Went to the river for a change of pace. The road was muddy so I parked & walked. Roy and Ruby treed & I could see eyes as I walked in. It was a cat & jumped out when I got close. I yelled at them & they quit it. I walked them on. I saw a rabbit a few minutes later & Ruby was trailing it silent so I gave her a shock. Roy slipped off towards the swamp and opened up. Ruby went to him & they treed after a while. She left before I got there but came in when I did. It was a big cottonwood & I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I was carrying about 15 pounds of mud on each foot back to the truck.
Took Ruby and Roy to the schoolhouse section. They went into the first woods behind a house & Ruby struck. I tried to call them out but they just kept going. I heard coyotes after a while & tracked the dogs pretty deep. I shocked them both.
They came back & I sent them north. Roy fell treed, no track. Ruby hit it a couple of times & was gone. When I got there, Roy had a coon. I shocked Ruby in. I think she's going through the backsliding phase most of my dogs seem to go through between 2 and 3. I guess she's going to suck for a while now.
Took Ruby to the vegetable garden. She didn't want to go alone so I threw sticks at her & she finally got the message. She hunted out for about 15 minutes, no strikes. I took her to the next section & sent her in, she came right back. I had to threaten her, then she took off. She hunted quite a while, but never got very deep. I walked in & she came to me. I walked deeper & she struck on some kind of junk but only ran it a little. I finally caught her & went home.
Took Ruby up to the kids & we sent her and Pearl south into the schoolhouse section. They hunted out well but no strikes. I finally walked Ruby up to a pasture & she struck. After a while I figured that it was some kind of junk. I caught Pearl while we were walking towards Ruby. I never shocked Ruby, she just quit after a while and came in. I'll have to shock her soon, she's running junk a little harder each time now.
Took Roy and Ruby to the vegetable garden and sent then along the treeline. Roy struck on the edge of the western most corn field & I started walking that way. I heard him treeing after a while & Ruby was coming in and out to the tree. When I finally arrived Roy was still treeing but Ruby was trailing close by. She located on a tree & then went back on trail. I glanced at the tree and told Roy to get off. He didn't hesitate & took off towards Ruby. They both treed where Ruby had located earlier. She was way up in the tree when I arrived. They had a coon.