Walk in the Woods

One of the things our dogs like to do is hunt. 

While we walk  - they hunt.

Always air scenting, always sniffing the ground and trying to find something to  put up. Often they either see a squirrel jumping from tree to tree, or scare a rabbit out of hiding. Today's finds were wild Turkeys and a rabbit that just refused to bolt from the broken down cars. I managed to scare an unidentifed bird, which I think was a grouse of some sort.

Here are a series of photos from this glorious walk today.

During the walk the group will often come back to me to "check in", in this particular photo Gyp caught scent of something, as there were a lot of good smells today. Must have been a lot of activity in the woods last night and this morning.

Gyp, Lily & Sandie

Lily smells some water varmints near thw creek.

  Lily loves to bite and chew at almost everything, which is why she earned the nic name of "Lily Goat" . Often when we get to a water hole she is in there, biting at the water, ice or chewing the wet leaves, sticks and clumps of grass.

She likes to bite the ice, Sandie just doesn't get it. ..

"What?"

 What can I say... They have a good recall....

Yippee - Just comin back to check in!

Leaping Lizards! (Gyp air scenting behind)

Lily has learned more and more about hunting each time we take the group out for walks. By watching the older dogs, she has started to blossom with this natural trait the breed has. During this particular walk today she started to actually 'hunt' more often than just playing and running beside her dam. By using her nose, taking in smells and learning to be a productive member of her canine pack she put up a couple of wild Turkeys and helped the pack on a failed chase. (more importantly learned to be back up when called for assisance)   Today while we were taking a break (having a water break - photo session) we heard something in the woods, and it turned out to be a wild Turkey in the tree tops, which couldn't cope with the activity and flew away. A real positive reward to all this keen interest in hunting and nose use.

Lily looking for critters in the dead log.

"I know I hear something."

Searching the tree tops for Turkeys

 One of the places I like to take the group if the weather is good is to the 'ol cars' a pile left by the previous owner of the property.  There are about five old vehicles of various decades left to rust. This makes great homes for all sorts of wild life and especially rabbits. While there probably was rabbits here today, they were long gone by the time we got there!

Gyp knows there's Rabbits in that car...

"I'll Drive."

Lily listening into the forest

Hope you enjoyed my walk as much as I did walking it..

Barbara