Savo Kennel

18/12/2023

Happy Birthday to Savo's Woodland Elves. Four years since you made it into this world. You've got your families and life is good. You all made for a fun Christmas. Miss the sound of those puppy feet.

02/12/2023

The close of grouse hunting was two days ago, Nov. 30th., and it was a great season. It helps when there are a lot of birds and, for some reason, this year, the whole province of BC had a lot of birds. I don't have an actual count but we definitely brought over 20 grouse to the table. Of all the years I've been going out this was the first year that we went on a "hunting trip" and travelled to the Cariboo for a week's long venture. Enjoyed this and planning on it being a yearly thing. Dogs were amazing. Elan and Cinna were steady, Pondi's skills have matured. My fitness improved as the season progressed. Chasing after my dogs 3 hours at a time over varied terrain will do it. As every year, I learn more about grouse habits, marksmanship, and wilderness savvy. I'm starting to feel like a seasoned hunter. Well, it's time to work on other dog projects that have been put aside for the last three months. However, there is no replacement for watching your dogs do what they were bred to do. I am thankful that I live in a place that gives me this opportunity. Until Sept 2024!

25/11/2023

It was a two grouse day today with Cinna (left) and Elan (right). One thing I love about this breed is how well they age. Cinna is 11 and still running strong. The girl never stops. She has mellowed over the years. She ranges a bit closer ( I’m very thankful) and sleeps a bit more after a day of hunting but to a bystander who didn’t know this dog I’m sure they would guess a much younger age. She’s passed on this drive to her daughter Elan. It’s a pleasure to go out with these two and watch their magic.

19/11/2023

It was a three grouse day. Two Blue and one Spruce. Pic taken at the end and on the way home…they are still ready to do more!

13/11/2023

A Pondi story - She's Certified Hunting dog by ME. We've had a good hunting season. Been out a lot. I hunt my dogs together usually, just because I have only so much time to hunt. Pondi has always been a bit of a mystery to me if she is up to hunting by herself, or if she relies on her mother's hunt expertise, and then just crashes the bark session. I thought she showed progress this season but you never know until you take them out on their own. Today was the day and pleased with what I saw. She doesn't range out as much as Elan and Cinna and doesn't go at speed. She's a trotter and she stays relatively close. However, it became apparent that she could amp up when grouse were in the area. Flushed 3 at the beginning of the hunt. She ground scented well, her trot became a run, and ranged out to 200/300m to find the birds. She persistently worked the refind and loved to watch her work the area. Had to finally call her off. Second find flushed flew to a nearby tree and she held her bark and showed a direct visual to the bird which helped me locate. Bird in the pic (third find)...ground scented up an embankment, flushed, and treed. This bird came home. So yeah, she can hunt grouse and is as effective as her mother and grandmother which is awesome. If I nit picked her performance she could range out more, could bark more. However, the older I get the more I am appreciating a dog that is working a bit closer. The days of climbing over 200m of windfall seem to less attractive. As well, there are many times I flush grouse and there are no dogs around, which is a missed opportunity, so as long as she is aware of scent I'm happy. As for the bark - as long as she holds it and barks enough for me to locate her it works. I'm pretty proud of her and any doubts of her working ability are gone. Look forward to many years of getting out and doing what we love to do.

11/11/2023

After a month of nothing we brought home two Spruce grouse today. I swear it’s the increased traffic for deer hunting season that makes the birds wary. Girls were treeing lots during October but as soon as the birds saw me they were gone. Better luck today; deer hunting is over and the last month has taught me how to be more sneaky walking up on the bird so maybe success has been partly learned

23/10/2023

Girls are tired. Elan and Pondi went out Friday for 3 hours. Chased a grouse up and down the hill and I failed them by not finding it in the tree. So it flew off. Saturday dog walk in the morning with the gang, and then out for two hours to the Mecca of grouse world and came back empty…not even a flush. Not so much a Mecca. Today was another 3 hours and we did manage to bring 1 home. It was quiet in the truck on the way home and both seem to be happy in the horizontal position right now. I will add that I’m tired as well…but still upright…lol.

