Basic Training I: Pick your battles and your dog

There isn't a breed of dog that you can't train to do what it is that you want.

A gun dog doesn't need to be a Lab, Chessie or other known water or gun dog breeds. If you're willing to put in the time and have the attutude that you will get the dog to do it, you can take a pound puppy mut and have a dog that will give you years of hunting companionship and retrieve to hand as well as it can.

It's like comparing a VW Bug to a BMW 7 series. There is no comparisons other than both will get you from point A to point B. Blood lines hold true if you really get into the game as I have. We have both the backyard Lab in Sugar that I love with all my heart and the high performance machine in Tango.

Sugar can hunt with any dog, but there are lots of holes in her game that will never be filled. It's on me to except these and enchance the attributes she that she does have.

As for the high end dog like Tango. It's only the trainer that can really screw her up (me). She's a sponge, so much so that what took Sugar 3-4 weeks to pick up, Tango picks up in 3-4 training sessions. There is the basic difference. Both are registered AKC dogs, but it the blood lines that you need to look at.

If all you can afford is a rescued dog, don't give up because there is nothing wrong with that. But understand, saving your pennies and buying a blood line that list Field Champions on the paper is a whole whole other world.

Be it AKC Test, a hunting dog or a house dog you need to start from with the basics. That will be the next post.

All the best-
Joe

Quality Time:

One of my passions is the outdoors. Another is my family and my friends. My greatest experiences are when these passions come together and blend into something that you might not recognize at first, but your eyes eventually open. That’s when you know you’re on the right path and everything else that comes your way is gravy.

This past weekend, life allowed me this opportunity to bring together my family with my passion of waterfowl hunting. With the candle lit on both ends in all of our lives – it’s so important to stop and cherish these moments. Pushing yourself is a good thing, but when you push yourself out of sight of what is important is when you’ve got to pull up on the e-brake and stop.

Peytra, my beautiful 10 year old daughter had spent the afternoon with me, a few friends and Sugar, our Chocolate Lab, in the duck blind for first time. It was just one of those moments that happen too infrequently when everything is right in the world. We all have these snippets of time and memories, but the unfortunate thing is that we’re all guilty of not really grasping on the meaning. For all the mistakes that my father made as a parent - I forgive him and assure myself, these moments will never evade me.

Through Peytra’s eyes I got to see all the things that mean something special to me. Just the simple joy of sitting next to her in a damp, musty, wet dog smelling duck blind talking and laughing was priceless. How she, at 10 years old can interact with buddies and shared her great sense of humor and a laugh that brightens my every day. Laure, we’ve done not a good job with her, but we’ve done a great job. Proud of all the girls in our little family and the people they are becoming.

Take in the moments, however small they may seem at the time – because the time is all too short. The funny thing is that I found just how wealthy I am in a damp duck blind with a 10 year old, a few buddies and a wet Labrador retriever. I’m a better man because of all of these moments.

The Road Trip

There are things that we all look forward to each year. For some it’s the holidays, a summer camping trip or just a gathering of friends. I look forward to all of those things when they happen, but for the past four years my good friend Steve and I have made an annual trip to Eastern Oregon for a waterfowl hunt with friends that live on that side of the hill. It’s our road trip and it never really ever seems to last long enough and always takes a day to recover from the road and the lack of sleep when we get back home. I’d share the town we visit and where we hunt, but I wouldn’t want to give away our group’s frozen wonderland. Additionally, I promised the team that I'd blindfold anyone outside the group if they came to hunt with us.

As road trips go, typically they’re filled with your favorite tunes and stopping at that hidden greasy spoon you keep a secret from your wife and doctor. Simply because they still use fat to make their French fries. The funny thing is that for the four years that we’ve been doing this not once have we turned even the radio on. We do have a greasy spoon somewhere along Hwy. 84 that makes a great burger and a shake that’s so thick that you’ll have an aneurysm trying to drink it. I'd share the name if I recalled it, but I know exactly where it is and the truck does too.

I was speaking with my wife recently what the appeal of this road trip is to me and the guys. Only a fraction of it is the hunting. Partly it is catching up with friends, both old and new. There isn’t a lot of drinking, though we do have a cocktail or two after we’re wrapped up for the day. It absolutely isn’t the nightlife. More so than anything else it’s the camaraderie. It’s the laughs, stories from the year before, the pain of losing a family member or friend from the year gone by. The accomplishments of our kids and how proud we are and bragging on their abilities and the frustrations they bring us. It's life and the reasons we love it so. It's being a friend and knowing that we would all drop what we're doing to be there if needed.

