Finally time to post!

Thank you for all your patience in between this long off time from blogging! Things in life have been quite busy and I just haven't had time to sit down and type and download pictures!

We spent last weekend down in New Jersey with a great group of friends. We had driven down for the Eastern GSP club's walking field trial. Kyler was slated to run in Amateur Gun Dog, but she had come into season a week before and had to be pulled. Females in heat are not allowed to run in most field trials and hunt tests. They are technically not even supposed to be "on the grounds". Rogue was entered in 2 stakes, amateur and open puppy.

Here she is on the second day breaking away. You can tell by her leap that she was ready to go! Despite not really knowing what she was there for, she ran like a champ. She broke away and went to the end of the straight away right from the begining. She went to the edges of all the fields (which is what a field trial dog is supposed to do) She didn't find find any birds, but she sure looked like she knew what she was doing. All the pictures taken are courtesy of Andrew at Regal Vizsla. Luckily he has a sweet camera that takes amazing pictures! The first day was sunny and bright, day 2 we weren't so lucky. It had rained earlier in the day, then snowed, then rained again. Not long before we ran, which was close to 5pm, the rain stopped. It was cold and breezy, hence my cold weather gear! I looked a bit silly, but at least I was warm!

Here she is streaking through one of the fields towards the end of the course. The puppy stakes are only 15 minutes, so she still had plenty of energy left at the end of her run! She ran like this the entire brace, both days. The first day she had an insane GSP bird finding machine as her brace mate. I was actually glad about that, as he had no interest in her what so ever, and I was hoping that she wouldn't play with him. Being only 6 months old I was prepared for her to try and play. She didn't even think about it! On day 2 she had a young inexperienced pointer as a bracemate who continually tried to play with her. She stopped a few times and thought about it, but I told her to get on her way and she did with no problems. I was extremely proud, it was a difficult situation for a young puppy. The pointer was very sweet, but to a huge fault. He continually jumped on me, while I was on the course, which was extremely annoying to say the least. All I could do was to keep walking and when he jumped on me tell him off and keep walking. For obvious reasons you are not supposed to touch the other dog in the brace.Me catching her at the end of the brace. It has been helpful for me to have some yummy treats on hand to convince her that coming to me is a good thing! If you could zoom in very far you could see that her face is all contorted as she grabs the treats quickly, as she had not stopped moving yet! She had come zooming around the hedgerow behind me and ran 3 circles around me before slowing down. Her eyes were glazed over and she was clearly having the time of her life. I was happy that I got her to come to me at all! This was also her first experience with horses. Even though it was a "walking trial", the judges are still on horseback. After a close call on her first run on Saturday, she stayed away from them. (she ran a bit too close to one's front feet at the beginning of the brace, talk about a mini-heart attack on mommy's part!)

This is how Jaida followed the brace on the second day. She rallied just enough energy to come out and cheer on Rogue. Poor girl had been sick since early (like, 2am) Saturday morning. She spent the day resting in Mike's arms on Sunday.

While I don't have pictures of it, our friends Jen and Dennis came down with their 3 GSP's Sally, Tucker and Raven. Sally placed both days in her stakes as did Tucker in the puppy stakes! Nice work guys!

We had decided that since we were traveling all the way to NJ to stay with Andrew and his clan for Sunday night. We made plans to head up to TMT preserve about an hour and a half from his place in the Bronx. What a beautiful place! It consists of 235 acres of varying types of fields and woods. We put down Kyler and Momo first to do some honoring training, as we are preparing them both for their Master hunter tests this spring. I have to say, the team of these 2 is awesome to watch! They work seamlessly together. In a very short period of time they had cleared the first 3 fields with a total of 8 finds! It was a good opportunity to get them out and working. There were actually 2 occasions where they had separate bird finds at the same time, causing each of them to have to hold point for several minutes each for both safety and training reasons. In this picture Kyler is on point and Momo is honoring her.The highlight of Mondays trip is this picture below. The closest dog is Rogue, who had her first "real" hunting trip and found several Chukar on her own. She had her first bird shot for her and ran around with it like a nut for a while. In the background of this picture is our super dog, Cedar. Cedar has been layed up after a terrible hunting accident earlier in the fall. We were not sure if he would ever want to hunt again, or if he would ever be able to hunt again. He was not to be underestimated! This shot was actually his 3rd or 4th bird that he had found. (yes, he found it, and then Rogue happened to stumble into the situation) He looked ecstatic as he swept the field looking for birds (I swear he was saying why haven't you let me do this in so long?!). He found the remaining Chukar in the field plus one bonus pheasant, left over from someone else's hunt. My eyes actually welled up when I saw him retrieving his first bird. He was a bit sore after all the exercise as we are still dealing with his initialy injury. His bones are healed, but he is nowhere near 100% and may never be. He is still 3 legged a bit at this point, it depends on the minute...Nevertheless, it made for an amazing end to a great weekend! We are lucky to have such good friends to hunt with and train with! Thanks a million!! Really looking forward to doing it again soon!