13/10/2023

13/10/2023

Grouse Hunting in BC, Canada, with Norrbottenspets

Last week we took the dogs and toured the cariboo region to see some of the landscape and grouse hunt. This trip has been on my bucket list and we miraculously pulled it with all we had going on. The terrain was beautiful and varied and we have a greater knowledge of our BC landscape regions because of it. Some days were good hunting, some not, but everyday was a good day out.

We took three dogs. Elan and Pondi were our grouse hunters. Yuri was along for the ride. Bragging…my dogs were amazing. Every day they found birds. Elan has always been a strong hunting dog. Over the duration of the trip Pondi gained more experience and showed more intuition for ground scenting and holding bark at a tree. Her release on down birds was much better as well. The bird work over the summer helped. Great work ethic from both.

Everything came at us weather wide except snow. The beginning of the trip was rain but by the end we had warm winds and sunshine. On the colder/damp days the birds were hesitant to sit for us, were quick to fly from their tree with dogs alerting, and would always fly off as soon as they sighted me. The warmer weather provided more opportunity for a shot as they sat longer. We usually went out four hours a day and the girls put out for the entire time.

Several lessons learned from this trip that will help me decide on future hunting locations. Elevation and vegetation matter. Northeast areas – Likely, Canim Lake, Barkerville, the vegetation was thick, the undergrowth was dense, with either tall firs or cedars. The girls were finding birds, but we were not able to see them when we got to the tree because of the trees height and dense branches. In one case, we had a grouse clucking to us for about a minute and we still couldn’t see it. The Canim lake the terrain was steep. Too steep to walk down the slope to alerting dogs. Only once was I able to reach them to find a grouse high in a fir tree. When we drove south to Sheraton Lake and Green Lake, the terrain opened up and was easier to walk in and birds were easier to spot. I will also rethink our dates for the next trip. We crossed into Canada Thanksgiving weekend which proved to be the busiest hunting weekend of the year. Last day outing we were passed by many quads packing .22 rifles. Several times we heard shots which was most likely aimed at a road crossing grouse. No luck on the last day. Next years trip will be in September and will avoid areas of high rainfall which give dense vegetation.

We enjoyed meeting up with friends during our time away. Great to see Carolyne and Aaron, and Elan’s bro Solly, in Quesnel. Carolyne, grouse chef extraordinaire, made an amazing grouse stew for our first meal. The next day Aaron and Solly, myself and the girls, went to a local area being the best day ever for success and managing to get my daily quota of 5 birds. Harold and Bev met up with us the last weekend. To celebrate Thanksgiving we put

together a lovely dinner with grouse, baked potatoe, brussel sprouts, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. – finished off with pumpkin pie topped with coconut yogurt. Good food, good drink, good friends – can’t ask for more.

Already thinking about next year’s trip. It will be in September to avoid the big game hunter rush. I have some other areas I’d like to explore and try our luck; places where the terrain is a bit more open and undulating. I don’t have to ask the dogs if they want to go because it would be hands down “YES”. By the time nightfall came around we were all ready for bed. On my “bucket list” has become a yearly event.

Pictures in no particular order

Neda Joss

20/09/2023

Seriously has been three days of this. Cinna is back and forth. Pondi is persistent and sometimes wears out and just lies at the spot hoping. Had to haul her in from the rain last night. Going to throw some traps out tonight to see if I can end this and keep the neighbourhood peace.

10/09/2023

Three grouse morning today. Excellent start for the season. Forgot my phone so pics are an after thing. The girls were on fire. Maybe too hot. A bit of a fiasco when the bird hit the ground and both were vying for it. Had to give them a serious discussion on how I feed them365/days a year and I matter giving me full rights to the bird because of that so they can back off! LOL. I don’t think they really bought it but we’re tamer on the last bird. Started getting warm by ten and packed it in. Fun three hour hunt.

08/09/2023

Loki, from the Elan/Limit litter last year (was Puck). Love the photo's! Report is that this fellow is a bundle of energy and a lot of fun. Very social with people and other dogs. Great to hear.

