August is a busy month! Dan, Jeff and I meet at the kennel early and then head off for our particular duties.
We’re finishing up this year’s Gun Dog training using wild-acting bobwhite quail that are flushed into grouse cover. In our Puppy Foundation program, we start young dogs on pigeons and bobwhite quail. We train older dogs on local sharp-tailed grouse and take a select group to the prairie each weekend for work on sharp-tails, pheasants and Huns. We also begin serious conditioning and tune-up training for the coming hunting season.
Days start early at prairie training camp. Alarms ring at 4:30 to allow plenty of time for dark-roasted coffee and perhaps an English muffin or two. Outside, not a sound can be heard.
Within an hour, though, things start happening. Horse trailer doors squeak as they open and halters, bridles and bits are readied. Horses whinny as they’re gathered from the corral and loaded. Dogs are awake now, too. They lazily uncurl, stretch, shake and then begin barking in anticipation.
By 6:30, the sun has risen above the horizon and the first brace of dogs is turned loose.
Jerry and Frank LaNasa, his friend and partner in this prairie training camp since 1998, have spent the better part of August driving to southeastern North Dakota. Previously, each had traveled to the prairie to train their strings of dogs, but to different destinations—Jerry to the Sheyenne National Grassland and Frank to the camp of professional trainer Randy Downs in the far western part of the state.
Sometime in the mid 1990s, the pair decided they wanted their own place and a more permanent situation. They did their research and scouted out likely areas. Then they discovered a unique area that borders the Coteau des Prairie, a plateau 200 miles long and 100 miles wide. It rises above the prairie flatland and is punctuated by beautiful, glacial lakes. The farms were few but vast and landowners were warm and welcoming. They found a place to rent that had a nice horse barn and room for lots of dogs and thus began their now 15-year tradition.
Changes—all on a vast, and perhaps, irreversible scale—have hit North Dakota since Jerry and Frank began their camp.
• Taking advantage of the steady winds on the high Coteau des Prairie, wind farms were constructed on about 14,000 acres of land. Each turbine is 262 feet tall and has blades that are 122 feet long.
• The discovery of oil in the Bakken Formation shale to the west and north has affected the entire state.
• Changes in the federal farm bill allowed more than 1,000,000 acres of CRP land to be planted to commodity crops like soybeans and corn. All those fields of alfalfa and prairie plants are now gone.
Jerry and Frank are well suited as training partners. They have similar work ethics and are extremely knowledgeable, whether discussing field trials, training methods, bird dog history or bird dog health. Both have remarkable memories, too. Not only can they rattle off pedigrees of dogs here and long passed but they seemingly remember every placement of every field trial.
It just might be the highlight of the year for both. Even though Frank is a serious competitor in horseback shooting dog and all-age field trials and Jerry is a professional dog trainer, the fun and gratification for both springs from this basic training and exposure to wild birds. Frank uses this time on the prairie to get his dogs in peak condition and readiness for fall field trials. Jerry focuses on steadiness training, handling and young dog development.
Frank is a St. Paul guy, born and raised, and graduated from St. Thomas University in St. Paul, where he was the starting star quarterback for three years. Frank and his wife, Jean, own Frank LaNasa Insurance, an independent agency that offers both commercial and personal coverage.
Jean is not only a partner in business but she’s an expert horsewoman and usually travels with Frank to field trials. She knows dogs, too, and acts as Frank’s scout.
Frank is generally known for his pointers but lately he bought, and has been winning with, two very nice setters—Houston’s Blackjack and Northwoods Nirvana. His string of winning dogs is impressive.
• 4X CH Chief’s Prospector
• CH Creole Storm
• 2X CH/RU-CH Trouble My Friend
• 3X CH/RU-CH Isanti Blacktop
• RU-CH Dancing Queen
• 5X CH/RU-CH Front N’ Center
• 6X CH/2X RU-CH Centerpiece
• 2X CH Homemade
• CH Lil’ Miss Sunshine
• 2X RU-CH True Confidence
• CH Houston’s Blackjack
Temperatures in June might have been a little chillier than many people would have liked but it sure made for excellent dog training weather. Jerry, Dan and Jeff only missed one day due to rain. July brought more summer-like temperatures—including several hot and steamy days—but the guys were up early and trained every day.
Our summer Gun Dog Training Program is geared toward young dogs and focuses on steadiness around birds and handling in the field.
It was a reunion of sorts for our 2012 Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis litter. Females Lucy (Ken Johnson) and Tana (Brad Gudenkauf) joined brothers Snickers (Bart Salisbury) and Roy (Chris Bye) for the training.
Two other setters included Jameson, the second dog we’ve trained for Justin Hall and Lottie, a female owned by Ross Grandlienard. The lone pointer of the group was a classy female, Dagny, owned by Scott Berry.
The group completed the training with flying colors and we’re proud of them all!
On a recent radiant morning complete with blue skies, gentle breezes and tweeting songbirds, Jerry and Jeff were out in the field.
Dogs are here for the first part of our Gun Dog Training Program. They can range in age from as young as eight months to two or more years-of-age but all must have been exposed to at least one season of birds.
Jerry developed his own training method that integrates a dog’s natural instincts, how dogs learn and proper ecollar use. Simultaneously, he teaches stauchness, backing, stop-to-flush and steady-to-wing-and-shot. All training occurs in the field—on, around and between birds.
