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jmurr

MH
Posts:158

11/22/2009 1:17 PM
Wonderful, Torsti. I'm sending the address! Think about what Sunnie was doing with those hens some more. Was it really the extended pause before pounce of a predator encountering prey (point) or was she just young, inexperienced and perhaps somewhat intimidated by those hens? Jere > Jere wrote: >>>> found is spikes. 2 - 3" fresh, dry snow on top of ice needs spikes that go down to > the ice (crampons) I don't have any. We use rubber slip on devices with short > carbide spike inserts. Some folks here drill the soles of their boots and put > automobile ice studs in the holes. I haven't had slipping trouble on any snow > surface where the foot penetrates the snow surface at least a little. Many winters > we have way too much wet ice!>>> > > Yes, the spike solution is a good one but since I am of a lazy nature I do not like > the idea of taking on and of the rubber slips all the time and then forget where I > have laid them. It is like with my clothes, I do many different things every day > and have to change clothes several times. I hate it! Maybe I should concentrate on > one task at a time ) > > The Merrel booths have a good grip on ice and snow but they are notorious in > falling apart and they are as expensive as other good boots. Hence I hope that I > some day will stumble into boots that are both durable and have a good grip on ice. > > Now to something else. We have discussed scent pointing and sight pointing here on > this list. Yesterday we finally had a sunny day here and thought that we could > introduce Sunnie to birds. She sight pointed neighbours big hens when she was some > 9 - 10 weeks old. Now she is 15 - 16 weeks old and we wanted to see what she does > with put out partridge hidden in tall grass. We put out 4 partridge and let her > find their scent by walking towards the wind. She had no idea of how to handle the > scent but we did not interrupt her in any way. She slowly worked her way to the > birds until it suddenly flushed in front of her. She was mighty surprised but after > a few seconds of consideration she decided that she can chase the bird and did so. > > After a couple of birds she started to hesitate when she had located the source of > the scent and an embryo to a point was born. When she had flushed and chased the > last of the put out birds we put her in the car for half an hour to rest. Then we > relocated to where 2 of the birds had landed and let her search. Now she showed > that she expected to find something and did so after a while. She learned something > about using the wind and the difference between ground scent and body scent, since > the birds had moved on foot after having landed. And finally - she developed a > steady point! All this within 30 minutes of learning by herself with no > interference from us. > > My conclusion from these two events, when she sight pointed a hen a month ago, and > now learned to scent point partridge, is that scent pointing might also be the same > as sight pointing! Since Sunnie sight pointed the hen without any learning at all, > then sight pointing must be inherited. Then she learned to connect the scent of a > bird to the picture of a flushing bird and then, but only then, she did start to > scent point. > > So.....so what? Well: A "sight pointer" must hence be a dog that has not learned > to connect the scent of a bird to the sight of a bird....or? I come to think of > myself when I as an engineer do not trust the instruments in the control room but > have to go out into the engine room to physically check the condition of the > engine. I could do it because I have a real, valid reason to do it or I could do it > because I have a poor nerve stability - in other words I am nervous and do not > trust the instruments. > > The few sight pointers that I have seen have been nervous dogs. Anyway, Sunnies > fast development from a sight pointer to a scent pointer was pretty interesting to > follow. And whatever she is - she is not nervous! > > I caught all that on video tape and when I looked through it several times I > understood that it will loose most of its educational value for a novice birddog > owner if shortened at all. I then took a copy into the computer and tried to > compress it to usable internet format but still 30 minutes compressed video is a > huge amount of Mb (100) and the quality deteriorated to worse than poor. > > Maud an me are good with digital photos but we do not know anything about working > with digital video. > > Anyway, if someone is interested in this 30 minute video in full format (full > quality) on a DVD, send us your name and address and I can burn a DVD for you and > send it by snail mail. The cost is so small so lets not talk about it. > > > Borta Med Vindens Kennel > www.rospigan.net > "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, > he will not bite you; that is the principal difference > between a dog and a man." /Mark Twain >

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