Ready, set, trial!

With field trial season coming up quickly I am mentally trying to prepare myself for having very few weekends available for much else.

Our first trial of the year is next weekend down in Medford, NJ. We have Rogue entered in 2 stakes, both Amateur and Open Puppy. In puppy stakes they often don't even put birds down for them to find. Personally, I am hoping that she can at least think that there are birds there, it will help her run much better! Kyler was entered as well in the Amateur Gun Dog stake, unfortunately, she came into heat this morning, so she will not be allowed to run. I am pretty sad about the whole thing, I was really hoping that she would wait another week and a half! Never the less, we will head down there just for the pure experience for Rogue!

Tonight we spent the last few minutes before dark letting her find a pigeon a few times. She had a blast! She holds her points so beautifully! The line on her not only prevents her from eating the bird (which is on a harness because they were not born here and will fly away without it-we will hopefully have some born here in the spring which we can have fly free) but also keeps her from running out of the field. The combination of the neighbors dogs and the snow have pushed it down in many places.

On the kiddo front:

Here is Jaida "walking through the forest" (her words exactly!) on a walk with the dogs last week. Funny, since we live in the woods...How cute!Here she is having a "girls night" with mommy and friends! We went to the fabulous Goten restaurant in Sunderland, MA. It is a Japanese place where they cook the food right in front of you. I could eat there every day. We had a blast!While writing out Valentines I had Jaida try to write her own name. I hadn't seen her do it before, apparantly she can do just fine!

It's so hard to be wittle...

This was a quote from Jaida when we were hiking/sledding/snowshoing last weekend with Kyler and Rogue. Kids really do say the funniest things sometimes...Just makes me want to pick her up an squeeze her!I have actually gotten to use my snowshoes several times this year. I have always loved to go for a walk with the doggers and be able to get some good exercise myself! I haven't used my snowshoes much in the last few years, it has just been too hard with Jaida walking with me. Now that she is in school for a couple hours 4 days a week I actually can get out for me time. I am off on Mondays and Fridays so I usually drop her off at school and go for a hike if it isn't too nasty out. The dogs enjoy it!

Here she is jumping off a rock on our hike. I just couldn't get the timing quite right to get her in the air...She isn't afraid of much!We went out to Fitchburg yesterday to go sledding with Mike's brother, Chris and his family. Their daughter, Rainie, is 5 years old. She is a great kid, she helped take care of Jaida and Jordan (Mike's sisters 2 1/2 year old). The girls had a fabulous time on the track that Chris made. A short walk throught the woods near their house is this perfect sledding hill. They have spent time over the last couple of years perfecting it and cleaning it up. The ice storm this year put a damper on it as it took quite a while to clear the path and the track itself of all the downed trees. It has become the neighborhood hangout spot. Kids and their families come to hang out for the day sledding and enjoying the fire pit and some frosty beverages!

Jaida enjoyed going down the hill by herself, which from a mommy point of view was nerve wracking at first. Seeing her first born go flying down this hill and around the corners all by herself! After seeing how well she did the first time, however, it was clear that she was quite comfortable in her tube and the track is built for safety. After this picture was taken Chris and the other guys there finished adding more safety snow fence on the corners as extra protection from going over the sides.

And, finally, a Friday afternoon nap...Awhhhh!

Great weekend!