This unique training method allows Jerry to move the dogs along at a fast rate while retaining and enhancing the dog’s intensity, focus and style.
The first stop is a conditioning lesson to teach the dog (Dottie) to stop on stimulation from the flank. No bird is flushed.
Next the dog (Dottie) is lead to an area where a backing dummy is set up. Jerry teaches the dog to stop when another dog is on point and the association between another dog on point and a bird in the air. Jeff lets a pigeon go from his bird bag and shoots a blank pistol as it flies away.
The dog is then lead to an area some distance away where a pigeon is hidden in a bird-releaser. Depending on the dog’s level of development, it might stop-to-flush (Riser, first photo; Dusty, second photo). As the dog advances, it will point the bird (Kiki, third photo).
The highest praise is when Jerry touches the dogs. Kiki gets encouragement in the field and Dottie earns pets after her training session.
The weather here in southwest Georgia has been lovely and the bobwhite quail plentiful. Due to the warm temperatures, Jerry starts early in the morning, breaks in the middle of the day and then works until dark. All the strong storms have swung to our north so no days have been washed out.
Jerry has identified more than 30 wild covey locations on the Miami Plantation and, here on Arrowhead Farms, several of the put-out coveys and all the Johnny house birds are thriving.
Jerry and I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to live and work in southwest Georgia. The training opportunities have been outstanding and the quail coveys couldn’t be more thrilling when they flush wild and strong. Best of all, the dogs are healthy and making excellent progress in the field.
Jerry and I have been in the Thomasville area of southwestern Georgia since January 5 and now are fully in the groove. We’ve even started eating grits, pimento cheese and mayhaw jelly.
Since there were few reported wild coveys on the 600-acre farm where the kennel and house are located, Jerry reserved 175 quail and planned to put out coveys. He explored the grounds to find 12 spots with good cover.
In the afternoon of the day he picked up the quail, we placed 12 birds and spread a bucket of milo at each location. He put the balance of 31 birds in the Johnny house.
After giving the quail a bit of time to settle in, Jerry started working dogs on them. He has also driven the quick six miles to the Miami Plantation, a 2,000-acre plantation managed specifically for wild birds that is part of our farm.
The dogs have pointed quail in different locations and in various types of habitat—including mown and harrowed strips, edges near deciduous shrubs and small trees, in knocked down (un-identified) cane-y plants and near clumps of broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicus).
Even though the habitat can be diverse, one genus of plants provides a unifying look and feel to the landscape. Stately pine trees, either longleaf (Pinus palustris) or loblolly (Pinus taeda), tower high overhead.
Frank LaNasa and I shut down our North Dakota training camp recently and, as usual, the closing was bittersweet. The birds were plentiful and all dogs gained invaluable experience. Plus, we had a blast.
Good friends and clients Steve Snyder and Barry Frieler made the trip west to see their dogs in action on the prairie. Leroy Peterson spent a weekend with us, also. (Leroy founded the “Peterson” setters, which produced the famous Houston, owned by Paul Hauge.)
I had derbies Grits and Vixen and four shooting dogs–Lager, Liz, Parmigiano and Kate. Frank had his three pointers plus two setters, Houston’s Blackjack and young Northwoods Nirvana.
But now it’s time to move on. Frank will travel with his string to several horseback championships. Our dogs will transition to their respective roles: compete in the Wisconsin and Minnesota walking championships; be members of our Bowen Lodge guiding string; and/or be returned to their owners for a season of grouse hunting in the woods.
Great things can be accomplished by prairie training in summer.
~ Jack Harper, Bird Dogs and Field Trials, 1983
There is no better place to evaluate a bird dog than on the prairies. In this vast open countryside, every move the dog makes can be followed and analyzed. You see how the dog uses the wind and what objectives it chooses to hunt. Often the temperatures are warm and the ground is hard so you learn how the dog copes with stress and how much desire and heart it possesses. Plus, an inefficient gait, unattractive carriage or poor ground application can’t be hidden.
This summer as usual, my good friend and training partner, Frank LaNasa, and I head out to a camp we’ve had in North Dakota for 13 years. We spend long weekends working our small strings of dogs from horseback. Our days are lengthy ones that start at 4:30 in the morning and end after dark but we love it.
Running side by side with some of the very best dogs is an excellent way to observe and learn. Frank’s string is as good a yardstick as can be found. His five includes two female pointer champions, CH Homemade and CH Lil’ Miss Sunshine, a pointer male True Confidence and setters Houston’s Blackjack and Northwoods Nirvana.
Our string consists of five setters—Northwoods Highclass Kate (owned by Barry Frieler), Northwoods Lager (Jim Bires), Northwoods Parmigiano (Paul Hauge), Northwoods Grits (Bob Senkler) and Snyder’s Liz (Steve Snyder)—and Betsy and I own the lone pointer, Northwoods Vixen.
A more spectacular place to train dogs can’t be found. And if the dog work doesn’t attract your attention, the vistas surely will.
For the months of May through August, our focus is training dogs to be steady to wing and shot. With invaluable help from Jeff Hintz, Dan and I worked a talented group of young dogs. All possessed natural instincts and trainability that made them a joy to work with.