But she is having a lot of fun doing it.
So Belle has been with me for three months now. In about another month or so, she will be heading out to the great wide west to begin her first season as a part of our crew. Sadly, the south no longer has quail populations like it once did so not much "training" going on but I do have ample room for her to get out and run. She does that quite well. The national forest near me has a good variety of habitat types to introduce her to and let her run around like a demon in. She is such a little bitty thing though that sometimes all I can see of her is the tip of her tail over the tops of the palmettos.
She does love to run. She always has one helluva smile on her face when we are out there. It is still a little disconcerting to not be able to see her all of the time but she does a good job of checking in with me.
It is a good thing that the woods have been wet this year because it has been a challenge to get her to drink from a water bottle. And even when she does, it is mostly as a very last resort. Like another setter I know, she dearly loves to wallow in the mud.
As I said earlier, not much training goes on out there but she did get her first point this weekend. On a big ole hen turkey. You could tell she was like ummmmmmmmmmm what am I doing? But she did it with style.
I wish I could say the same about her swimming technique. I don't worry about her not going in the water because she truly loves the water, but we are working on her swimming. The only place I could think of to take her that would be safe for her to swim and also shallow enough that she can go deeper into the water without just being tossed in the deep end is a beach on the gulf. All the lakes and rivers around me are gator infested.
We have gone to the beach a couple times and she pretty much attempts to walk on her back legs and flails around with her front when it's too deep for her to walk normally. Even when she can't touch anymore with her back legs. Wouldn't ya know it? Her swimming technique called in a gator to investigate.
She did get her butt up a little bit, but like her pointing, she is still not sure if that's the way she is supposed to do it. I am sure in time she will figure it out and we will no longer be such a spectacle to the people watching us on the beach, or of interest to the beach cruising gators. Until then, like our runs in the woods, apparently out swimming sessions will be short.
She has been great fun to have around though and I had forgotten how much trouble a young'un can get into. I eagerly await the fall and look forward to seeing her progress on the prairie.
So Belle has been with me for three months now. In about another month or so, she will be heading out to the great wide west to begin her first season as a part of our crew. Sadly, the south no longer has quail populations like it once did so not much "training" going on but I do have ample room for her to get out and run. She does that quite well. The national forest near me has a good variety of habitat types to introduce her to and let her run around like a demon in. She is such a little bitty thing though that sometimes all I can see of her is the tip of her tail over the tops of the palmettos.
She does love to run. She always has one helluva smile on her face when we are out there. It is still a little disconcerting to not be able to see her all of the time but she does a good job of checking in with me.
It is a good thing that the woods have been wet this year because it has been a challenge to get her to drink from a water bottle. And even when she does, it is mostly as a very last resort. Like another setter I know, she dearly loves to wallow in the mud.
As I said earlier, not much training goes on out there but she did get her first point this weekend. On a big ole hen turkey. You could tell she was like ummmmmmmmmmm what am I doing? But she did it with style.
I wish I could say the same about her swimming technique. I don't worry about her not going in the water because she truly loves the water, but we are working on her swimming. The only place I could think of to take her that would be safe for her to swim and also shallow enough that she can go deeper into the water without just being tossed in the deep end is a beach on the gulf. All the lakes and rivers around me are gator infested.
We have gone to the beach a couple times and she pretty much attempts to walk on her back legs and flails around with her front when it's too deep for her to walk normally. Even when she can't touch anymore with her back legs. Wouldn't ya know it? Her swimming technique called in a gator to investigate.
She did get her butt up a little bit, but like her pointing, she is still not sure if that's the way she is supposed to do it. I am sure in time she will figure it out and we will no longer be such a spectacle to the people watching us on the beach, or of interest to the beach cruising gators. Until then, like our runs in the woods, apparently out swimming sessions will be short.
She has been great fun to have around though and I had forgotten how much trouble a young'un can get into. I eagerly await the fall and look forward to seeing her progress on the prairie.