Didn't See That Coming

The day started like any other but quickly took an unexpected twist. I find a large 20 acre dry slough and so decide both dogs are needed. Within a few minutes of releasing both dogs, i lose sight of them. The terrain was such that they ran behind a dividing road allowance that is raised above ground level. At the same time I turned in the opposite direction to scout an area with patches of cover that i've found huns before. Typically my dogs are trained to follow the direction of the truck. I turn left they run left etc, but I realize my dogs aren't with me so I return to where I last saw them. Nothing ! I'm baffled how I could lose two dogs within two minutes in relatively flat undulating countryside. I spent the next 40 minutes searching within a square mile and even called the landowner in case they ran to the farm. Eventually Griff my wirehair returns to the same general area and the landowner sees him first and calls me where I join him to pick him up. He'd been running solidly and looked spent. I am sure he may have mistakenly followed a distant truck driving the country road thinking it was me. Both he and I were relieved but Mylo was still MIA. I continue my search and decide to call a good falconer friend for advice who I know has lost dogs over the years ins similar situations. Once for 2 days and one for 4 weeks in his remote area he lives in early season ! Finally and over an hour later, while driving I happen to by chance look across into a field beside a massive draw but in a spot the undulating landscape revealed. There was Mylo on solid point over one and a half kilometres from where i'd last seen him. My immediate reaction was to go to him for as you can imagine the immense relief of finding him. losing a dog for an hour felt like a lifetime and so many silly scenarios fill your head. Then it struck me he's been holding point for over an hour and what better way to honour and reinforce that, than to fly over it. I could have used Wesson and be almost guaranteed a kill, but I felt this young tiercel peales needed the flight more. Unfortunately, even this late into the season we are still in this early stages of his hunting experience and even though he had good pitch, he simply hasn't understood the benefit of being overhead of me or the dog. I could not get him to come overhead so before he got bored and drifted off entirely I decided to flush. If nothing else, to demonstrate why he should be overhead. The huns flew hard as you'd expect in deep winter and even though it was a cross wind stoop, he stood no chance, but he chased them for over 1000 yards before they reached the cover before him. I recovered my dog and praised him for his efforts and went to retrieve the tiercel. The GPS telemetry on his collar was on EXT mode and yet because of the terrain I could not connect to increase update rate. To compound things, I had just broken the top half of my truck omni antenna on my garage overhead door the day before so I couldn't boost range unless I used a drone which I don't use after fitness training season. A perfect storm. It was now late in the day and I finally find a covey for Wesson. Initially they accidentally bumped from a small abandoned farm site and I wasn't going to fly them. They then went to a fence and I still didn't want to fly them. Finally they flew far out into the middle of a natural pasture and that was safe and do-able. I put Wesson up at the road and I climbed the fence and followed the line of sight with dogs working ahead for 500 yards. They'd run much further but to a better place. The dogs locate scent but it was a different covey that initially flushed and some dumped immediately due to cover but stragglers got up and flew back to the farm site I had just come from. As the falcon committed and lined up in his outrun the huns were falling off one by one and dumping in snow and grass and he shot right back up. With this, the original covey near me flushes wildly and he gives chase. He hits one down but chases another and catching it almost 1000ft away. The fence that wasn't an issue, suddenly became an issue, but thankfully he saw it and rose above and back down low sticking with the hun on its tailpipe. I found him under the 2nd north / south fence with his hun. I know the hun used the fence to try scrub him off, grouse do this also. Too much stress for one day. Instead of driving straight home, I diverted to a small town gas station and bought a lottery ticket !