Great start with young dog

[onion]

The 6 month old is proving his worth. He swam down a crippled bird into the cat tails and after sending him back in 3 times he chased the bird across the pond and made a great retrieve. He has also put me and my daughter (first year hunting) on a hand full of pheasants. It's going to be a fun season.

 

 

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[dukhnter8]

That's great. Its even better when they are 2-3 years old and things start to click. My younger black lab dog is 3 this year and has been great on pheasants, grouse and woodcock this year. We finally got her into a decent duck hunt and she would watch birds in the air but wasn't marking falls real well, need to do some work on that. But she was watching birds a lot, not whining and staying well when we shot.

[onion]

I certainly look forward to when he has more training. He is not great at sitting in a blind


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[CharlestonFuller]

On 10/30/2017 at 10:21 PM, onion said:

I certainly look forward to when he has more training. He is not great at sitting in a blind


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No worries on that, I'm sure he'll catch on. My cousin has this particular technique, disciplined his Lab while having fun, they would usually play fetch using a few dog toys. The tyke loved him more due to that, and became great at retrieving shot ducks for him.

[dukhnter8]

Just work slowly into it. I make mine sit before eating which helps. a few times this year with no action sure was getting bored so let her get up and move which after she was good.

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[WoodieBoater]

working on sitting outside of the blind when there's a lot of distractions helped a lot for me. I always made Dutch sit in one spot while I made dinner and banged around in the kitchen. Or when I was working on something in the shop, and that transferred elsewhere. It helps them learn to watch activity without moving. Having a small space that's hard for them to get off of helps too, a training table or whatever. I used my workbench or couch ottoman. He's pretty rock solid in a blind now.

[onion]

Great ideas. Thanks guys


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[onion]

Managed to still find some open water and got a few. If I knock them down Archie finds them. Still have some retrieve to hand work but a great first year.


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[WoodieBoater]

He's a great looking dog. Glad to hear things are going well with him. It always adds to the fun being able to watch a dog grow and learn to work

[DJ 17]

Enjoy every step. Being on the other end of the cycle and seeing them slow down is tough.

[onion]

Well ended the year with one more mallard. It was a fun first season with Archie. We will be working on his retrieve in the off season. And we may chase a few rabbits.



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[dawsonscreek]

Get him on some pigeons this summer too! Practices your wingshooting and his retrieving (and they are actually tasty!)

[WoodieBoater]

56 minutes ago, dawsonscreek said:

Get him on some pigeons this summer too! Practices your wingshooting and his retrieving (and they are actually tasty!)

X2

 

The more bird contact you can get him in the off  season the better he'll be doing the real deal

[DJ 17]

If you can trap some pigeons and plant them yourself that is a great way to train as well. My lab was brought up that way and it works really well.