It's puppy season. Franklin Goes to Hollywood

[fleabagmatt]

Took a quick 2,100 mile road trip last weekend to pick up our newest family member.
This is Gripfast Franklin Goes to Hollywood (Franklin).

He's a big galoot.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Oooh, he’s a cutie

 

[JLS]

Cute pup. Lots of fringe on those ears.

 

[stillkickin]

Great looking pup, congrats and keep us posted of his progress!

 

[fleabagmatt]

Cute pup. Lots of fringe on those ears.

Burr catchers as I like to call 'em.



He's gonna be a hellion. We put up some garden fencing to keep him out of the flower beds and he immediately started crashing into them like the raptors on Jurrassic Park looking for a weakness.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Waiting patiently for his turn on the place board.

 

[Mallardsx2]

 

[fleabagmatt]

Ruby is teaching Franklin that sometimes you can't wait for the squirrel to come to you.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Went out for some 'sploring without big sister.



Any place is a good place for napping if you try hard enough.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Sending Ruby on a long swim to give Franklin a chance to grab one.

 

[fleabagmatt]

I'm pretty sure I walked in on these three plotting to murder me in my sleep. Archimedes the cat is definitely the ringleader.



Nap time.

 

[Wyhunter]

Best dogs in the world

 

[fleabagmatt]

 

[Bowmannate2000]

He's a handsome little guy.

 

[Funkman]

Took a quick 2,100 mile road trip last weekend to pick up our newest family member.
This is Gripfast Franklin Goes to Hollywood (Franklin).

He's a big galoot.

View attachment 271571

View attachment 271572

View attachment 271570

Beautiful! Nothing beats a new pup.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Morning calisthenics.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Franklin got to meet his first chukar this weekend. Had my wife keep him on a leash nearby while I released a couple birds from launchers for our older dog. He lost his mind as soon as he saw them fly. No shortage of bird crazy for this boy. Second bird decided to not fly and ended up in a patch of rabbitbrush nearby. He sight pointed it, and he tensed up so much his back legs were shaking and his little tail fluffed up.



I saved the last bird for Franklin - his first bird intro beyond a hand-released pigeon last month. Put it in the launcher and released him so he'd cross through the scent downwind. He started off with a point on some feathers from a previous bird.



As soon has he crossed downwind of the bird he turned and headed toward it. I should have popped the launcher right then, but I got caught up in watching him work. He never pointed it, but he was pacing back and forth with some brush between him and the bird. When I finally launched it, he charged through the rabbitbrush to chase after it. Couldn't be happier with his first run with launched birds. I made some mistakes, this being my first time working with launchers on my own, so next time I will be quicker to pop them.

My wife has decided she wants to handle Franklin in his training and NAVHDA testing, it will be a lot of fun watching her go though the bonding process with him the way I have with Ruby.

 

[fleabagmatt]

Dogs got out for a puppy run last night after work. Going into her second season now, Ruby hasn't quite figured out wild birds yet. She points the hell out of planted birds but she is still trying to get too close to wild birds, so I haven't seen too many good points from her outside of training situations. Last night she held a real nice point for me, when I walked in to her, four quail flushed from that bush. It was great to see.



No pointed birds for Franklin, but he had a great time busting through the brush and chasing tweety birds. I fired off a few starter pistol rounds as he was giving chase, no signs of gun shyness in him.


On a side note: The mother of Franklin earned her NAVHDA Versatile Champion title at the Invitational last week. Her handler, at 12 years old, is I believe the youngest handler to ever pass the test. That's pretty dang cool!

 

[fleabagmatt]

 

[fleabagmatt]