# Some Partridge for the Pear Tree



## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Tis' the season for Partridge. Some friends invited me to go with them over the weekend. We had a really good time. The dog didn't give her best hunting performance, but she definitely gave her best retrieving performance. We never would have found 3 out of these 4 birds without a dog. The cripples burrowed deep below the brush, which was under a foot of snow. It actually took the dog a while to find the first one, but once she figured it out they didn't stand a chance. 

One thing that limited her hunting was the build up of ice balls between her toe pads. I use Musher's Secret, which works well when the temps are reasonable, but we could not prevent the continual build up in 13 degree weather. Have any of you ever shaved your dog's feet? Any other options I should consider? Merry Christmas, all.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Looks great - congrats!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

By January usually Ava has ripped all the hair out between her toes from ice build up. Musher's secret is great, but you have to reapply it about every 10-15 minutes if it's really snowy


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Nice shoot! That's one bird I've never gone after and I've been upland hunting since 1976.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Got a few more partridge from a different genus today. Fat suckers--lots of sunflowers and grass in their crops.


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## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

Looks like a fun couple a days. Congrats. I went out last Saturday hoping to find some huns. Found one big covey of about 20 birds. They were jumpy sucker's. Only gave me one long shot opportunity on the first flush. Was lucky enough to see where they landed and tried to get on em one more time but they didn't let me get any closer than about 100yds before bolting. That was the end of the action for us that day.


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Easy solution for ice balls in feet and burrs in coats and all the other versatile dog calamities--just trade in the jack-of-all trades/master of none and get an English Pointer--problems solved!  

Here is a fine point over last weekend--Pointers can push through snow and cold as well as any furred up breed--they just have to keep running and they generally do, even 5-6 hours straight they can push it. They will shut down in the wet cold if they aren't moving but what kind of a chukar hunter takes breaks anyway?

All kidding aside a good dog is a good dog and there are a lot of good breeds out there


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Airborne said:


> Easy solution for ice balls in feet and burrs in coats and all the other versatile dog calamities--just trade in the jack-of-all trades/master of none and get an English Pointer--problems solved!


Very tempting. I've seriously considered getting a pointer several times.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

AF CYN said:


> Very tempting. I've seriously considered getting a pointer several times.


Just be sure you've got room to get the horse you need to keep up with it


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