Pheasant Hunting in the Garden State

Early this morning I packed up Cleo and we drove two hours to Sussex County, New Jersey to go hunting with Bob Corsaro again on some private farm land. Unfortunately Jim was not able to come with us due to a prior work commitment.

Frosty

Today Cleo hunted with her younger brother Nobelles Scout. Both Cleo and Scout have the same sire and dam but are 14 months apart, Cleo being the senior. Scouts owner, Jim Given and I were really excited to hunt the pair together. Bob guided us through the property and our friend Steve Fiasco came along as a second gunner. Steve owns Cleo's other brother and litter mate Bruin.  Before we set out on our hunt Bob did a little steadiness training with Cleo with some pigeons. Last week Cleo popped several birds while hunting on the same property so Bob wanted to work with her before we set out. You can read about last weeks hunt here.

Cleo on the go

The picture above is actually from last weeks hunt. Today I didn't carry my camera so I could help work the dogs. It was much colder this morning than last week, around 20 degrees. 

The dogs worked really well together. Today was Scout's second time out hunting and he did a great job. He had no problems blasting through the thick cover and he did a really amazing job of honoring on his own. Below is a crude video I took from my I-phone of the two in some really thick cover. You can hear their beepers going off in the background. Its a pretty decent example of how thick the cover was at times.

Here is another video of Scout coming out of the brush:

They found two pheasants rather quickly today. My funny story from the morning is Cleo locked on point, Scout honored behind her. Bob had me hold onto a lead for Scout so he would stay steady through the shot and fall behind Cleo. Even though they were hunting it was still all about training. It's clear I'm not used to the sheer power of Scout the tank. After Cleo was sent in for the retrieve Scout had enough and pretty much knocked me down and drug me a couple of feet till I could get myself in order and get control of him again. I'm pretty sure Bob was the only one who noticed but it was rather amusing...at least to me. That boy is a moose! Note to ones self.....always stand on the lead in addition to holding it when dealing with Scout otherwise your going for a ride. 

Cleo on point

Scout and Cleo

To sum things up we got two pheasants. But more importantly the dogs got to work allot of cover. They were in fields, through water, in thick brush and they had opportunities today to honor each other and they got to track. It was a great morning to be outside hunting with your dog. We also spent sometime after the hunt on honoring, retrieving and staying steady. As always there is room for improvement but the process along the way is what makes it fun. It made me really sad Jim couldn't be there today but it was so nice of Bob and the gang to let me tag along solo. 

I'll leave you with one more video of the dogs working: