May 26, 2011

Well it has been awhile since I've posted a blog but I thought I would get back on the stick. A lot of news since I last posted. Had a litter of puppies and they are now going to be 6 weeks old this Saturday and heading to thier new homes nest Saturday. got big plans for the holiday weekend well I shouldn't say plans but I am going to work around the house, yard and kennels all weekend and I am taking Friday off so I can make a 4 day weekend.
I am keeping a pup out of this litter and plan on putting all the training I so with this little guy on my blog with some pictures and hopefully some video. I hope everyone enjoys it and if there are any dog people out there I hope you can also learn a little. And some of the trick and tactics of training can be applied to any dog not just bird dogs.
So stay tuned and i will try to be faithful in my posting and keep the info flowing.
God Bless
Jim
"Pointerman"

3/28/11

First things first our new grandson, Cameron, is doing great home and Mom is doing well his older sister Morgan is helping Mom and Dad and she is also adjusting well.
Went on a preserve hunt this last Saturday had a blast. got some guys from work 1 guy brought his father in law (my ex boss) to come and brought his 11 year old son and another brought his 9 year old son. I brought the dogs I took Herkie, Savannah, Rowdy, Jet and Ammo. My first trip out with Savannah and Rowdy other than chasing woodcock last Saturday. I wanted to see what they would do in front of the gun.
Started the day with jet and Savannah on the ground and Savannah immediately went on point and 2 quail got up and we downed one bird. Then we went to the milo patch where they usually plant the pheasant and Savannah pointed again and a big old rooster got us and 11 year old Jackson Rogers smacked it good and Savannah retrieved it back to hand what a site he was one excited boy.

We went on and got a couple more points and 2 more pheasants. Went back to the truck and swapped out Jet for Rowdy and we went to the bigger fields and looked for the the rest of our birds got numerous points and we killed quite a few birds both dogs did great got a lot of honors and a lot of retrieves. Went back to the truck and swapped Savannah our for Herkie and continued to hunt and got a few more birds Herkie did well and I got a picture of him on point. I don't have many pictures of Herkie on point so I was glad to get a couple. He looks so much like Gem it is scary.

Hunted the rest of the Field and a wanted to go back and check the pheasant field again so I swapped out both dogs and got Ammo and Savannah out and we went in and got a couple more pheasants and a couple of more quail. We had downed a chukar and it was only winged but could run like the wind and Savannah found it again and it was it the woods I went in to try to flush it and away it ran with Savannah hot on its tail but got into a big brush pile and savannah could not keep up with it and we never did find it. But the action was hot and fast for a while it was quite exciting. Shawn Gilbert got a quail on the way back to the truck so we had a good day we bought 8 pheasants, 6 chukar and 10 quail, When we got back to the truck we had 5 pheasants 7 chukars (we picked up an extra) and 9 quail so we had a great day.

I wanted to post this picture I thought it was such a great picture. Savannah with the point and Rowdy with the back they are both so intense and stylish. Anybody who loves bird dogs has got to love this picture.



Now on to other things around the kennels. Got the female I was doing a stud fee for bred again Friday night. Should be a great breeding I will get it up on my webpage soon. I don't have a picture of her yet but I will get her pedigree up.
Been working hard getting things ready to fish. got a new hitch for my Geo Tracker so I can pull the boat with it instead of Mighty Whitie with the price of diesel I can pull it with my Geo a little cheaper. Also bout a new bought for my son (well he paid for it) but I am picking it up for him Wednesday when I go back to have a little work done on my teeth. He is coming up Thursday to pick it up I will try to get some pictures Thursday night.
We are heading to Illinois Saturday to get my last new dog. I am excited about that always love to get a new dog. I am planning one more preserve hunt for the 16th of April. Steve Prichard may be coming in from Ohio with his Lost River dog so he can get her some birds and I plan on running my young dog Patch before she heads to Utah. And I will run my new dog and probably take Herkie just to get him into some more birds.
April looks to be a very busy month. I am going to kill my first wild turkey the last weekend of the month my grandtwins are having a birthday party so I will have it to go to and of course I will try to get a couple days a week of fishing in as well. So it looks like I will have plenty to blog about. Until then.
God Bless
Jim

3/24/11

Well it has been a while since I have updated my blog and boy what a busy week it has been. Got up Saturday morning to beautiful weather so I decided to run my 3 new dogs. I just cut them loose and we went across the road to an area where I always run my dogs and I have been reading on some of the Indiana forums that the woodcock were migrating back north and I have moved several woodcock in this area and I thought it was worth a try. Just got in the field and I walked up a woodcock and my young male, Rowdy, stopped to flush which made me very happy he was quite stylish. then about 5 minutes later Rowdy's beeper went off and then Savannah's beeper went off I walked up and Rowdy was on point and Savannah was honoring it was nice to see. I moved in and flushed another woodcock and both dogs stood to flush. Here is a picture not great a quality photo but the best I could get at the time.

About 1/2 hour later Savannah's beeper went off and she had a nice point and I walked in a flushed a small covey of quail. I watched them fly off and headed that directions and Savannah pointed again and I walked in and flushed a single. Here are the pictures of Savannah's 2 points.


