Arrow-right Camera

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Veterinarian’s state flora ripe for trouble

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)

Nature didn’t stand still while I’ve been on vacation.

In the past two weeks, the cheatgrass has gone from green and soft to cured with spear-like seedheads that cling to socks and fur.

I just brushed dozens of cheat seeds out of my dog’s fur after a training run.

The season has come to stuff cotton in a hunting dog’s ear’s before going afield.  I could buy a yacht with the money I’ve spent over the years to have veterinarians extract cheatgrass seeds from deep inside my dogs’ ears.

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Outdoors Blog." Read all stories from this blog