This is what social networking as it was before all of the sites we have today to stay in contact. It’s the road trip. It’s solving all of the problems of the world. It’s connecting face to face and a punch in the arm because you love the time spent with friends and sharing time that you may never get again. It’s brilliant fun to see a buddy beam with pride with his shot on birds you called it as a group.

I don’t expect anyone to understand the draw of this annual event. Wives most defiantly may never get it, but I wish they would. It’s important to our mental health to have time like this to share with one another. I love my wife even more for putting up with it as she does and she knows it’s a short time only during each season. My love of bird hunting and for the Labrador retriever breed will keep me engaged for the rest of my life. It's a passion for life, family and friends and it's okay to wear that all on your sleeve and I'm proud that I do.

I encourage all that read this blog to find that thing that they are passionate about. Be it the outdoors like me, cooking for your family and friends (if you’re a good cook – invite us over to sample). It’s great to be in great physical health, but interacting with friends, family and others with “your thing” is so important. I’ve over used this now, but it’s the last time I will – A study has shown that being social – face to face social diminishes your chance for dementia and Alzheimer’s. So get out there and find “your thing” and share it with others. Never has done anyone good to be selfish.

I'd like to share one of my favorite quotes:

"When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only
moments to regret all the things you never had the courage to try."
Unknown Author

Getting started with your gun dog puppy.

Having made more than my fair share of mistakes with my first gun dog, I think I'm off to the right start with the newest addition to the family.

Don't get me wrong; I love my Chocolate Lab Sugar as much as any of our dogs. She is smart (in her own Chocolate Lab way) and as good as any well trained gun dog that I've hunted over. But there are issues - lots of them. None of course are her fault and it's the owner that I blame. Me.

In the blind she whines incisively at me to hurry up and get her some birds. She is getting better at not breaking on the report of the gun, but needs to be stopped from time to time with a firm "SIT!. But believe me Sugar can hunt. She has a nose that picks up the scent better than dogs that cost ten times what she did. On top of all of this, she is a pointing lab a sight that many don't believe until they see it.

When I set out to have a gun dog as a companion and hunting partner for my passion of water fowl and upland bird hunting, my goal was to not be that guy who is at his wits end screaming at his dog. This shouldn’t have been my goal at all. Sugar has taught me more about myself than I ever thought possible. I confirmed that there is no giving up in me. And that dog training isn’t about me. It’s about us as a team.

The new addition to the family is Tango. A six month old Yellow Lab that comes from top shelf breeding. She is flashy as they get as far as a gun dog goes. The only thing that can stop her capabilities and potential is me.

The other important aspect of be a responsible owner is socializing your dog at every opportunity. Socializing in my mind is introducing the puppy or young dog to as many different situations as possible. Only one of these situations is the report of a gun.

The best way I have found to do this is taking them to your local gun club that shoots sporting clays or skeet. Keep the dog in their travel kennel (another hugely important item for a gun dog) and park a reasonable distance so that they can hear everything going on. After about twenty minutes, put the pup on a lead and walk the line reassuring them all the time. There are so many guys that think you take the dog out and fire a round or two off over the head and they got a gun dog. What you have is an idiot with a scared dog. Everything worth having takes time, so move forward slowly on all steps and back to square one if you have to. It's not about you, it's about the dog.

Additionally, socializing your dog to as many different dogs as is safe at a young age is important too. You might wish to join an obedience course or even better yet speak to a professional trainer that handles retriever training. You’ll find any number of trainers in an online search for this. But your search will need to be specific to the type of hunting you do. Yes, they specialize.

With Sugar I was at my wits end. She would run off any number of times and frustrate the heck out of me. Then I connected with Robin Rawls of Wetland Retrievers. He guided me through the difficult task of all the ground work I wasn’t getting done on my own and the force fetch. Sugar has a stubborn streak a mile long so nothing came easy with her. You have to understand each dog does have their own personality and that one thing that works on a dog, doesn’t work on another. This is where I stress the importance of a professional trainer. Many have training groups that you might be able to join and learn what you’re doing wrong. The thing is the fix is usually way simpler than you think. We are talking about training dogs and not brain surgery.

If there is one thing that you take away from this information is that it’s about the dog and not you. You’re the leader and have to take that roll from day one. You control their whole life. When they get up, walk, work, play, eat and sleep. Taking control early makes for a happier life for all involved.

Look forward to sharing more about gun dogs and the joy of a passion that enhances your life.

All the best-

JR