Field Day

Tess got her first day of pheasant hunting the day before Thanksgiving. And then we went the day after Thanksgiving. Indiana has put-and-take hunts where you pay to hunt on state land, and they release two birds per hunter.

Tess didn't do too bad for her first hunt. She did well with the other dogs in our party, an 11-month old GSP(Cassie) and Hook, a 6 year old GSP. But being only 13 months old herself, she did well. I was afraid she might get scared of the gunshots, but it was the opposite: she got really excited and looked to the sky every time she heard a shot. Thanks to Hook, everybody in the hunting party got their limit of birds.

On Friday, she did a little better. At one point we were going through a wooded patch and she went on point. There was a hen in the leaves and it blended in so well I didn't see it at first. That was my second bird for the day. The first came when my brother's dog Chip, an english setter, and Tess double teamed a rooster. After the bird went down, Chip was all over it on the retrieve....however Tess was right there and Chip got mad and didn't want to give me the bird.

Jenni was along on Friday and was taking pictures. Here's a pic of Hook's dad getting ready to put my first bird in my game pouch(I'm on the right), with Tess looking on.

And here's a pic after the hunt of me and Tess:

We will be going out tomorrow to do what's called clean-up, looking for released birds that are still out there. My brother and Chip will be going also, hope the weather cooperates.

Miss FancyPants

Look at them fancy pants!

Tess turned One year old on October 30. She also started her first heat cycle, thus the fancy pants. I was starting to wonder when she would go in cycle, and figured with my luck it would be the week before Indiana's put-n-take pheasant season. Looks like I was wrong. And thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, Tess has some new fancypants(sorry, I just like saying fancypants). She did the sewing and figuring out where the velcro should go and all that good stuff. Here's another pic, which makes it look like Tess isn't too impressed with her fancypants:

I must appologize for not keeping updated, no excuses...I've just been a little slacking.

I've been trying to get Tess ready for pheasants. My wonderful girlfriend got me the Perfect Start dvd for my birthday in June, Thanks Jenni! I was also able to catch a couple pigeons, but had to buy a bunch more. In the yard, Tess likes to run around the pigeon like it's a game(not good). But in the field, she shows a genuine interest in finding the bird and pointing. So to help her along I bought a few DT bird launchers. I got the manual launchers and am making my own receivers as shown on gundogforum.com . I'm just waiting for the final parts to get in and I can finish the assembly and put them to use. The one thing I'm confident about is Tess' ability to retrieve. She loves retrieving her bumper, and when I introduced her to a pigeon, she retrieved that pretty well. Another goodie Tess got was a training collar(maybe that was a goodie for me.LOL), and she has taken to it very well.

I am looking forward to December because Tess and I will be going to South Dakota. In August I took my annual trip to the Black Hills. On the way out, I stopped a couple days and helped a farmer in the middle of the state in exchange for hunting pheasants on his land. I am sooooo loking forward to hunting some wild pheasants. Ya see, in Indiana I only go to the put-n-take hunts where they release pen-raised birds. It's good hunting, but probably nothing like wild birds.

Heres a couple more shots I took last week when we had a cold snap. I hadn't gotten my new woodstove installed yet, so Tess made use of the blankie on the couch.

Amazingly, she would actually stay on the couch when I got up to take the pics. Any other time, the minute I move to get up, she is off the couch and right beside me.

Ouchie

Life with Tess is one thing after another...not complaining. Since I like to ride my bike, I thought I would introduce Tess to a new type of exercise. I took her out last week(we had a heat wave) and she did really well on Tuesday. So I decide to take her the next day. I don't ride fast, sometimes she will get up to a lope, but I don't overdo it for her.

Well on Wednesday we went out again...down the road, over a bridge, turn around, over the bridge, STOP! Yup, she decided to stop right in the middle of the bridge. And being how I still had her leash in my hand, I dang near fell over. Don't know what made her do that, but we continued on. Then she stopped again half-way home.

When we got home, I got off the bike and was going to take her inside when I notice blood on the ground. Wasn't mine. Tess had skinned one of her front pads. Funny thing was, she wasn't limping around as she trailed blood all through the house(luckily I have wood and vinyl floors, easy cleanup). So I bandaged her foot up to stop the bleeding. She didn't mind it, but she decided to walk funny once the bandage was on. I used some neosporin plus to help it along, and so it wouldn't hurt. She's all better now. Actually within a couple days she was bouncing around like a normal Vizsla. And last night she got a case of the zoomies(one of these days she's gonna break something).

Here's a pic of her worn out with a bandaged paw:

The Aftermath....

...Total Destruction.

I got this rope toy for tess when I went and picked her up. It was a circle, about 4" in diameter with frayed ends. She grabbed one of my hats today and wanted to play with it, so I decided to give her a new toy. Her usual chewies are "crunchy bones", which she loves. Well I found out she loves rope toys also....loves to destroy them. This one lasted about 30 minutes.

Snowy Play

I got some pictures of Tess while we were playing last week. She does well with retrieving a bumper. Treats help. I still keep her on a check-cord, so she won't run to play with Pike. After a bit of this, I let pike run around and play. But mostly Tess jumps all over Pike.

What? You want me to bring it all the way to you?

Hey, is that a bird over there?

Oh, we're supposed to be posing. Sorry Dad.

A Blog For Tess

I started this blog for my little girl Tess, a beautiful intelligent Vizsla. Look forward to pictures and little stories of all the funny, crazy things Tess does.