Tucker is figuring out the hunt-
Out on the Idaho/Oregon border along the snake
Eb and Tucker and the retrieved ducks and Pheasants
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tucker's Harvest-a-plenty
Tucker is figuring out the hunt-
Out on the Idaho/Oregon border along the snake
Eb and Tucker and the retrieved ducks and Pheasants
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Benton's 1st Halloween in Dubai
Friday, October 31, 2008
Resurrection of Laz
Katie asked me to tell her the story about Laz. I don’t know what the moral of this story is… but it is a good moral: “stick with it”, “never give up”, “courage” or maybe just being tough and never giving up.
Most of you know Brooke bought me a new Draathar pup last Christmas and I have been diligently involved in his training since early this spring. As part of the training of a pointer, pigeons are often used to help the dog develop the pointing and retrieving instinct. I picked up 3 pigeons from a dog breeder in early march. Since that time, the birds have been used weekly. I hide them in the bushes or put them in a machine that launches them like a pheasant would flush. I clip their wings so they cannot fly away and this gives the dog a chance to watch the bird flush and then find and retrieve it. Each of these pigeons was retrieved hundreds of times by the dog. Not a lot of fun and maybe regrettably a little cruel for the pigeon since he gets chewed on a little bit every time he is retrieved. Anyway, after a couple months, I let the other two pigeons go because they were pretty beat up… But Laz just hung in there. He remained the “retrieving dummy” clear through July of this year. I finally felt so bad that one day after a training session about 1 mile from our house, I put him in a bush and wished him well fully expecting him to end up predator food (pretty cruel huh). That was the last time I expected to see Laz. Two weeks later I was out in the driveway and I noticed a little black animal hobbling up the driveway. As I inspected more closely, I saw it was Laz and that he was limping on 1 leg. He had literally hobbled over 1 mile on one leg for a couple weeks and was now headed up our driveway. He hobbled to the kennel and crawled into the box where I kept him and his pals during the earlier 6 months of training. Needless to say, I was very impressed and I admired his toughness. I took him out of the box and noted he was pretty torn up, missing feathers and I thought his leg might be broken. I decided to put him in the garden where there was lots of shade, food, and water. Once again, I did not see him for nearly 2 weeks.
I thought a fox or cat had finally caught up with Laz. Then, one day about 3 weeks ago I saw a large bird flying around the house. He landed on the back patio and was perched on Molly’s cage. To make a long story short, Laz was back in grand fashion. He had all his feathers back and looked very strong. I don’t know what a “perfect” pigeon looks like but he has to be close. He now sleeps with the other birds at night. He flies freely during the day and returns at night to sleep on the cage with the other birds. He is not afraid of me and usually follows me around on the back patio hoping I will put some seed on the ground for him to eat. When the dogs come to the back yard, he almost enjoys letting them catch his scent and then barely staying out of their grasp as they exhaust themselves trying to catch him. Sweet revenge.
Pretty impressive huh. Isn’t it great when life and nature provide pure examples of courage and toughness.
Here is a picture of Laz. When I gave Katie a brief overview of his story, she said we should call him Laz which is short for Lazarus.
Most of you know Brooke bought me a new Draathar pup last Christmas and I have been diligently involved in his training since early this spring. As part of the training of a pointer, pigeons are often used to help the dog develop the pointing and retrieving instinct. I picked up 3 pigeons from a dog breeder in early march. Since that time, the birds have been used weekly. I hide them in the bushes or put them in a machine that launches them like a pheasant would flush. I clip their wings so they cannot fly away and this gives the dog a chance to watch the bird flush and then find and retrieve it. Each of these pigeons was retrieved hundreds of times by the dog. Not a lot of fun and maybe regrettably a little cruel for the pigeon since he gets chewed on a little bit every time he is retrieved. Anyway, after a couple months, I let the other two pigeons go because they were pretty beat up… But Laz just hung in there. He remained the “retrieving dummy” clear through July of this year. I finally felt so bad that one day after a training session about 1 mile from our house, I put him in a bush and wished him well fully expecting him to end up predator food (pretty cruel huh). That was the last time I expected to see Laz. Two weeks later I was out in the driveway and I noticed a little black animal hobbling up the driveway. As I inspected more closely, I saw it was Laz and that he was limping on 1 leg. He had literally hobbled over 1 mile on one leg for a couple weeks and was now headed up our driveway. He hobbled to the kennel and crawled into the box where I kept him and his pals during the earlier 6 months of training. Needless to say, I was very impressed and I admired his toughness. I took him out of the box and noted he was pretty torn up, missing feathers and I thought his leg might be broken. I decided to put him in the garden where there was lots of shade, food, and water. Once again, I did not see him for nearly 2 weeks.
I thought a fox or cat had finally caught up with Laz. Then, one day about 3 weeks ago I saw a large bird flying around the house. He landed on the back patio and was perched on Molly’s cage. To make a long story short, Laz was back in grand fashion. He had all his feathers back and looked very strong. I don’t know what a “perfect” pigeon looks like but he has to be close. He now sleeps with the other birds at night. He flies freely during the day and returns at night to sleep on the cage with the other birds. He is not afraid of me and usually follows me around on the back patio hoping I will put some seed on the ground for him to eat. When the dogs come to the back yard, he almost enjoys letting them catch his scent and then barely staying out of their grasp as they exhaust themselves trying to catch him. Sweet revenge.
Pretty impressive huh. Isn’t it great when life and nature provide pure examples of courage and toughness.
Here is a picture of Laz. When I gave Katie a brief overview of his story, she said we should call him Laz which is short for Lazarus.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tucker's 1st Hunt
Tucker Then
Tucker NOW
Tuckers 1st pheasant hunt. His eyes are all puffy
and bloody from smashing through the corn fields
for 3-4 hours. He has not quite learned how to
"go around" the corn stocks yet... he smashes
straight through them. After the hunt, he looked
like he just finished a 12 round prize fight. The guy
with the pheasants is a client in from Chicago.
We shot 10 roosters.
Monday, October 27, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!!!
Brynne's surprise package
Another P-day at the zoo
Pumpkin carving fun on P-day
Pday pumpkin carving
Stanley family was baptized a few months ago!
Katie and companions
Katie with her companion and Elders on P-day
Katie loves the stray cats that seem
to be attracted to the sister's apartment
Do you think it could be because they
feed and pet them???
Fun in Utah
Brynne and Me taking our self portrait at Mom's (Grandma Joan's)
Brynne's a patient sweetheart. She spent a lot of
time this weekend helping me set up this blog.
I'm trying to figure out all this great technology.
It's pretty amazing what can be done. I have so000
much to learn. I sure have great teachers, Brynne,
Katie, Tiffani, Daniel and even Jared showed me how
to do a smiley face:) Pretty cool!!!
My new hair cut
My awesome Mother!! I love MOM she is the
BEST MOM EVER!!!!!
Brynne and Grandma Joan Benton
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