We had a really fun weekend here at Forest King! My truck has died twice due to random things, so it has been interesting trying to get around with my small car and the dogs. The first time, on Christmas eve it died at work. As it turns out a bunch of rodents had eaten the wires leading to my fuel pump and cut the power to it. I got that repaired and then Friday I went to park it in my driveway and it wouldn't shift into park...Something in the steering column broke. So now I have to have it towed again tomorrow morning to fix that. I had to put the emergency brake on because the truck is stuck in drive, so it tries to roll away with out it! Yikes...Oh well...

Friday I took the dogs for a short run (only 45 minutes or so). Cedar actually got to go! It was his first "real" outing since his accident, so I was a bit nervous about how things would go. I strapped on his orthotic to help protect his foot. We still have to adjust it a bit, I have to send it back to the manufacterer. There are 3 adjustments included in the first 3 months for free. (not including shipping, of course!) He isn't using it as much as I would like, he tends to walk on the back of the orthotic, as opposed to flat footed on the bottom. Other than that it seems to fit fairly well. For the run I tried to cover his toes, as the snow will pack into the foot portion of the orthotic, which I imagine could be uncomfortable. He looks a bit silly in the pictures as I wrapped his foot with vetwrap, but of course, the section I put on the toe portion fell off! The only benefit I see to allowing snow build up is that since he is running in the snow it could be helpful in preventing swelling, just like an ice pack.

His toes are still undergoing a lot of healing, and one of them is fairly swollen. I think he might be developing a seroma (fluid filled pocket, slight blood tinge to it) due to the foreign material in his foot. He had another small pocket developing in between 2 other toes and it was obviously bothering him. On Saturday I noticed that it was open and a little oozy...I looked at it closely and noticed something sticking out of a hole in the middle of the swelling. I pulled out a small bone fragment from the lump! It was originally part of one of his toes that were shattered. Hopefully at least that one spot will heal up quickly now that the piece of bone isn't irritating it anymore.

The very beginning of the video is a bit shaky, sorry, I was walking in the snow and it wasn't a flat trail!

On Sunday we got together with a group of people to run the dogs. The group consisted of us with Kyler and Rogue, Stephanie and Manny (who own Baron, Roxy and Benny), Sam and Frank (who own Timber and Muki) Dave Nelson (who owns Chya), and 2 groups of other friends that each had 2 dogs. It was quite the group of dogs running and playing. All with 10 people plus Jaida. The dogs really had a great time! We hiked for close to 2 hours and then hung out to have dinner and beers. You don't see Kyler and Rogue much in these pictures because they were both off hunting and were very far from the rest of the pack. They played initially, then decided that hunting was what they wanted to do.

So, a big thanks for Stephanie for inviting us for this great day! Thanks also to Dave for allowing us to warm up in his house and then to Sam and Frank for letting us all hang out in their living room, dogs included! Rogue is actually sleeping on the couch as I am writing this, which is a very difficult thing to accomplish!

Also, thanks to Stephanie for finding an interesting beer that I am looking forward to trying. As a Christmas present she gave me a bottle of beer named "Rogue", how fitting!

Then, I received a couple pictures of Kyler's puppies at the end of the week. Briar, and Zealand. They are so darn cute and it sounds like they and their families are very happy! The first 2 are of Briar and the 3rd is of Zealand, cuddling with her stuffed pheasant, how appropriate! Briar was the male that we had for an extra few weeks, who had a minor fracture of his leg. He is doing well other than being a bumbly male puppy. I am looking forward to meeting Zea's family, as she was the red puppy who Wendy sold for us, so I never met her owners. It seems that we have the same taste in beer, so I am sure it will be a great time when we do finally get to meet!

Finally an update

Sorry for the very long delay in between posts. We have bee quite busy preparing for Christmas with a 3 year old around! As many of you may know a nasty ice storm hit this area a couple weeks ago. We were lucky that we just had a few large branches that fell down, no damage done. We only lost power for about 15 hours. Most of Mike's family lost power for much longer. His brother just got power back last Monday, so a week and a half after they lost it! How much we have come to rely on the comfort of electricity! You don't realize how much it affects your life until you don't have it.