03/09/2023

7 more sleeps until the start of the bird hunting season!!!!

23/08/2023

An update for those who have been following our wildfire situation. Last night we had rain! The smoke has cleared. We are hopeful this will give a couple of days relief and perhaps the weather is changing gears for Fall season. I have been busy helping out with ALERT (Animal Lifeline Emergency Response Team). Our community has pulled together to help evacuees. We are slowly seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Many thanks to those who have thought about us during this time and sent reassuring words.

09/08/2023

Health Certification on Pondi. Hips- excellent. Elbows and Knees - normal. Eyes - normal. Third generation with "excellent" hip structure.

29/07/2023

Pondi got mail yesterday. Her CARO Rally Advance acknowledgement and noted at an MCL level which means all scores were over 190 out of 200. Good girlie whirly. Love here.

16/07/2023

Bird work this morning. Working on some bad habits we’ve fallen into. One is running off with the bird after a shot and mauling it. I think this is because I’ve hunted Pondi with other dogs, mostly, and possession is coming into the works. The other dogs don’t seem to have this trait but Pondi sure does. My first goal was to try and get her not to run off with the bird and that meant I had to be pretty chill about her possession and let her know we were on the same team. Initially this was going in slowly and high rewards when she didn’t move off. I wanted her to have time to feel good about her catch. Once she started getting comfortable with me being close I started working on the chomping which was a “leave it” command and high reward after. She’s getting it. She walks off a bit with the bird but is dropping it and looking back at me. The last step is to let her carry it back to the house, possession reward, with a final high reward at the gate, then the session is over. We also started to work on barking at the tree today. I’m guessing a bit at this whole process. There is no book on how to do bird work with a norrbotten. They are similar to other gun dogs but also quite different. They are not a hard breed and hard methods will shut them down.

11/07/2023

Always on the alert - who knows what you may see - bear, mountain sheep, deer, coyotes. The rain last night refreshed the air. Beautiful morning to sit out with my dogs and watch with them.

01/07/2023

Pondi had a bit of a treat this morning and got to do some bird work on Canada Day and help me catch one of my wayward quail. She wishes all her relatives and their hooman's happy festivities for July 1st and July 4th!!!

27/05/2023

Been a couple of busy weeks but the outcome is that Pondi has a new title. She achieved her CRAMCL - Caro Rally Advance, +190 score each run. So..CH Savo's Ponderosa Woodland Elf, CRAMCL, CKCRN, CGN. Many thanks to the CARO people for running virtual trails and for Happy Heelers and Lorraine for running the CARO trial today. Virtual we did two runs and scored a 200 and a 194; today at Happer Heelers we received a High In Trial with a score of 197. First course in the morning and Pondi nailed it. I just had to keep remembering to read the signs right and to breath. Here is a link to our last run, which we ran FEO (allowed to feed and no points). Wanted to go away with a relaxed run for myself and an upbeat run for Pondi. https://youtu.be/_os9P2j8x7Y . Next goals are CKC Rally Advance, and I'd like to try our hand at competitive obedience. See how that goes. Proud of my little girl and how amazingly rock solid she is.

14/04/2023

One of these dogs is not like the others…lol. Pondi in a long sit.

08/04/2023

Happy First BD to Savo's Midsummer Night's Dream Pups. A year goes by fast. Hearing from some on how their pup is doing. Will check in on the others. Two are natural grouse dogs and had a succesful season last fall. Others are hanging out with their families and doing what dogs do - loving their people. So very proud of this group.

28/03/2023

This young fellow just turned 14 today! Thankful for the time we've had with him, and thankful that we have more time. We'll celebrate tonight with his favorite meal - spaghetti and icecream. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!!

18/03/2023

Happy Saturday. Here's a darn cute pic to start your morning!! Savo's First Tracks kids from 5 years ago.

