Utah Training Day: What a Trip!

This post is a little late but here it is. Last weekend (6/12-6/14) I was lucky enough not to be working the weekend and took a trip to Utah to do some training with Artus with the Wild West Chapter of the VDD-GNA.

The trip down was uneventful except that I got detoured through Logan to get to Salt Lake City which added a lot of time to the drive. I stayed in Lehi with my friend Barrett Johnson, Who I've known since we were about 9 years old but I haven't seen since I was 16. It was great to catch up with him and meet his family.
Saturday morning I went to the Lee Kay Center outside if Salt Lake for the dog training. It's a public shooting range and also had grounds for dog training. I was amazes that something like that was right outside of SLC. I did some water retrieves with Artus and a field search after a pigeon we saw fly. We didn't find the pigeon but Artus did have some solid points on some areas he thought were interesting. Mostly I watched and asked tons of questions. There are some great guys down there who are great to talk to and very helpful. It was a very hot day so some of us went to 5 Guys restaurant for lunch. It was great to talk dogs and pick some people's brains about training and breedings.
My drive home was awful to say the least. I went back on Sunday and lost the treads on my tire before I got to the Farmington exit. I couldn't get the spare tire off because someone had backed into me the week before and damaged the hatch of the van so I bad to limp the van from Farmington to Centerville to Walmart to get the tire fixed. It took forever and Artus wasn't doing so well with all the heat. Finally, hours later, I was getting close to home and got a speeding ticket for $85. Oh well, the trip was so good I just have to chalk the ticket and tires up as a loss and move on. I'm glad I went and had the good experiences I did.

Somehow I didn't take any pics of Artus while I was down there but I'll add some pics of some other dogs I watched down there.

No Birds, Hydration, and Adding to the Pack

First off, we have added to our "pack". Before my divorce in 2009, I had an Australian Cattle Dog named Tess who worked cows with me on the ranch. I couldn't keep her while my living situation was in limbo so I sent her to live at the breeder's farm until things settled down. Well she's back with us now so we currently have a herd of dogs. It has changed the dynamics of the dog situation because Tess hasn't been as well socialized as my other two dogs. Artus thinks she should play with him which makes her grouchy. Aili thinks she's a threat so they have issues. Tess is great with the kids and an awesome cow dog but we just have this adjustment period to get through getting the dogs used to each other.

Artus and I have been searching for wild birds with no luck at all. Even places I've never failed to find grouse have turned up nothing. I'm thinking now that I'll need to buy birds and plant them to get us ready for hunting season. It's been frustrating to say the least.

I learned a valuable lesson the other day. Always stay hydrated! I was using a camelbak to drink from and still ended up dehydrated. Always drink more than you think you need while working dogs in the summer heat. It's important to keep the dog hydrated as well but sometimes we don't notice how little we've had to drink while we're out hiking. Be safe!

I'm including pics of Tess and also some more of the water work Artus and I have been doing. There's some pictures of this last Friday in the grouse woods as well. It was a treacherous hike through steep and thick territory. We didn't find birds but it was beautiful and Artus did a good job of staying out there and searching. Enjoy.



















Thick underbrush. The only reason I know Artus was in this pic is his orange collar.