My buddy Travus and I loaded up his truck early Friday morning and headed to North Dakota to chase some late season roosters. We were greeted Friday with temps in the single digits that warmed up to the mid 20s by Sunday. Light winds and trudging through 2-20 inches of snow kept us plenty warm. We shop 2 or 3 birds apiece each day, missed way more, and saw hundreds get up out of range or hanging out in the open fields. All the action was great, but what I will remember most is the dog work. 
My yellow lab Jazzi and Travis’ black labs Shorty and Brandy worked perfectly together. On the way home we started talking about how each dog has their own unique hunting style. Shorty is a hard-charging dog that plows through the thickest cover and never stops…NEVER. Brandy and Jazzi on the other hand are not nearly as high strung, but they both hunted very hard on this trip. Brandy works close and methodically picking up the tight holding birds that manage to escape Shorty’s nose. Jazzi is the daintiest of the three. Travus described her as “stealth.” She puts her nose on the ground and quietly weaves her way through the cattails in an effort to ambush the birds. In fact, she was so sneaky that my “flushing” lab had 4 points. 
Each time she stopped moving in the cattails and all I could hear was a slow “tick, tick, tick” as her tail smacked the thick grass. I would say “Get Um” and I could hear tail start moving faster and faster until she finally couldn’t contain herself and she pounced at the bird. I can only imagine what was going on when she locked up on those birds. I’m picturing both animals looking each other in the eye and waiting for one to make a move. 
Three of the four points resulted in hens that had theirs lives pardoned as they whizzed by within gun range. 
The other point was a rooster that Jazzi took into her own hands, or mouth rather, and retrieved before it had the chance to try escape my marginal shooting.
Travus and I had a great time hunting together. Travus really is a dog lover and trainer first, and a hunter second. Travus would let me borrow his dogs until he convinced me to get my own dog and train it myself. In the process, he got me hooked on training and we trained my dog as well as many others. Hunting behind my own dog and others I helped train makes the experience so much better.
I think my season is over 
, but I can’t wait to get back to the game farm and the field next fall. The return trip to ND is already booked for next year!
Wonderful pictures! 