The Great 2011 Pa. GrouseHunt

I'm trying a little harder than usual this year to get my dog and myself in shape for the upcoming season.  The reason is that I'd like to go on a week long bird hunting trip, not to South Dakota ,Wisconsin or Minnesota, but to the NW corner of good old Pa.  For the last few years I have been hearing about good to great grouse hunting in northwestern and north central Pennsylvania.  Despite good intentions, I have not gotten up there to check it out.  I've decided that this year will be different.  Rather than hope that I can find the time and motivation to get up there at some point, I plan to schedule a trip just as I would if I were heading to the west or midwest.  I've heard rumors that  the Fall season has been better than the later Winter season, so we want to be ready ahead of time to take advantage of that.

 This proposed trip, which I'm calling The Great 2011Grouse Hunt, was inspired by the not-so-great 2010 grouse hunt which took place in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  My wife's sister's husband (does that make him my brother-in-law?) Zane and I went to the U.P.  for a week last year with our dogs, theoretically to shoot the some of the thousands of ruffed grouse that live there.  We managed to synchronize our trip so perfectly with "the most powerful storm to hit the Great Lakes since the one that sank The Edmund Fitzgerald" that we arrived and left there on the same day that it did.  We left western Pa. with a forecast of a week of good weather for the Upper Peninsula, but arrived as all hell broke loose.  I have no doubt that the U.P. is a sportsman's paradise because during the 3 hours or so of reasonable weather of our week there I saw wild pheasants in the roadside ditches (remember them?  remember that?) wild turkeys, ducks, geese, ruffed grouse, woodcock, and a whitetail buck whose torso more closely resembled a rodeo bull than any deer I've ever seen.  The rest of the time I mostly saw rain going sideways, huge waves in Lake Michigan, and lights blinking off as trees took out power lines.  I came home mostly wishing I could recover the time and money that I had left there.  NW Pa. may have less grouse, but I can easily cut my losses and head home if things don't go well, plus use a lot less gasoline, and I'm sure, still have a lot of fun.

With that in mind we headed out early this a.m. to a State Game Lands an hour and a half away for some field time.  Sunny really got into the swing of things with points on a woodcock and a holdover pheasant (more on them later) and even ripped her ear to make it all seem like actual battle conditions.  The ear injury was not bad, but it served to remind me to get out the small canine first aid kit that I carry in my hunting vest and get it in order, replacing used up and outdated stuff.

This seems like a good time to talk about looking out for the dog.

A few things that work for me.

Sunny is my first bird dog.  I'm learning as I go along.  She'll be 8 years old next month.   After buying and trying a number of dog specific products with varied success, I have started carrying New Skin Liquid Bandage.  This is available at the local drug store and works on both dog and hunter.  It is basically a flexible super glue with an antiseptic built in.  It is inexpensive, comes in a very small bottle with applicator and dries pretty quickly.  My vet suggested it when Sunny had a hard to heal tail wound.  It worked great.  Not sure why I didn't think of it myself.

This photo shows the protective vest that she wears in the early season when the cover is thick an full of burrs.  I've tried a number of these things and this is far and away the most successful on my dog.  Some very inexpensive ones lasted only part of a hunt before being rejected for chafing the dogs "armpits"(legpits?), getting twisted around, coming apart, you name it.  A more expensive one seemed like the ticket until Sunny got trussed up in it and became a 3 legged dog temporarily, a frightening sight in the woods, as I thought she had broken a leg. Due to it's design I had to cut a strap to free her, so we were back in the market again.  This one is from Lion Country Supply and is their own LCS brand.  It is called the Bird Dog Armor Vest.  It does not seem to interfere with her mobility at all, lasted through a whole season in good shape and has spared Sunny from a lot of abuse. It also makes it easier to see her in the snowy woods.   It is inexpensive.  I'd imagine that different vests would work better on different dogs due to variation in build and gait, but would advise skipping the "cheapies" that everyone seems to sell.

The third product is called Glycocharge, made by Annamaet.  This is a powder that is mixed with water and given to the dog at the end of a long hard hunt.  It helps them replenish the glycogen lost from muscles during strenuous exercise.  That's the claim anyhow.  I don't know about glycogen, but do know it works.   Sunny used to be stiff and beat the day after a hard hunt (and she makes every one of them a hard hunt!), but this stuff is very effective in helping her bounce back.  I put the pre-measured amount of powder into individual quart size zip lock bags that I call Glyco Bombs, and keep them in my gear bag.  At the end of the hunt I pour in a pint of water, shake it up to mix and pour it in her bowl.  She loves it and the difference in recovery is amazing.  This is also available from Lion Country Supply, as well as other gundog supply companies I imagine.

Coming soon -  Planning the trip, shooting, dog training(or not!).  Check back!