Hunting!

[yv0nne]

Does anyone out there do retriever or field tests with their dogs?! Took Penn to her first official hunt class today& she was a SUPERSTAR! She got 4/4 on the retrieves where he shoots them& she did non-shooting retrieves and got 5/5 on them! It was super neat to see her in her element. I wish I had a few photos but it poured rain& was completely miserable the entire time.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Fantastic! I'm jealous! We want to, Denis did them with labs in Alaska before moving to Vegas and he's considering another lab for retriever work. He does some very basic work with Sloan for fun but being a mal he can't trial.

[yv0nne]

A Mal can't trial?! I thought any dog could.. then again, I don't know anything about hunting trials ahaha are they just not supposed to be a hunting breed so therefore excluded?

One guy had a pretty fantastic Chesapeake Bay that he is actively getting ready to take to a trial& I would say Penn did just as well as him. The guy we're going to isn't really set up for gun dog training, not that I'm really sure what the difference is. Just know it was a fun (although damp) afternoon!

[JennSLK]

Nope only retriever breeds can trial. I wanted to trial Jazz, the Doberman. She would have done OK at it too. Too hard mouthed, but she could, and enjoyed the work.

[Raegan]

I'm training Marsh for hunt tests and hunting. We won't be going for his WC this summer, I don't think he'll be ready in time. However I really want to go for pheasant in the fall. I'm getting really discouraged about his gunfire issue though.

The training and work is absolutely fascinating though. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[yv0nne]

I had no idea ..how elitist of them

I don't know what any of it means. I just went once for fun but we did have a good time& we'll probably go once a month or so!

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by JennSLK

Nope only retriever breeds can trial. I wanted to trial Jazz, the Doberman. She would have done OK at it too. Too hard mouthed, but she could, and enjoyed the work.

Yeah, I presume with a real duck Sloan would be hard mouthed and she does have an outing issue with possessive items. That being said the one time she's held a dead duck she took and gave it pretty easily. I just assume soft mouthing on a retrieve and outing without question may be a challenge. Denis is debating taking her out to pick up downed birds when he goes to AZ again though.

Originally Posted by Raegan

I'm training Marsh for hunt tests and hunting. We won't be going for his WC this summer, I don't think he'll be ready in time. However I really want to go for pheasant in the fall. I'm getting really discouraged about his gunfire issue though.

The training and work is absolutely fascinating though. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Bummer about the gunfire issue, how are you combatting it?

[JennSLK]

Yeah Jazz had a good "give it" command, the duck would just have a few extra teeth size holes in it. lol

[HayleyMarie]

I have honestly been thinking about "trying" to train future pup to retrieve birds, although that might be a moot idea because the dog probably will be to large to swim after birds all day and too hard of mouth. I could probably easily train Teagan to retrieve birds from water, but she is probably too small to drag a large bird to shore.

I have to do more research, but duck hunting will be in our future, probably starting this fall. Either using a dog or not. I am sure we will be doing some experimenting with Teagan this fall.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Teagan can do it. I have faith.