Spent the rest of Saturday working on my boat and getting it ready for the spring fishing season. I put in 2 swivel seats and I am wiring in a foot switch on my trolling motor. It is looking good and can't wait for warm weather to return.
Sunday went to walmart and Home Depot to get a few things but the main thing was a new crate so I could ship Waldo Monday morning spent the rest of the day watching NCAA and NASCAR but did get a little work done on the boat and took care of a few things around the kennels.
Then came Monday what a day it was. Tina's son called Sunday night saying they were going to induce labor on his wife Stacey so they would call us when things started happening. Well I had an appointment already made at Delta airlines and another appointment to get new teeth in Franklin. Got up at 2:00 AM left for the airport at 3:00 AM. Waldo had to be at the cargo terminal at 6:00 AM. I arrived at the airport a little after 5 and thought I was doing great went to the terminal I have always shipped from and Delta had moved now at 5 AM there was not anyone around to get directions from so I wandered around the airport for an hour and finally called and got Tina up and had her call Delta for directions and she called back and I finally found the terminal and got there at 6:20 which was 20 minutes late but they took Waldo anyhow which I was grateful for. I left there for Franklin and Tina called saying she was on her way to the hospital. Went to my first appoint at 7:30 they took impressions and started the process for my new teeth. Went back at 10:30 for the initial fitting and back at 2:30 to get my dentures. in the mean time Tina called and 12:07 Cameron Scott Metz was born he weighed 7 lb 5 oz and was 22 inches long he is quite the handsome fellow my 7th grand kid.

Found out at the dentist that they need to remove some boney structure from my lower jaw which they will do Wednesday March 20. After that heals I will be getting my implants sometime in May. My new teeth fit nice but I will be ready to get the implants and I won't have to worry about them anymore. Got home Monday night a little after 7:00 PM so from 2 AM to 7 PM was a long day.
Talked to gentleman moving from Evansville to Shoals and he had a female out of Miller bloodlines that was in heat and wanted her bred so he brought over Wednesday night and we bred her to Herkie and he left her at our house and I will breed her again Friday and he will pick her up then. I got pick of the litter for stud fee so it looks like I will have another dog on the market sometime around July.
I have rattled on long enough I won't put any training tips on this post maybe next week. Hope you all have a good weekend I am going on a preserve hunt Saturday so I will cover this next week with lotsa pictures I hope.
God Bless
Jim

3/18/2011

I just wanted to give you all who follow along an update on my #1 dog Gem. As you know Gem has cardiomyopathy and right sided heart failure. He was diagnosed in August at Purdue by canine cardiac specialist Dr. Magee. He was doing OK until around Christmas and then he started filling with fluid we had him tapped and they drew 10 1/2 cups of fluid from him them 2 weeks later, tapped again and 7 1/2 cups this time and then 2 weeks later another 9 1/2 cups. So I talked to a friend of mine who has bought puppies from me and she is also a Vet her name is Dr. Christina Barcus. She suggested another drug. I called my Vet and suggest this, my Vets called Dr. Magee at Purdue and they did a consultation over the phone and changed Gems drugs around they started him on the pill Christina suggested and upped the dosage on his canine cardio medicine in fact they doubled it. Well since then we have not had Gem back to have him tapped and today it has been 6 weeks and at this time he is not filling with any fluid. I am so happy even though he is officially retired I am just glad to have him around he is my couch potato buddy.
Here are a couple of picture one of Gem taken last Saturday (3-12-11) and the other is the offical last point on wild birds this was taken during a pheasant hunt in Benten county IN in Dec.
Hope you all have a good weekend and I am going to work on my next training tip over the weekend if I can get Tina to take some pictures.
God Bless
Jim

3/17/11

Todays blog is not about dogs or the kennels it is about far more serious things. And that is the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. My daughter Sara has start a project to try to help comfort the children in Japan. It is called Hand Made Help for Japan. My daughter is quite crafty and is making stuffed toys to send to the children in Japan. She is looking for anyone who sews, knits, crochets or makes hand made toys she will gather all she can and ship them to Japan. If you would like to read her story and help out copy and paste the link below in your browser address bar and read her blog and please help her if you can.


http://www.unfamiliarceiling.com/things-i-make/sewing-general/handmade-help-for-japan/




Sara and I appreciate it.
God Bless
Jim

3/16/2011

Well it has been a busy week so for this week. Bought a new washing machine Monday and had to install it. And yesterday I bought a new (used) deep freeze for Tina's son Justin. Well Tina said it wasn't big enough so I unloaded it and put it is the camper went to Home Depot and bought a new 7.0 CF deep freeze and went to Justin's house and moved out his old freezer (very heavy) and installed the new and put the old one in the truck sold it to a guy here at work. Last week I moved out and old dryer for Justin and moved in a new (used) dryer for him. I have figured out after moving all of the appliances is that I do not want to be an appliance deliveryman when I retire.
Took Waldo and Elmer to the Vet last night. Elmer got a blood test to check his kidney function because of the medicine he is on. Also took Waldo to get his health certificate so I can ship him to Connecticut on Monday.

