Jett needed a day of training without his sisters. Being so much more experienced, they always find the birds first and generally speaking, Jett tags along after them. He needed a day without them to follow in order to further build his confidence. It was 92º on this NAVHDA Training Day. I brought 4 pheasants for Jett to hunt up, after determining a couple of days earlier that he "likes" pheasants. Thus far, the only birds Jett has showed any interest in is pheasants. Before doing any field work, I took Jett to a nearby pond for some bumper fetching, so he would be cool and wet before we got started. A friend helped me plant the birds and Jett and I headed into a small alfalfa field to see if he could, or would, find them. It was a total success! Jett did better than I had even hoped he would do! He found the birds, pointed them, held to the flush, then chased them down for me to pick up. One of the 4 birds was able to fly, so it took off over the fence, but Jett pursued it as far as he could. When all 4 pheasants were found, I even had trouble getting Jett to leave the field. He wanted to continue hunting and wouldn't come when called. Now that was a big first! I probably shouldn't have put the last bird, #5, out for Jett, as it was ridiculously hot and he was starting to fade. But he found it, held point for a long time (while I changed batteries in the camera), and chased it down for me after the flush. |