The dog days of summer are gone, even though this week’s temperatures might suggest otherwise. The heat and humidity of August fade into those first cool nights of September with its dewy mornings and from there it isn’t long until that same condensation soaks the knee-down region of my field pants and the leather of my worn upland boots in pursuit of grouse and partridge, and then, a few weeks later, rooster pheasants.

My lab, Ole, too enjoys this coming time afield, as the cool damp turning-beige grasses of autumn soak him to the point he looks like he just came from a summer swim in the lake, a location where he would have lived the entirety of this past season if it weren’t for the temptation from the scent of burgers and brats hitting the table fresh from the grill. While it’s hard to say his 100-pound frame is lean from his constant retrieving of sticks and balls thrown from the dock and shore, the addition of his self-guided swimming when I and other family members tired of chucking various objects into the water certainly has him looking trim for the upcoming upland seasons. Whether he was splashing around for the fun of it or was targeting some bit of flotsam in the shallows, he spent countless hours in the water this summer, and from the looks of it, as a result, he appears ready to take on the field this fall. And it’s a good thing too.

Upland game counts are up across the board and throughout much of the region, from sharptailed grouse in the Dakotas to ruffies up in northern Minnesota, and while pheasant counts are still being tallied, I have it on good authority that in many areas, things will be better than expected. Additionally, more public access acres have been added to the landscape in the past year, and more spaces are available for my dog and everyone else’s to pursue their autumn passions, be they sprinting through the blowing prairie grasses, rumbling through the forested edges of a logging trail, or working a scent line in-and-out of a cattail edge. And while the dog days of summer might be so named for the presence of Sirius, the dog star, rising in the sky and the hot and humid conditions that slow people’s activities at times, the coming couple of months were really designed for our four-legged hunting friends.

These other dog days are often the most memorable to sportsmen as bonds are formed between hunter and hound. From those first forays with a young pup, to those last trips in the heralded history of a white-faced or gray-muzzled companion, the coming weeks from the grouse opener to the end of the upland season pile up the photos and the unforgettable points, flushes and retrieves in memory, building new legacies and adding to those already established.

As the last foam-and-plastic dummies are thrown in the backyard or in the empty neighborhood lots this week, and T-shirts are exchanged for longer sleeves and the orange-and-brown of a hunting vest, our dogs take note and the excitement builds. The air cools, the leaves shift shades, and the circled dates on the calendar come to be, bringing with them the fulfilment of a previous season of preparation and the first rushes of adrenaline as a covey takes flight, or a singleton bird surprises us with a flush. For our dogs too feel the excitement of the coming season, and the joy at each one’s start and they revel in the days they somehow know are entirely theirs … in our outdoors.