Pup Started Running Today
My 7 month old pup Barney, out of Kevins' Droopy X Emma cross ran his first snowshoe hare really well today. The past couple of weeks I've been able to get him on a good number of cottontails and he has done pretty good on them. Staying on some of them for 100yds. or so. But he hadn't opened up and really started running them. It's more like walking along the line with his nose down. This morning I took him out into some Christmas tree plantations with about 4" of fresh snow on the ground. A very fresh set of hare tracks came out from underneath a tree where one got up out ahead of us. As soon as Barney put his nose in the first track, his tail went up wagging, and off he went. He had run it out about 500yds. to the west before he opened up the first time. I could barely hear him. The next time he opened up was about 300yds. to the north. Then the next time was about 500yds. to the east. The hare was hooking back in. The last time he opened up about 200yds. out and coming straight in at me. So I was really looking for that hare now, but it never came by and the pup didn't sound off again. I gave the pup 15 mintues to come in before going out to look for him. Just as I started to head out, here he comes running back in to me. All and all, he was on that hare for 35 minutes from the time he struck the track until his last bark. I always get a rush hearing a pup bark on track the first time. So I'm going to rest him up tomorrow and get back out there on Monday. I'm still trying to shoot that first one so that he can get a mouthfull of fur.
My 7 month old pup Barney, out of Kevins' Droopy X Emma cross ran his first snowshoe hare really well today. The past couple of weeks I've been able to get him on a good number of cottontails and he has done pretty good on them. Staying on some of them for 100yds. or so. But he hadn't opened up and really started running them. It's more like walking along the line with his nose down. This morning I took him out into some Christmas tree plantations with about 4" of fresh snow on the ground. A very fresh set of hare tracks came out from underneath a tree where one got up out ahead of us. As soon as Barney put his nose in the first track, his tail went up wagging, and off he went. He had run it out about 500yds. to the west before he opened up the first time. I could barely hear him. The next time he opened up was about 300yds. to the north. Then the next time was about 500yds. to the east. The hare was hooking back in. The last time he opened up about 200yds. out and coming straight in at me. So I was really looking for that hare now, but it never came by and the pup didn't sound off again. I gave the pup 15 mintues to come in before going out to look for him. Just as I started to head out, here he comes running back in to me. All and all, he was on that hare for 35 minutes from the time he struck the track until his last bark. I always get a rush hearing a pup bark on track the first time. So I'm going to rest him up tomorrow and get back out there on Monday. I'm still trying to shoot that first one so that he can get a mouthfull of fur.