And life goes on....

My plan has always been to hunt Remington my GSP under my Harris Hawk or in the future a Falcon. We have put allot of hours of training in and have been out on two hunts with both dog and bird.

Remington has never been one to keep weight on and hence i have been feeding him a high energy mix that seems to have worked. He's bone headed and full of energy but a lovable rouge. My wife has a love hate relationship with him which amuses me no end. Hes one of the family.....

Last week end i started to notice a difference in Remington , he had less energy and was loosing weight. On Tuesday i spoke with my wife how i felt something wasn't right. he wasn't interested in eating or drinking and had no energy which is unusual for a dog that is only 18months old.

Of to the local Vet we went and found he's potassium and sodium levels where all out of whack and he was totally dehydrated. The vet felt it was one of two things Addison's  or Leptospirosis.

Yesterday the Vet ran the ACTH stimulation which Remington came back positive for. I hope to pick him up today. He spent the night with an IV to get fluids back into his system and will start a regiment of two hormones and steroids.

Addison's effects the way a dog handles stress. so the next few months are finding out what his stress triggers are and stabilizing his medication. This will inevitably mean he may never hunt but will be a house dog. Stress isn't just negative but can be a positive thing too. I feel however if done right there is a possibility that he may be able to keep hunting. something i know he loves doing.

The medicine he will be on for the rest of his life is not cheap one of the meds he will be taking is Percorten-V 1-800 pet meds has it at $200 the vet charges $270 all vet meds has it for $167. When Remington broke his leg i took out insurance from Best Pet Meds the insurance is $18 a month. Most of this vet bill will be covered but once he his $2500 they will no longer pay for this treatment.

Hence a decision had to be made a vile of Percorten-V contains enough Meds for 2 months depending on where we get it this will be $160-$270 every 2 months or ($1020 - $1620) plus any other issues. Do we spend this or do we decided to put Remington to sleep. The answer from my wife and i was we spend the money and give him the best life possible.

But this decision produced interesting comments from a few different sources which made me think about things. One person said "oh just have the dog put down and get another , you have all ready paid out enough and why pay more. your a better pet owner than me for keeping him".  Another person turned round and said, "well the cost of the meds can only go down"

It actually told me more about these two people than anything else. Both people are Falconers. One person see's the animals in their care as an object to do with as they sees fit. If the animal doesn't reach its full potential they gets rid of them. The other is about finding a solution to getting the full potential. I don't think the person that said the price will only go down really knows what he said or the significance of what he said. In my opinion the first person will never get the full potential out of their hunting buddies because he expects it to all ready be there and when its not he is disappointed and doesn't change tack to compensate for it. This person is then more about results that make them look good instantly than getting the same result but over a diffrent period of time by taking a different tack.

This then got me thinking about other things are the animals that we bring into our lives just a monetary value to do a job to act as a tool and if they don't do the job got rid of or are they something that brings immense enjoyment as they learn we learn. They thought of having Remington put down was to much for me and reduced me to tears. I have had so much fun with this dog but i also don't believe there is not a way to get him to his full potential by altering his med, diet and training.  

I know what Falconer i want to be and it's the one that gets the full potential out of the animals in my care, yes there may be some bumps in the road or hurdles to come but anything is possible. I don't think i can put a money value on them , they are not tools but living things.  In getting the full potential out of my hunting buddies i feel i will then be getting the full potential out of me as a falconer but more importantly as a person.     

One Slow Summer

Well June is out of the way and allot has happened.

Tech Ed has been and gone and i learnt allot about Team Foundation Server and SharePoint. Also taught a class at the Conference on Team Foundation Server which was accidental but allot of fun.

The OFA Picnic took place on June the 8th and it was pretty good by all standards great turn out and they tried something new with the introductions of Workshops.

A full write up can be read here.

 

I was asked to run for treasurer which i did with some reluctance. I was PR officer for the British in-line Puck Hockey Association at one time and the political just about killed me hence the reluctance. One of the things i am proud about though is i did re-design the logo for BIPHA and the BRSF which they still use to day. So far this has been pretty good we had our first board meeting. I have known Robert Huber a while and he makes all my hoods. Perry White i have gone to for veterinary and squirrel hawking advise. Ken Riddle is now the president and if you can get his book it's a dam good read and in my opinion should be compulsory reading for anyone starting out in falconry..

Rob Huber , Kelly Rawlings and Perry White all got elected too but you can read about it at the above link.

Robert Huber, Kelly Rawlings, Perry White, Ken Riddle and myself.

Ken gave a excellent workshop on imping, Ryan Van Zants has shown me how to one form of imping with Carbon Fiber and bambo , Kens version was a lot more complicated and used beading needles and pieces of feather shaft (Calamus).

Ken Riddle Imping Workshop

I also won a Short Cuff Glove at the picnic, first time i have won anything so was pleased with that.

I have about 40 pigeons right now with still more to come. so plenty to continue my dog training. still working on Woah and using the Delmar Smith and Willow Creek Kennels method of training and so far it seems to be coming along all but slowly (which is more down to me than the dog) David Gowdy also has an excerlant book on GSP training.


Harris Update
Got a call from the Coulsons to say my bird will be ready mid August which will be just in time to get going for the new season.

Game Scents and more dog training

One of the things i want to develop is remingtons nose. Remington is great on visual point but get over welmed with scent smells in the field. Witht hat in mind i head over to Gun Dog Supply and got a couple of scent bottles.

I bought the Quail and the Rabbit scents to see if it really makes a difference. I also got a large bumper. I plan on using this for training an will be wrapping it with rabbit fur.

Remington has pointed and chased a few Rabbits which I'm delighted with and i just want to encourage and re-enforce that. We are also currently working on the woah command and making sure he is steady on point.

This will work for a while allowing my pigeon loft to catch up on young , so far i have 5 breeding pairs with a mixture of Racing Homers and Common Pigeons.

First Quail Flush

Took him out to Copan again today. We have been working on field control, getting him to come back when he is told, walking to heal without a leash.

We got an excellent flush on a covey of quail just before we left. Once he got to 200 feet i called him back from the chase and he came right back. We need to work on our holding and pointing but so far i have be delighted with how he has been behaving

I was expecting more turkey hunters out there but the place was deserted but for safety sake i put a hunter orange life vest on him just in case.. We meet some old boys running Beagles and Remington was very well behaved the entire time. It was interesting comparing the two breeds and it was nice just enjoying the country side with a fellow outdoors-man.