02/03/2023

Happy Birthday to my lovely, kind, sweet, hunting companion, Elan! I have so enjoyed our time together and look forward to more of our adventures. Happy Birthday to your brothers and sisters - Savo's First Track's litter - Solly, Emmy, Kajsa, Fischer, and Apollo. Already hearing reports of their special days today!

11/02/2023

My daughter sent this to me. A compilation of photo's of our dogs in 2022. Love it. This is life with our dogs.

08/02/2023

Last couple of woods walks have been exciting. Girls flushed up some grouse. I was as excited to see them as they were. Grouse numbers have been slowly increasing over the last couple of years. Fingers crossed that this spring hatch will be bountiful.

11/01/2023

We started the New Year off just fine last night with Pondi achieving her CGN (Canine Good Neighbour) certification. Rock solid with the test exercises. Such a good girlie whirlie. She now has three more letters to add to her name - CH Ponderosa Woodland Elf, RN, CRNMCL, CGN

24/12/2022

17/12/2022

Happy Birthday SAVO'S Woodland Elves. Three years ago today you came into the world! You are loved. Also the day that Pondi came into our lives. Now Can. CH. Savo's Ponderosa Woodland Elf, RN, MCL, grouse hunter and endearing family member. Pondi wishes all her siblings the best for the upcoming year.

30/11/2022

Calling UNCLE on grouse hunting season. Just way too much snow right now and too hard to get around. We are in full winter here and it's not even winter yet. Pics from last Sunday. Went up to Elllis Creek Reservoir. Fresh snow and still snowing. Been an ok season. I missed the first part of the season because of my knee injury and family matters. Mid season was great (for two hunts)....and then the snow came and it just bogged down from there. Dogs and I will spend the rest of the winter enjoying snowshoe walks and some back country skiing. The countdown has started for next hunting season.

21/11/2022

3 hours out and about in the woods today (15000 steps according to my phone), with the girls, to try and shake up a bird; but, not a bird and hardly a squirrel to be found. I did find grouse tracks at the very end of my destination and the girls roamed around for a good bit but nothing seemed to flush out. I am always amazed at how athletic this breed is. My girls were 80% of the time off trail, in snow up to their chest, which could only be negotiated by bounding through it. They never slowed down until I got them back to the truck and home. They are resting well this evening.

14/11/2022

Another dog/snow day. Exceptional day today. Sunny skies and warming up. Good thing to not be standing under a tree when it lets go of all it's snow.s

11/11/2022

And it’s another SNOW DAY!

08/11/2022

Pondi and Bob say SNOW DAY!!!!!

30/10/2022

Today! I had a friend come with me too - thanks Jodi. Not very often I have someone come with me - usually out there on my own - just me and my dogs. Sooooo, this one is absolutely all Pondi. Heard the dogs barking and was just going in to them when the next thing I see is a grouse flying through the trees and Pondi was right behind it. Refind is all her's. However, if it wasn't for Jodi I would have missed the bird completely. It was there right where Pondi was alerting to -which goes back to trust your dog lady!!!!! I said to Jodi, I haven't given Pondi enough credit for how far she has come and, well, she was a good little grouse dog today. See some solo hunting outings for her in the future.

27/10/2022

Some pics of Pondi and I at the CARO rally trial two weekends ago. Love the connection this gal gives me.

24/10/2022

First time out this hunting season and I almost talked myself out of it to get caught up with work....well, I'm still not caught up on work...lol. Awesome, eventful morning. Girls treed 5. We brought home 2. Elan was on fire. Pondi is maturing her hunting skills. I have to keep reminding myself this is her second season; whereas, this is Elan's 5th. All they need is a hooman who is a bit faster at finding the darn things up in the tree. Great way to spend a Sunday morning, -3C with sunshine and loads of entertainment.

20/10/2022

Bob went for his annual vet check up today at 13.5 years of age. The vet gave him a vibrant and clean bill of health. Heart and lungs sounded great. Teeth and eyes were awesome for a dog his age. All other pokes passed the tests. He is a little bit creaky, a little bit deaf, and sleeps a bit more but happy to say it looks like we'll have him for a couple more years yet. YAY BOB!!!!