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12/29/08 |
        
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Hunting was an aspect of Jack Russell life that had interested me for years. In the late summer of 2007, at the invitation of a couple of friends, I made my first venture into the field hunting with my little male Bailey. I left the house at 4:00 a.m. and headed up to Maine. I met my friends at Rob McCaslin's home, and we headed to the fields around 10:00 a.m. in search of groundhogs. It was a beautiful day, and my intention was to just observe and get an idea of what hunting was all about. I was still a little nervous and had no intention of letting my little man off lead.We tramped all over several properties that morning with the seasoned dogs checking out a lot of holes, but showing no interest in any of them. As we headed back to the car with the intention of getting some lunch, one of the dogs dropped into a hole that they had checked on the way in. After a few minutes, we could hear some noise coming from the sette and the dog in the hole started baying. Rob used the Deblin to locate where they were and then started poking around with the bar. He got into the pipe in a couple of spots and located both dog and hog. He dropped the bar into the sette behind the hog to keep it from walling in, and then they let a couple of the other dogs in to work it a little. Bailey was back in the truck at this point, and Rob told me to go get him. We put a collar on him and I dropped him on the ground. He was all in a tizzy and knew that something really exciting was going on, but he wasn't quite sure what. Rob took the dog in the hole out and had me drop Bailey into the opening he had made. The hole was straight up and down, and Bailey couldn't figure out how to get himself all the way in. Rob pulled him out and opened the hole a little further back. Bailey dropped back down, settled in, and came face to face with a groundhog! He popped out of that hole so fast, twisting around to look at me as if to say 'What the heck was that?' He went right back down and worked for a while and then we pulled him out. As we were standing around talking, the hog popped out of the hole, practically ran over my feet and darted off into the woods.Below are some pictures of that first trip into the field. Although I never let my boy off his lead to roam in the fields, he was definitely turned on by the experience, and I knew that I was hooked too.
Hunting September 2007: Rob McCaslin
Bailey - upper left - watching one of the other dogs work
Bailey - going in for the first time
There's the look - 'Did you see what's down there????'
Settling in to work
Bailey engaging the groundhog
Groundhog - no worse for the wear
This site was last updated 12/29/08 |
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