Last hunt for a while.

[salmonchaser]

I've been helping out down near Pendleton on a very good shooting preserve. The ranch is the closest to hunting wild birds in south Dakota of any place I've been west of the Rockies. In any event it has been a great opportunity to get my 13 month old GSP on a bunch of birds.
Thursday I took my lovely bride, Sandy, her GSP Harley and my GSP Molly down for a couple days of hunting. All three girls are in their rookie season. About five minutes into the hunt Molly locked up, Harley honored and up popped a chukar. The bird rolled just over the perimeter fence. Poor Harley didn't see the fence hitting it flat out. Long gash on her leg, didn't cut but we could see the artery, also a gash under her chin and on her ear.
Out came the trauma kit I carried in SWAT and we got Harley bandaged up and off to the vet. Molly knew the lower strands had been removed, ducked under and made the retrieve.
We had to leave Harley and returned to hunt for an hour or two. Sande collected a couple of roosters, a mellanistic pheasant a mellanistic ringneck cross, a couple of Bob whites and a chukar.
Harley will be fine, a.couple dozen stitches and perhaps she will remember the fence this fall.
Sande was very disappointed her dog didn't hunt, but she can't wait to go back.
I'm glad my best friend wanted to start hunting birds, makes life easy

 

[DrMike]

Great account of a very rewarding hunt, SC. It is special to share such time with our spouses. Trust Molly will fully recover and not be overly cautious in the future.

 

[longwinters]

It is really difficult to see your dog get injured. Glad to see that you hold your dog in such high regard...some do not.

Must have been a lot of fun up to that point though.

Long

 

[Guy Miner]

Agree. Good write up, and very good of you, taking care of the dog so well.

I'm looking forward to doing more bird hunting this coming year!

Guy

 

[truck driver]

For sure great job taking care of your dog. One thing you can always count on is your Dog will always give you unconditional love and they deserve the best treatment and care we can give them.

 

[sask boy]

Thank you for the story, I am glad everything turned out right with the pup.
She will be up at at em in no time at all.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[Elkman]

I had a similar experience with my old Rotty, tore a dollar sized chunk of hide and tissue from the right side of her chest at the point of her shoulder. A shot of antibiotics and lots of peroxide and she healed up 100%. She did slow down for a " few" days however. I think Rotweilers, have small brains, gigantic amounts of testosterone, and big hearts. They are oblivious to pain. She had 12 great years, she traveled from the seashore to 10,000 feet in 7 western states, and spent thousands of hours in the woods. Her replacement has the brains of a brick, is 14 months old, weighs 70 pounds, the heart of a lion and has already been in 5 states. I am going to introduce her to cactus in a few days. Hope that goes well, ( for the Cactus) I mean.

 

[Vince]

Cactus can be quite an experience for a non desert dog.

I've spent a few hours plucking dogs after an encounter with the dastardly things.

 

[salmonchaser]

We have a little bit of cactus in SE Oregon where we chukar hunt, but I didn't make it down there this year. It will be interesting to see the girls learn about that. I haven't done as much hunting in Washington as Oregon even though I've lived here 25 years, but I wouldn't be surprised to find some over on the Snake.
I've done a little hunting down in Arizona, can't imagine running a dog in that stuff, holy cow. What is the best technique for getting them out? With porcupine quills we cut off the exposed tip and then pull.

 

[HOGWILD338-378]

Just hope your dog gets well soon as it sounds like she took a hard hit from that stupid fence , just pray that she never messes with a porcupine as that is a big mistake and really a big mess at the Vet's office! Great story and sorry to hear of the mishap !

 

[salmonchaser]

Actually Molly has tangled with three. She was six months old when I took her to our lodge in Alaska on June first last year. She hadn't been out of the truck for five minutes after we had arrived when I heard her yelp. There was a Hell of a commotion under one of the guest cabins and the guns were still buried under four months of supplies. Thankfully she recalled immediately with two quills stuck in her nose. The pork was dispatched with a shovel.
A couple of days later we were on an evening walk, she wandered into some spruce and tundra, a little barking and then popped onto the road. Shortly I saw she was limping, one quill stuck in her paw.
About a week after that I was taking a short hike to show some guests an eagle nest with a couple of young eagles. Molly was enjoying the hike, pointing and catching tundra mice when a pork popped out on the road about 40 yards out. I recalled Molly, she responded perfectly but came out right by the pork. She locked up on point and started growling, the pork was sorta growling back. I got to about 20 yards when the pork turned to run and I rolled it with the 454. She got close but never touched it.
Over the course of the summer we killed several around camp but she never got stuck again. I hope she remembers as we head back in six weeks.

 

[HOGWILD338-378]

Friend of mine's Min Pin has only fooled with 1 so far and it filled it's whole frontal area with quills and took the vet a while to get that little beast up and going again ! Sounds like Molly has not been paying attention :lol: I think I would learn the first time if I got hit just rite but who knows her attention span is probably longer I than mine? :mrgreen:

 

[salmonchaser]

She earned the.nickname Molly Dammit very quickly,

 

[baltz526]

I have put a lot of boot time in to S/E Oregon. Only in one area have I found cactus. It would be interesting if it was the same area.

 

[salmonchaser]

We do know some of the same country; here is one in central Oregon, grizzly unit. South of Ashwood, perhaps a.third of the way to the forest service line there is a narrow BLM stock trail running east over to horse heaven mines. Crosses McDonald's, Nartz and the old Muddy Company ranch. (Also the Bagwan she rashneash). Up on top there are some small barrel, three or four inches tall barrel cactus.
Found those the hard way when I sat down to rest one day.

 

[baltz526]

Not the same area, But might be the same variety of cactus. I'm trying to remember exactly where I found the cactus. It was either the juniper unit or beatys butte. About 20yrs ago.

 

[salmonchaser]

If memory serves correctly the only thing I've hunted in the Juniper unit has been sage rats not far out of Burns. We have two general areas we hunt chuker, a 25 mile radius out of Fields, from Mann ranch south of Fields into the Butte and Whitehorse. I don't think I've seen any cactus in the Steens unit but certain I've found them in both the Butte and Whitehorse. Always those little devils.
20 years does impact memory for sure. My goal as a kid was to hunt every game management unit in the state for something. Might have only been sage rats, but with the exception of the hood river unit we got that done in eastern Or. Never really got started on the west side; Alsea Siusla, Santiam and Willamette. No cactus there but found plenty of devils club.