This outing was quite a change from the last time I went chukar hunting back in September. I was lucky to get into the high 70's then, and the heat whipped both the dog and I very quickly. We were usually done hunting by around 11am. Today there was snow on the ground and it was easily in the low 20's with the windchill.
What a difference the cooler temperatures make though when hunting. I'm not a big fan of the cold, but I am a fan of not getting wiped out because of heat exhaustion and it takes it's tole on my dog as well as she covers a hell of a lot more ground then I do. She kept it up the whole hunt without showing any signs of fatigue.
It was a good days hunt and we covered a lot of ground and got into a couple covey's of birds but I couldn't connect on them as they were too far away when they flushed. Kati was impressive as usual with working the cover, and was able to smell the birds at 100-200 yards away and we moved in on them, but they were skittish and let loose to flight before we got close enough.
We were able to have the wind in our face from the beginning of the hunt which helped us tremendously when we were working the area. I was also able to work on the infamous "whoa" command. Finally success on this command after many years trying to implement it. I called out this command from 10 yards to 150 yards and got the same result...my dog holding fast till I released her from it with the "ok" command. Very exciting stuff considering this is my first dog that I have trained myself.
As if getting outdoors isn't enough the added bonus of having a gun dog by your side just makes it that much more enjoyable.
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