Kona's First Hunting Trip

After having Kona for a few months, we quickly noticed how smart she really was. We had her potty trained within a couple months, with very few accidents during the training period. We were also messing around with a cat toy with her just to see what she would do and to our surprise she pointed it!! She was 3 months old and already had her first point. It was the cutest thing. We knew with how young she was we didn't want to push her into anything and risk causing issues down the road, so we would just take her out at my parents house on a lead and just let her walk around and worked on her learning her name and to go in the direction we wanted. We also would let her walk in on some planted birds to get a smell for them without being able to get to close. She was pointing almost every single time.
On Thanksgiving morning, it is a family tradition for the guys to go out to the farm and go quail hunting. Kona was about 5 months old and we decided to take her to see what she would do and to let her have a little bit of fun. We were out of the truck and walking maybe 5 minutes or so and she went on point! We were looking at her and then each other like there is no way! Well, she had found and pointed her first wild covey! I almost started crying! I was in shock that our little pup was doing this. The guys were able to flush the birds and shoot a few and Kona just went on her merry way like "yeah, I did that". We continued walking around and had a fence to cross over so Ronald picked her up and right when he sat her down on the other side she immediately went on point right when her feet hit the ground. Again, we were in shock and actually didn't even believe it. Ronald decided to act like he was flushing up a bird and sure enough, a single quail took off flying through the woods. We knew we had found, to us, the best hunting dog around! Her raw talent and knowing to point without even trying to chase at all, was very impressive.

Ronald and I started discussing taking her to hunt tests and maybe even field trials down the road with her after she had some training and of course letting her mature and develop a little more. I always thought we would strictly just have bird dogs for hunting and family outings. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be going to hunt tests and field trials. I was excited, but nervous to try it. We decided to just go for it and sign her up for her first hunt test, which is basically a set up hunting experience for the dogs and everyone is on foot, except for the judges. Two dogs and their handlers walk through the designated testing area and are judged on how well their dog points, hunts, retrieves, responds to the handler's command, and backs another dog that is on point. It was a very good experience and the people we met at our first one were great. We felt completely welcomed and comfortable. This started the journey we have found ourselves on ever since. There is nothing like taking your precious dog out to make her the best hunting dog she can be and then getting to watch them kick some ass out on the field. Watching how happy all the dogs are getting to do what they are born and bred to do is easily the best part!