Fall, oh wonderful Fall!

It's that time of year again. The air is cool (and as I write this, extremely damp!) and crisp. The leaves are changing to beautiful orange, yellow and reds. And what do we like to do as Brittany enthusiasts? Oh yeah, go bird hunting with our dogs! I have not been out in many years. There are many reasons for this. The last dog I hunted behind was my Sunny, but I lost her tragically four years ago. So I've had a few young dogs, in various states of training the past few years. I broke my back, that held me back for some time (and in truth still does more than I like admitting). Then now for my most recent reason... who am I to hunt with? Being vegetarian, it doesn't make much sense to shoot a dinner I will never eat. I don't even own a gun. But there are plans to go out with a friend and I am looking forward to it immensely!

So what do I do if not hunting? Training of course! Merlin and Tristian are slowly learning the ropes. Merlin is a bit ahead in the class by virtue Tristian kept some friends company for about a month. He has already been handled from horseback, been introduced to wings and live birds. The most important stride is he is learning to move our and work the field/woods in front of him. He may not know exactly why yet, but he is just 5 months old and I'm taking it slow. I am planning on running him in field trials come next spring. Look at him, is he growing up nice?

Oliver is another project this fall. We ran in our first hunt test the other week and it really was my fault more than anything he did not pass. But I plan to remedy that mistake and run him again at the beginning of November. Oliver is my buddy of buddies and I truly enjoy working with him.

Happy hunting everyone!