On other notes, we are hoping to be able to get Rogue (now officially Forest King Upland Tsunami, we got her papers back) on some birds this winter so that we can start entering her in Junior Hunt tests in the spring. I think our biggest issue will be her trainability, as she very much has a mind of her own!

Here is a video of her today.

Holy cow! This was the first real bird work that we have done with her. I was shocked at how nice her points were and how long she held them. It was the first time she has pointed a "real" bird. She has always shown a tremendous interest in birds, but hasn't had much of an opportunity to point them yet.

Then here she is pointing a Chukar. We were trying to get a good flying bird that wasn't tied by a string, so she will learn that they fly away and don't always land where she can see them. Sadly, for whatever reason, this Chukar could only seem to get about 3 feet off the ground. Not really what we had in mind...She was as intense as she looks in this photo. She holds her points really nicely.

If you look closely at this photo you can see the pigeon on the string. We had Rogue on a cord as well, so that we could control her to a certain extent. Our fenced training area also has some fence down due to the storm, so we don't want her to run through it to the road.

Cedar and Kyler are doing well. Cedar's foot is healing very well! It will probably always look a bit funny, but overall it really is healing as well as can be expected. His new brace from Ortho Pets arrived 2 days before Christmas, and we are slowly acclimating him to it. It should hopefully allow him to have a mostly normal working life. It is a bit cumbersome for him, and he is still getting used to it. He still gets the toe part caught on the stairs when he is going up. Ortho Pets makes all sorts of braces/orthotics and prostetics for dogs and cats who have injuries. They can even be used by a dog with a torn cruciate who is not a good candidate for surgery, to make them more comfortable. The owners of the company are very nice and helpful. I highly recommend them if you have a dog that could use some extra support.

As far as the holidays are concerned, here is Jaida enjoying getting ready to decorate our tree. It has been a tradition in our house to listen to the Muppets Christmas album with John Denver every Christmas. (I had it growing up and decided to continue the tradition with Jaida) It is still one of my favorites.

Happy Holidays to all and I hope that you all have a Happy New Year!

Introducing....!!!!

And once again we introduce something new!

Widdershins Flyin Kyler SH !!!!!

Kyler, today, in a fantastic show of talent, finished her Senior hunter title! Mike handled her to her final leg of her title. She was probably at her best today, with scores of 9,9,9,9,9,7. The seven was for honoring, which is still a work in progress. It was a fairly cool (30 degrees when she ran) breezy day, but not as bad as Saturday. She didn't want her picture taken after, she was chilly standing still. The judges and the gunners had nothing but great things to say about her. They were very impressed!

We are so proud of our girl! We hope to fine tune some things this winter and perhaps start entering her in Master hunter next spring! We have her entered in a field trial in 2 weeks and hope that we will do well in that. She has been running huge lately, which is what she needs to do to compete in the field trial world.

Here was our support team today. Jaida braved the cold and let me wrap her all up to be able to walk the brace with Mike and Kyler.
Here is Rogue last week in our training field, the above is her on one of the rocks in the field, below is a video. She was being quite the nut tearing around the field.

The season goes on

So hunting season continues here at Forest King. (the above picture is from Halloween day, we shot our limit easily) Kyler has had a very successful season so far, finding well over 50 birds! We have lost track at this point. We usually keep a tally on the fridge, this year it has been impossible with the number of birds she is finding.

Kyler's last puppy left for his new home last Friday night! A very nice family in Boxford has given him a new home. I will put pictures of the puppies in their new homes as I get them.

Here he is a few days before he left. What a handsome guy!! I really wish we could have kept him, he will be a spectacular dog!

Here he is leaving for his home with his 2 kids! He even has his first "own" squeeky toy. He doesn't have to share this with his littermates!Rogue has been out with us hunting on days where the risk of running into a lot of people is slim. She is enjoying being able to run with her mother and check out all the fun spots to find birds. She has yet to find a pheasant on her own, but we aren't expecting much at this point.

Here she is cuddling with her uncle Cedar, who is learning to tolerate her well. He doesn't like her near him if he is chewing a bone or eating, but we can't really blame him for that.I found Jaida and Rogue like this one day while cleaning. She said they were "relaxing"!

Anyway, I hope to be able to post more soon!