fat belly frog
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afternoon hunt with "cooper"Went out for a walk and jump shooting a small creek tonight. After parking the car under the trees we started our lap around the creek which isnt much more than 1/2m across and covered in willows and blackberry, working into the wind at about 75 meters out cooper was air sniffing and looking back to me and I knew something was in the blackberry and willows in the little creek gut. As we slowly closed the gap, finger posed over the safety hoping for a pheasant but knowing it was unlikely on this diary farm which is very clean and tidy with little rough cover around, the dog went on a rock solid point at 15 yards which was good to see as this is his first year.
I knew that it was a pook (swamp hen) almost straight away after tossing the rock into the tangle of cover trying to get it to flush. I sent the dog in hoping for a flush and a chance to drop one for him, but the pook went to ground and the dog dug him out. After a bit of coaxing he fetched it to me and we spent a few minutes doing dummy retreives with it.
We walked the rest of the property and had another 3 good points on pooks along with one sit on flush (but a fence was in the way). We then made our way down to the main river and flushed a good mob of ducks off a river pool with no chance of a shot and spent the last of the daylight sitting in the maimai (hide) calling like mad watching the ducks flying high in the warm clear conditions. Just on dark ones and twos where leaving the protected river pools downstream and heading off to feed, a couple of high passing shots, which I knew where well out of range, helped to relieve the tension..."cooper" was rock solid in the maimai sitting at my feet (off the lead tonight) waiting for me to send him on a retreive.
Even though I didnt get any birds it was a nice night to be out warm light winds with goldern/red light reflecting of the snow clad mountain, clouds and jet streams it was nice to be out there and watch the dog progress with his pointing and control both in the feild and whilst shooting in the maimai was gold.
He was stopping and sitting on whistle comands and easy to re-direct, my best day working him yet, hes starting to know what loading the shotgun in the car means.  Only six more weeks of ducks left for the season so hoping to get him out there a fair bit then onto pheasants to mid August
now if only I could down more for him and get him some good retreives..
heres a couple of picture's of him in the maimai a couple of weekends ago, pretty chilled out which is not weimaraner at all 
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Helen
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Very jealous you are able to get out shooting lol. Sounds like a really nice evening.
Helen
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wildman
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Hi there
What exactly is a 'pook' is it something like a moorhen, are they any good to eat?
I know the moorhens over here drive young dogs crazy, but they are good for getting them going in the water.
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Helen S
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A "pook" is a Pukeko or Purple Swamp Hen. They look a bit like a big moorhen. I have never been brave enough to eat one, even the dog only retrieves them under suffrance and seems glad to spit them out!!
They are useful for training as they can be quite stupid and allow the dog to get quite close at times.
Helen S
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fat belly frog
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heres a picture of a pukeko (pook) coopers retreiving at the novice gundog training days a few weeks ago.
theres an old saying that you have probally heard, when cooking pukeko, cook it with an old boot, once cooked throw the pukeko out and eat the boot. However I have heard that the breast meat is good for sausages.
They are a native bird that are considered a pest and during the season most areas have a bag limit on them.
cheers
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wildman
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Well there you go.
For the record I cooked and ate a moorhen that a previous wirehair pegged, at the insistance of my daughter (having indoctrinated her with the if you kill it eat it philosophy)....... it tasted disgusting to me but she ate it with Gusto!! I am glad she didn't apply the same philosophy to foxes.
Chris
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Helen
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I've had moorhen before and actually like it. There was only a tiny bit of breast meat but I thought it was nice. A lab pegged it after being sent out for a pheasant and no one else wanted it.
Helen
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wildman
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Well done Helen.
Maybe my lack of success was due to the way I cooked it, (shallow fried with garlic).
Chris
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Helen
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No idea as Rob is the cook in the house! I suspect he would have shallow fried it as well. We had woodcock, partridge, snipe and the moorhen - DELICOUS!
Helen
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fat belly frog
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Went out chasing pheasants today with cooper and bella (18m GSP) had a great day working the dogs in pine forest and cut over pines, cooper set up air sniffing under a pine tree with a good covey of quail, managed to drop three with three shots but cooper only managed to recover one, the other's lost in the thick cut over pine. All up a good day and managed to find some nice country to have a look in again and the dog went ok, hes not working the gorse/rough that well but given the lack of birds maybe there was nothing there to get him excited.
good day out and I now have one knackered dog asleep on his bed..
cheers
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mick
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Nice one FBF. Dont eat it all at once aye. 
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fat belly frog
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with No. 3 steels and a less than ten metre shot there wasnt much left of the poor little buggar anyway... Next time I go i will take smaller loads now I know quail are there
Out again today and managed to get three ducks, a pheasant and a hare under coopers belt, his retreives on the ducks were realy good with one from 10m inside the bush line in thick vines (supplejack).
Didnt see how he went on the pheasants as he bumped ahead in front of the other guys I was with after I had worked him along fence line.
Good weekend and he is comming along nice.
cheers
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fat belly frog
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picture of a very keen dog and half his bag for the weekend taken when we got home as I forgot the camera.
The pheasants just a young one but plenty of meat in the breasts and legs. Cooper half pointed them flushed as the hen flew first heading down over the tree line, the young cock took the wrong path and had to climb up over some trees giving robbie time to knock him down from less than 15m, cooper went straight in for the retreive, luving every minute of it
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