Cheney-area dog trainer Dan Hoke brings in the third of four braces of field trial bird dogs he was working out by horseback near Fishtrap Lake Wednesday as the weather front moved into the region. He worked another 45 minutes in the snow storm before loading his dogs and horses in the trailer behind his pickup in the lonesome Lincoln County scablands. He arrived back to his Dunfur Kennel at Four Lakes around 1 p.m. after passing several vehicles that had slid off Interstate 90 as the snow greased the pavement. (Rich Landers / The Spokesman-Review)
Cheney-area bird dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel works by horseback while training big-running field trial pointing dogs in Lincoln County on Feb. 23, 2011, as a serious winter storm moved into the Inland Northwest. This German short-haired pointer (left) and English setter (right) had found and pointed a single pen-raised chukar Hoke had ridden out beforehand to hike in several square miles of sage scablands. (Rich Landers)
Scout, and English setter, finds a pen-raised partridge as though it were a needle in a haystack in several square miles of Lincoln County scablands during a training session with hunting dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel near Cheney. The dog is wearing an electronic training collar as well as a radio tracking collar Hoke can zero in on if the dog disappears in the vast sage-land habitat. (Rich Landers)
Cheney-area bird dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel goes by horseback to cover many miles in a morning as part of his training with field trial pointing dogs in Lincoln County on Feb. 23, 2011, as a serious winter storm moved into the Inland Northwest. (Rich Landers)
Neither shooting nor flying birds and running dogs cause any alarm to the horse of Cheney-area bird dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel. He's seen it all. Hoke uses pen-raised chukars as part of his training with field trial pointing dogs in Lincoln County on Feb. 23, 2011, as a serious winter storm moved into the Inland Northwest. (Rich Landers)
Cheney-area bird dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel uses pen-raised chukars as part of his training with field trial pointing dogs in Lincoln County on Feb. 23, 2011, as a serious winter storm moved into the Inland Northwest. (Rich Landers)
Cheney-area bird dog trainer Dan Hoke of Dunfur Kennel takes a retrieved bird from one dog and releases the other dog to run and look for another pen-raised chukar. He was training with field trial pointing dogs in Lincoln County on Feb. 23, 2011, as a serious winter storm moved into the Inland Northwest. (Rich Landers)
A German short-haired pointer stands on point, and Dan Hoke's well trained horse is just as steady even during a Lincoln County blizzard or when the Cheney-area bird dog trainer fires his shotgun at pen-raised birds. (Rich Landers)
The best bird hunting dogs can't be shelved for the seven months between hunting seasons. Dan Hoke, bird dog trainer from Dunfur Kennel near Cheney, was in the lonesome Lincoln County scablands, as usual, riding horseback to keep up with his clients' big-running dogs when the recent snow storm moved in to the Inland Northwest. "Everyone says I have the idyllic outdoor job," he said. "But nobody's ever out here with me in February."