Hunting Season in Full Swing in the Great White No

[chiendog]

Hi All,

Just popped into town today for a couple of hours and then it's right back into the field with dogs, guns and a new pair of boots ( we've been chasing birds pretty much every day, all day since the first week of September...and I finally wore a hole through my boots...)

Anyway, I thought I would mention that I will be hunting for the next two weeks with friends from Germany. Among them is Tanja Breu Knaup, a very well known breeder and judge of Weims from Dortmund. I want to interview her for a possible magazine article and/or short video while she is here. Her knowledge of the breed is very extensive and she and her husband are hard-core hunters with years of experience in the field. Before I sit down to tape the interview, I thought it may be a good idea to ask you all for any questions you think I should ask her about the breed, training, hunting...anything at all.

Personally, I am most interested in seeing how her dogs work in our conditions and to hear her thoughts on our ways of hunting. I also want to make sure she sees how our dogs work over here so that she will have a better idea as to what we look for in a dog and will therefore, hopefully, be able to identify good candidates for us to breed to from German stock.

So, do you have any questions you would like me to ask Tanja?

P.S. I should mention that I have already hunted for a couple of days with my German visitors. They arrive last thursday. Their dogs are adapting very well to our game, learning quickly. So far, what I have seen has confirmed what I already knew about German dogs but has also showed me some surprising things as well. I will detail my observations when I come back into town in a few days.

[marjolein]

I am curious as to whether they like the booze or not?

[chiendog]

I will ask them as soon as they recover from their hangover.

[marjolein]

LOL!! Have fun mate!

[weimaranermama]

Woow, you made a party also. Give Tanja my greetings. Hope you have wonderful huntingdays.
Weidmannsheil.
Ina van Ringen

[tasha]

as this was posted a while ago.. what were your observations of the german dogs?? and the surprises???

[chiendog]

Hi All,

I just got back into town from hunting pheasants in the US, and I will be heading out into the field again tomorrow. I will do my best to have some photos and a blog update done in the next few days. I've just been too busy chasing birds all over the place to sit down at this computer!

Before I head out the door though I will post a few quick highlights/stories/observations…in no particular order.

1. Saskatchewan was HOT in early September. Daytime highs were almost 30 degrees! There were lots and lots and lots of birds (grouse and partridge) but we could only work the dogs in the very early morning and again in the evening. Nevertheless, it was a great trip. All the dogs I brought along for training did very well including 5 month old Henri (my new Weim pup) who pointed his first wild birds!

The highlight of the Saskatchewan trip was when my wife’s Pont Audemer Spaniel Uma pointed a partridge that I managed to shoot and then pointed another one as she was returning from the retrieve with the first one still in her mouth. When it (the second one) flushed, I shot it and Uma retrieved it as well!

The opening of the season in Manitoba was a bit cooler, especially for the early morning duck hunts I enjoyed with friends from Ontario who travel here every year to hunt waterfowl. I mainly worked with Zeiss, my friend’s 18 month-old longhaired Weim, who did a fantastic job fetching ducks and geese.

The upland season in Manitoba was so-so in terms of bird numbers, but absolutely outstanding in terms of company! 4 friends from Germany hunted with us every day for almost three weeks. Their dogs ( a male and female Longhaired Weimaraner) adapted very well to our game and terrain. It was a real treat watching them learn the ropes of upland and waterfowl hunting as it is done in Canada.

I will have lots to say about what I saw/learned hunting with them on my blog and/or right here.

In the meantime, if you want to watch a very home-made (ie: pretty bad) video of me and my female Souris hunting snipe (yes, snipe!) last Sunday, have a look at this: www.craigkoshykphoto.ca/Snipe.mov (you may want to keep your finger on the volume control, the wind was pretty loud that day!).

Cheers!

[marjolein]

Cool video Craig.

[weimaranermama]

Craig, thanx for sharing your hunting of snipe video with us. I liked it very much. Super to see your weim working, pointing and retrieving on the snipe. I know it's very difficult to hunt them. For many yers ago, when we were allowed to hunt on snipe here in Holland, we went out for hunting them. It's a special thing to do, for the dogs and the hunter as well, as you tell in your video. For many years we are not allowed to hunt on shipes any more, there are to less birds and they like to protect them. Also the pardrigde hunt is forbidden. I am sure your German friends liked the hunt in Canada very much.

[tasha]

fabulous well done Henri and Uma must have been a real thrill seeing them do so well

[chiendog]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

I've been meaning to sit down and write more about our adventures but the weather has been fantastic so we have been spending most of our waking hours out in the field hunting. I have a few minutes now as i drink my tea at 5 a.m. getting ready for a day of duck hunting with my uncle. I am not sure which dog I will take...they are all very tired after three straight days of hunting grouse in the woods. We have been finding a lot of birds and I've been carrying both shotgun and video camera. So stay tuned for another short clip or two of me fumbling about the forest like Elmer Fudd...




I've mentioned Henri, the pup and Uma, the Ponto but I should also mention Souris-Manon (she's the Weim in the snipe video). She has had a fantastic season...even though she is almost 9 years old now. She still runs like the wind...but will slow down once in a while to save her energy if I run her for more than 2 hours at a time. I've also noticed that she needs a bit more time to recover from two or three days of solid hunting. So as I hear her snore in the room beside me right now, I think I will leave her at home this morning and fetch the ducks myself. Later on, my wife and I will take all the dogs out to the forest once again for a short hunt and photo session. I think they could all use a break!

I will post the highlight video and new photos soon.