BENNETT — With less than two weeks until the opening of what’s expected to be the Colorado has seen since 2011, Bailey and I want to be ready. Of course, we aren’t.
A hectic summer and fall somehow managed to circumvent the best-laid plans for the training days typical of years past. The mostly home-school method of hide-and-seek with harvested pheasant wings, scented bumper retrieves and periodic live bird work that had served us reasonably well over her first three seasons as a gun dog had been rather abruptly replaced by sloppy rounds of front-yard fetch and an occasional off-road bike ride in an effort to maintain some fitness. Regimented training it is not.
Compounding the issue, 2013 had been for Colorado’s upland hunting community. Pheasant populations had shown the effects of two consecutive years of drought, and rather than combining frequent frustration with increased stress on bird populations, many dog-and-gun teams had simply packed it in early. Ours included.
Whether Bailey still remembered how to “hunt ’em up” was anyone’s guess, but there was really only one way to be sure. We headed out early to join a posse of like-minded shotgunners for a day in the field at upland bird-hunting club.
Since opening as an upland hunting club in 1989, Valhalla and its premium partner property, known as , have become something of a staple for Denver’s gun dog community. Valhalla Bijou, as the closer public hunting club is known, offers 570 acres of upland hunting terrain and an a la carte menu of stocked birds, including pheasants, quail, chukar and pigeons for year-round DIY dog-training and hunting experiences. The club’s breeding and private training program is equally renowned.
” is really about hunting, and Valhalla is really about training,” club owner Russ MacLennan said. “Once people wind up their golf game and before they really start going out for wild bird hunts or traveling or anything, they want to get their dogs in shape. So we’ll start getting flooded with people at Valhalla.”
The preseason conditions at the club are indicative of what wild pheasant hunters can expect in the field come the statewide . The habitat has made an impressive, if not outright unruly, comeback, eradicating any feeling of a manufactured hunt on the property as dogs and hunters wade through overhead crops in search of birds. The latest round of warm weather contributes to the challenge.
Aaron Favero, with his Valhalla-bred German shorthaired pointer, joined James Kelly, Jesse Murphy and his driven 6-year-old Brittany, Wyatt, along with Bailey and me for what proved to be a surprisingly realistic hunt. The fieldwork was meant to be for the dog, although the fundamental lesson learned was that I am in need of far more practice than she is.
Behind steady points from both the GSP and Brittany, a smattering of birds fell from the sky as Bailey made her way through the 6-foot thicket of sorghum to make multiple retrieves. A covey of quail had her running circles through the cane maze before taking flight as Favero’s shotgun brought one down between us.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to find that one,” he said just moments before the dog’s tail began spinning with joy as she leaned down and scooped up the prize.
The mature crops made for equally difficult scenting conditions, and the training session was abbreviated as the mercury pushed toward 80 degrees. Still, the benefits were evident.
“It’s like having a football team and saying: ‘Gosh, it’s 75 degrees today. Should we not practice?’ You’re better off to just go than to not go,” MacLennan said. “Sometimes it’s not as long. Sometimes it’s harder. But any day you can get your dog out is better than not getting it out.”
Scott Willoughby: swilloughby@denverpost.com or twitter.com/swilloughby
