bird dog in the snow

We had one beautiful hike in it and now it's mud again and un hike-able. 
There are a lot of quail in these foothills and the dogs love it.

We don't hunt. We are all a little gun shy around here. I once took them both to a practice held by the german shorthair pointer club where they had live pigeons and live guns. Both dogs very much wanted that pigeon in the beginning. The man holding it plucked some feathers and then tossed it out for each dog to chase, separately. They did. Then another man shot a gun. Both dogs immediately turned around and came back to me, quivering. I don't know what I expected, they were 6 and 9 years old at the time and had never heard gun shot before! The men with the club weren't much interested in helping us through it, they were mainly there for serious hunter folk to practice I think.
That's ok, I don't like guns either! I do find it really interesting watching a gun dog do what it's bred to do though. I wish I had started them out younger so they weren't afraid, maybe I'd have done some hunt tests with them but also, just for their well being when we happen to hear gunfire in the hills which we do occasionally.
Rye will point more often than Amber.

They don't catch them, they just want to find them.