mishap!

Harry's gone with my wife and son and played around in the drained portions of the LSU lakes recently.

[Rick]

What a great spot to work a dog, complete with distractions. Looks like it went just fine other than the camera mishap!

Harry's gone with my wife and son and played around in the drained portions of the LSU lakes recently.

Tough to give Call remotely the same exposure to real world working conditions as those before him had the benefit of without the camp leases we once enjoyed the run of. But our needs will be much less varied or, generally, demanding as those we had then if we stick with Cherry Ridge.

[Rick]

Had us a moment this morning when Call and this just-big-enough-to-do-real-damage character blew up the nub end of a small flood canal we pass along most mornings:

Call's Gator.jpg

Not sure which did what, just saw a knot of dog and gator making water fly. But Call was out and by my side, and no worse for the scare, it turned out, before my "NO!" cleared the air. Thinking the maybe 6' a gal looking to nest and just being territorial about the spot, as she didn't mind sticking around for her close-up. And hoping the pup learned a cheap lesson, as he was about as sober as I've seen him after.

[Duck Engr]

Experience will provide one hell of an education. Glad Call came out no worse for the wear!

[DComeaux]

Stuff of nightmares for me.

[5 stand]

Sure seems spooky to me, but we Dodge a lot of bullets around here, glad y'all do also...

[Rick]

Stuff of nightmares for me.

Me, too, brother Dave, me too. But it's either deal with them best you can or stay on the couch these days. Precious little truly safe water left.

[Deltaman]

Holy Cow Rick, that's heart attack stuff right there, and glad the result wasn't worse

[don novicki]

Late to the party but he's a fine looking specimen. Holy snort, glad I don't have to deal with anything like that dinosaur. Jeez.....

[Rick]

...Thinking the maybe 6' a gal looking to nest and just being territorial about the spot, as she didn't mind sticking around for her close-up...

Had only seen Call's gator once more since their rumble - until this morning when I spied her perhaps 100yds down canal from that spot, where she confirmed the above suspicion with the start of a nest:

Call's gator's nest.jpg

She's "just one more damn thing".

Otherwise, the pup's life's been good, and he's the makings of fine one if we ever get past the ADHD. Hit his nine month mark last weekend and still a shade under 56 pounds, which seems on track for the low 60s, his four month weight predicted. Athletic as all get out, tons of hunt and watery, for lack of a better word, enough to push through as much as a mile (according to Google Earth) of crawfish pond on our morning rounds, rather than stick to the land with me:

PXL_20240608_123723246.jpg

'Least I get too prideful of him, I'll note that I finally got around to introducing him to triples this morning, and he had to run the final leg of the first two as blinds. But we're getting there - I think...