Well today I am going to cover something that covers dogs but is not training it has to do with dog health. I am going to talk about cherry eye. First thing I want to say is that I am not a Vet and I am sure some people would disagree with what I have to say but with a lifetime with pointers I just know what has worked for me.
Cherry eye is the bulging of a tear duct that extends out in front of the dogs eye. It causes the dog no harm other than a small limit to their vision. The problem with cherry eye it is just plain butt ugly.
There are 3 options when it comes to repair cherry eye:
1. tuck and stitch
2. standard surgery removal
3. laser removal surgery
I will give my opinion on all 3 and tell which one I prefer.
Tuck and stitch is where your Vet would tuck the tear duct back in place and put a stitch in to hold it in place. The plus to this is the dog will retain 100% of the their tear production. The cost of this surgery is $750 to $1000. The minus to this surgery is that it is not guaranteed. The tear duct could possible dislodge again and require another surgery. For a lap dog this might be fine but for a working/hunting dog who takes a beating in the Field the chances of this happening again is very great.
Standard surgical removal is where the tear duct is removed by standard surgical removal and requires a small suture or 2 for minor bleeding. The minus to this is the loss of the tear duct. But this tear duct only supplies 20% of the tear production in the dogs eye. The remaining tear ducts will start to produce more tears to cover the loss of the one. With this surgery your Vet should run a tear test which will tell them how many tears your dog produces and whether they are a candidate for this surgery. The cost of this is around $100 and would be my second option.
My first option would be the laser surgery. It has the same minuses of the standard surgery and a tear test should be taken. But the plus to this is with the laser it cauterizes the small blood vessels and there is little or no bleeding. The cost of this type of surgery is $150 to $200 but in my opinion it is worth the few extra dollars for the laser surgery.
All of these are usually same day surgeries drop your dog off in the morning they do the surgery and make sure the dogs come out of the anesthesia OK and then you can pick you dog up later in the afternoon.
After either of the 2 removal surgeries I would suggest that you put the remainder of the salve and a bottle of artificial tears in your dog first aid kit. If hunting in early season when it is dry and dusty you might need to put the salve or the artificial tears in the dogs eyes just for safety sake.
Steve and Rosemary Prichard came in from Ohio to have the laser surgery their pointer, Kate. It was nice to see them again and spend some time talking dogs and just visiting. They could not find a Vet in their area that does the laser surgery so they decided to have the laser work done at our Vet. Kate is 9 months old now and come from Morgan's 2010 litter.
Here are some before and after pictures of Kate. As you can see in the before picture that Kate is in fine shape she is just not as beautiful as before and in the after pictures you can see the results and how beautiful she is again.
Please feel free to comment here if you disagree with any statements I made, but like I said I am no Vet just have a lifetime of experience.



This is Kate the evening before her surgery she is fine but the cherry eye is not very pleasing to the eye.





In the 2 pictures above is Katie's after pictures as you can see the red blob is gone and her eyes are back to normal. This was less than 6 hours after her surgery and she was so glad to see Mom and Dad and she was really cranked.



Well I hope this shed a little light on cherry eye and I hope to put a little training tip on here next week.
God bless,
Jim

3/14/11

Busy weekend at the kennels. Rosemary and Stephen Prichard drove in from Ohio and brought their pointer Katie to have a little surgery which I will cover in another blog later this week. It was nice to visit with them and when we met them at the hotel Friday morning to take their dog to our vet they were nice enough to pick us up at the tire shop so we could get new tires on suburban. We went to Shoney's for breakfast and the Prichards were kind enough to buy us breakfast. We then went back to the house and visited and spent time talking about dogs. they picked up Katie at 4:00 PM and she was doing great. It was really nice to see and have a chance to visit.
Saturday was puppy pick up day and Joe and Esther Pitts stopped by and picked up Miss Maggie from Missy and Jet's litter. They were really nice folks and Joe was quite knowledgeable when it comes to pointers. They brought their other 2 pointers, Rocky and Gilbert, with them so we were in pointer heaven. Later in the day the Summerfields from New Salem, IL to pick the other puppy from Missy's litter. Their new puppy is named Maggie. They have 2 young ladies who really loved the puppies. I have posted puppy pick up pictures below.
Sunday the weather was nice so I go a few things done around the kennels. got my little Geo Tracker back on the road, new brakes and calipers and new belts and we are back on the road. got the Geo out of the garage and pulled in the boat and started getting ready for some early spring fishing. I am goning to mount new seats, and a new battery box. I also got the grill out of the garage and back on the deck and Tina whipped up us a couple of steaks and baked patatoes. They were great.
I will not be posting any training tips this week instead I am going to post a blog about dog health I will be doing this later this week so make sure you tune in and ready an few words about cherry eye.

Stephen and Rosemary Prichard with Kate

Joe and Esther Pitts from Garfield Hgts Ohio

The Suumerfields, Cheyenne, Savannah, Lise and John from West Salem, IL