11/1/2008 - Island Pond, VT

Date of hunt: 11/1/2008
Location: Dead Bull 1
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 36 °F (Start) 40 °F (End)
Dogs of mine: Bailey
Running Partners: Lanny, Dean
Other Dogs: Jitters, Brook
Driver/Truck: Lanny
# of Rabbits Ran: 1
# of Rabbits Shot: 0

What a rough day. Started out okay, but went down hill from there. Dropped the dogs at the Dead Bull area, same place where Dean and I ran last year and the dogs took off on a buck rabbit. We walked in, almost still in sight of the truck, and Bailey started to bark. The other dogs came over but didn't open up. Bailey cold trailed the line back to the road, crossed it, and kept cold trailing on the other side. Jitters squeeled a couple of times and Brook sounded a couple as well. Bailey still kept going in away from the road. The got in about 80 yards from the road and then Jitters sounded off hard. They were off. They ran it in a tight circle down in the balsams. I stayed up in sight of the road in the thinner soft woods in hopes of getting a shot. The dogs circled the hare down low enough where the hare never showed himself. They circled down low and then brought it back up by the road. The hare ran tight to the road and was heading towards me. I was expecting to see it at any time. The dogs crossed back over the road and they ran back in the area where Bailey started it. They checked a couple of times. During the checks Bailey would bark here and there. I thought she was picking up on the scent, but Lanny knew otherwise. After about the 4th check he radio'd me and asked me to leash Bailey. I called her in, she came (no shock needed). Jitters and Brooks never picked up the rabbit again. Lanny came and found me and asked me if I understood what was happening. I understood a little bit, but not completely. Lanny explained that when Bailey was running with the pack she/they would miss the sharp turns and overrun the dekes. The kicker was that Bailey would not stay close to the check. He explained that she has so much drive and excitement to run that she wanted to find scent, any scent, anywhere. She wouldn't stay close to where the last scent was lost and would go off and bark wherever she could find scent, sometimes 40-50 yards away from the check. Lanny thought she might be barking on the scent of the dogs sometimes, or the old track. This extra mouth would confuse the other dogs and pull them off the check and produced rough running. Lanny wanted me to understand and not be upset. I wasn't upset, just disappointed. We put Bailey in the box and kept hunting with Jitters and Brook. I had to shock Bailey once to keep her quiet in the box. We headed deeper in the thick stuff and managed to get two rabbits up at the same time. Jitters ran one one way, and Brook the other. Brook gave up on hers and went and joined Jitters. They ran it for a bit out in the thick stuff, and then circled it back towards the truck. They lost it right back near the road where we went in. We picked up the dogs and went over to Phil's Buck area. We walked all around for about 2 hours and only got a couple barks out of Jitters. Nothing ran. That was a long hunt. I was tired, and ready to get home. Lanny commented that if we had put Bailey down we might have had a start ;). Lanny told me that I need to run Bailey alone to help her overcome her quirks. Running with other dogs could make that trait stick. So, I will be trying to run her alone for a while to help refine her and hopefully tighten her up.