Made a few trees late yesterday afternoon. If the deer season splits in SW Al next year, I hope that more hunters will utilize the split season to do some small game hunting. It is such a pleasure.

I've got a fiest and this is the first year she has hunted. She is treeing really good but slow to get started hunting at times. I am taking her all I can and loving every minute of it.

I am so glad that I got into squirrel hunting with a dog. I originally got my Ladner Blackmouth Cur to coon hunt with. I trained him with squirrels because they were easier to catch in live traps, and I had more time to fool with him in the evenings than at night. I had been training him for a year and was getting frustrated when it was like his treeing instincts turned on like a switch. He is now 2yo and does really well with squirrels and will tree coons and possums at night. Stick with that Fiest they are fine dogs. Keeping them in the woods is both enjoyable and necessary to make a good tree dog. This is by far the most enjoyable hunting that I have done in years. I'm just sorry that I didn't get into squirrel dogs years ago.

I agree, small game hunting is quite a pleasure.

But you know what that split season will do? In some places, unfortunately, this:

"No, we aren't going to be at camp those two weeks or in the woods. It's almost buck season."

And this ...

"We can hunt squirrels that last weekend of February. Deer season goes through the 10th and then it'll be Valentine's day, so I'll have to be home. We can go the final weekend."

That ain't no doubt. If it wasn't for a little bit of family land I wouldn't hardly ever be able to squirrel hunt. I deer hunt hard in bow season and during January, but what could you possibly hurt during Dec. Most of the deer around here get the funk that time of year, but squirrel hunting will cause a deer migration to safe havens miles from where you hunt. They won't return until after turkey season !