On a warm day, Cash, drinking from my hydration pack.

Just a quick reminder to all of you who are running your dogs in the off season, in regards to excise and training. As temperatures rise lets all be conscious of the heat. Making more water available to our dogs, shortening the length of their runs, and trying to use the cool morning and evening hours for their exercises will help keep them safe, healthy, and happy. Every year dogs die from heat exhaustion that could have been prevented, and sadly it is nobody fault but the dog handlers. Lets make sure that this does not happen to any of our dogs...

In most parts of the country snake season in now upon us, so lets be conscious of that as well. I have bumped into one rattler already. Any unusual swelling or unusual behavior during, or after, a run this time of year earns an immediate trip to the vet. Running your dogs in the early morning hours always gives you the best the best odds of avoiding snakes. Snake bites can happen at any time though, so be prepared. There is a ton of good information on the Internet regarding snake bites and dogs, and obviously you veterinarian in the best resource to answer all or your questions. So, if you haven't already, please take the time do do a little research. It could save your dogs life.

This is a great time of year to take your dog(s) swimming. It is great for their health, their joints, and their overall conditioning. For you guys with retrieving dogs this is standard practice, but for us pointing dog people it can be part of our summer conditioning program as well. I have seen a few pointers that hate to swim, but most love it. My dogs love to swim and are very good at it. They have had lots of opportunities to swim since they were just puppies, so now when the rare opportunity arises for them to make a water retrieve, they are all over it. And at the end of the day, hunting dog or not, most dogs just love to play in the water.

Jay Kincaid

As I was running Saturday morning I couldn’t remember the last time that I had ran on pine needles. The dogs and myself started down on west 4th street, ran up to the ditch trail, over to Hunter Creek, and up to the falls. It was beautiful up there in the big trees and I was kind of in shock that I had never been up that far before. I had hiked up hunter creek a few years ago and fished some of the pools, which by the way hold a lot of trout, but I had never made my way up to the falls. This is for sure going to become a regular run for me on cool to cold days. Rumor has it that the canyon is occupied by a large number of rattle snakes during the summer months, so as far as I am concerned that is not time or place to be running with dogs. I believe the rumors, as I distinctly remember getting buzzed by a snake on the before mentioned fishing trip. Unfortunately with the warm weather on the forecast this week, that probably means that I will not be running that particular trail again until late fall, as I always run with the dogs, adapting my running depending on the time of year to places that are safe for them. Saturdays run was one of the most enjoyable runs that I can remember in a long time.

Saturday afternoon I took my Step Dad out fishing at Pyramid Lake. It had been a long time since he had caught a trout on a fly rod, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to get him going again. It was really windy and rainy on the way up to the lake, but as it often works out, it was beautiful down at the water. Only a few quick rain showers and lots of sun to keep us warm. We had a great time, and ol’ Pops put three nice fish in the net. He took me fishing a countless number of times when I was a kid so it was really nice to take him fishing for a change.

Jay Kincaid

For a couple of years now I have been telling myself that I am going to do this 50K/32 mile foot race here in the spring. Every year I have come up with a good excuse to not do it. (The mileage is a little scary, but the 5800 feet of climbing is really scary.) This last Saturday I ran about half of the race course and it felt pretty good. Like always, the dogs ran with me, and together we had a good time. We ran through some areas that really looked like they should be holding quail, but the dogs didn’t find any. It is amazing how good at hunting that dogs are. I guess they have to be, as in the wild that is how they make a living. Whenever I would see cover that looked like it could be holding quail, sure enough I would notice that the dogs were already checking it out, or were on their way to check it out. They have pointed enough birds in their life time to probably have a better idea of what looks “birdy” and what doesn’t than I do. They sure have a one track mind… I could be out in the middle of the Sahara Desert and they would still be looking for chukar and quail. All of you with bird dogs know what I am talking about. They are nuts! Scratch that… I should say, all of you with dogs know what I am talking about. They are ALL a little whacko, but that’s why we love them.

One of the things that I like about running is that it really gives me the opportunity to do my clearest thinking. I really should run with a voice recorder so that I can record my thoughts, although that might be a little coo-coo. As it happens more often than not my mind wonders to all sorts of places, but inevitably I find myself reflecting on old bird hunting memories and old friends. Below is a short video clip that I took this last season of Porter and Cash while hunting chukar. I had forgotten about this video, as a result I never posted it to my blog, but this morning I was reminded of it when I saw it on another blog;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpn_phC5crU

Jay Kincaid

For years professional and recreational cyclists have been using our gloves in cold wet weather, and in the last couple years the number of professional cyclists and cycling teams using our product has grown substantially. At Glacier Glove we made the decision to really jump into the sport with a new product line designed specifically for cycling, and we introduced that line at this year’s Interbike Show in Las Vegas. Coby and I were there for the show and we were very pleased with the response from the cycling community. Between the friends that we have made over the last couple years within the cycling community, and all of our new friends in the industry, the response was outstanding. Thanks to all of you for welcoming us into your industry. We are excited to be part of it.
Our full line of cycling gloves will be available this winter, so keep an eye out for them at your local shop.

Jay

We received some fresh snow late last week so I grabbed the dogs and camera and went out to do some training/photography on wild quail. It turned out to be as good as it gets, and even though hunting season is over it was an outstanding day just taking pictures.

Cash on point with Porter backing.

Porter on Point with cash backing.

Porter on point.

The subject of Porters point.

Cash pointing with quail walking around in front of him. He scent pointed this covey first, then after about 5 minutes of me walking around taking pictures the birds became nervous and started coming out from under the bushes to run off. Good practice for him, and he passed the test, again.

Flushing the covey that Cash was pointing.