Montana in the Rear View Mirror: Post 2 of 3

Of our 10 dogs along this year, 4 were ryman-type Setters.  We had two experienced adults plus two 10 month old newbies.  There is another new puppy in the household, Breeze, but she was only 10 weeks old.  Friends made an amazing offer to take care of Breeze while we were in Montana so on the way north we swung through Minnesota and dropped her off with them.  I think Breeze had a fabulous time with them and their 9 year old daughter.  This is one of the update pics we received while on the road:

Montana served up some less than favorable weather this year including several days of rain, so I have fewer photos than usual.  But following are a sample of the setters at work:

Sally handling sharptail grouse nicely

We had thick fog one morning which is very unusual for MT hunting.  My GPS told me that Storm was on point up ahead and as I approached I could barely make her out, she is the tiny dot standing between the windmill and the bales. 

This time her GPS said she was on point but she was just over the lip of a hill, backing Jack who was on point in the next draw over.

There are many lessons to learn on the road and learning to take water from a bottle is an important one in Montana.  Here Kate shares with Belle.

Kate

The real joy of taking young dogs is watching them really "turn on" which is when their hunting instincts kick in and leaves the puppyness behind.  It happened to Flint on this day in a nice sharptail draw where I hunted him with his mother, Sally, and I was even lucky enough to drop the first bird he pointed.

I was very pleased with my little 28 ga that I had gotten at the end of season last year, it is so light to carry! 

 That little gun dropped even big phez over points with no problem.

Sally: Is it my turn?

I usually just scissor off hair with burrs in it rather than endure tedious grooming but this was Storms beautiful tail so I did take the time to brush it out. 

She's a classy gal.

Thanks all for looking, I will work on Part 3 soon!