Our Little Bird Dog

This weekend we headed down to the Shillapoo Wildlife Area and Vancouver Lake for Loki's first round of junior hunter hunts. Since he hasn't been out in the field for any real hunting exercises outside of training and the field trial he was in which there are no birds planted in the open puppy division, Saturday was his real opportunity to show his hunting abilities. This was my first attempt at running in a hunt test and handling him in a field without the help of Ben or Chris so we were not surprise that we didn’t get a pass since neither of us really knew what we were doing and the judges didn’t see his one and only point. Also since Loki’s brace mate was also a puppy and had caught a bird at the end of the test they both decided to play chase which didn’t help either.

Sunday we headed back out for another try at earning our first junior hunter leg. With some solid advice and guidance on how much to talk to Loki during test versus letting him run and work on his own we were off for our 15 minute run. During the test he came upon 2 different birds and was able to hold very nice points which allowed me time to call point, get an acknowledgement from the judge, get to him and flush the bird. Not to shabby for a young dog who isn’t broke yet. When the time expired and all was done we were pretty pleased with the run and headed in to see our scores.

To get a pass you have to have a minimum score of 7 on the 4 different areas that they are grading. Loki received scores of 9’s and 8’s across the board which means he earned his first hunt test ribbon and more importantly his first junior hunter leg. One down, three more to go till he has his JH title. Look’s like he’s turning out to be a good little bird dog after all!

Ben's Latest Project

One thing Ben wanted when we got our second Brittany, Loki was to have enough property that he could have a pigeon loft and do training with birds at home rather than having to always go to our trainer who is in Eagle Creek, Oregon- a 4 hour drive, each way. While we really like our trainer and what he has done for Odin and Loki there was something about having his own birds that appealed to Ben. So after doing some research and then some more, talking with Chris about his bird lofts, pricing out materials, some more research (if you know Ben this is how he does things- lots of research before starting any project small or big) construction finally began.

The final result after the last two weeks of hard work is an 8' x 12' foot loft that any pigeon would be happy to call home. Now I guess it is time to get the birds and bird supplies.

Happy 1st Bithday Loki!

Today our little monster, Loki turned 1. This past year with him has been wonderful and challenging since he joined our family while we were selling out house. He is becoming Odin's best friend and quite the show and hunting dog as well. He also brings life to our house and joy to our lives.

Kudos for Loki

This weekend Loki competed in his very first field event- the Oregon Brittany Club's walking field trial in Madras, Oregon with our trainer Chris Tewes. He has spent the last three weeks with Chris prepping for this event and on Saturday was in brace 1 of 3 braces for open puppy.

While we didn't get to see him personally run in the field trial sicne we were at another event with Odin, the update from Chris was that Loki had a good run, handled and listened well and there were some high points (good running, pointing and holding the point for a few seconds) and low points (chasing his brace mate which is allowed in puppy, chasing tweety birds) during the run but overall has great potential to be a field trial dog and we should look at continuing to have him in the events.

We also got our other piece of good news from Chris that Loki had gotten a 3rd place finish in open puppy at the event which was huge for him since he has never been in a real field event before or run with a brace mate. Looks like we have field trail dog in the making and are now looking forward to the next field trial in June for him.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing our moms and all of friends who are mother's a very Happy Mother's Day.

Enjoy your day!

Cinco de Mayo and Birthday Celebrations!

Cinco de Mayo is always celebrated in our house since it is also Ben's birthday. Since he has a soccer game the festivities will have to wait until this weekend.

Happy 34th Birthday Ben!

94 Years Young

This weekend we celebrated my grandfather's 94th birthday by having a family dinner. With everyone's busy schedules it is rare that we can all get together but we made it work and he enjoyed having everyone together for the afternoon and getting lots of goodies.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!