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Tanks a natural in the uplands.


Liberty or death Jr.

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These are from the other day, 4 grouse. Not many birds but my dog put them all up. The jack russel helped a bit.

 

We limited out on pheasant the other day, he did great, got birdy, chased birds, put them in the air, retrieving isn't doing that great though. He'll get a couple and bring them back, but he will also grab the bird and walk away, or just sit and pull feathers. Won't chew the bird though.

 

We just got back from pheasant hunting today, he worked his butt off, and I got one, should have got my 3 but my shooting sucked, and a lot of birds bailed before I got close, but not the dogs fault. He worked close. He has been doing great with upland.

 

Ducks are iffy, he will bring them to the bank at least, but I rarely get a full retrieve.

 

IMG_1972.jpg

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I found upland hunting a lot easier for the dog to grasp, the waterfowl thing is in my opinion a little more difficult and will take you some time. Your dog is in his first season and from what I have notice here he isnt doing too bad.

 

You should see improvments from year to year. My Lab is 3 now and he pretty much does what is expected, give or take a few breaks on shots he does very well. His time will come.

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Well, he is out-doing my buddies 3-3 year old labs, which when I first hunted over them without tank, I thought they were pretty good dogs, but tank is out-doing them which is cool.

 

But like yesterday, he will be working an area hard and doing great, and then for some reason he'll start following me for on reason, and we'll miss out on a big area he could be working that I KNOW there are birds in, didn't make sense to me.

 

Pheasant is definately easier, just have to go in the brush and find the bird, and stay in range. With ducks he has to sit in a blind, bored, then stay while shooting is going on, go out, find the bird, and bring it straight back. I can see why that would be more difficult. He's doing allright for first season though.

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Sounds like you have a good dog.

 

My comments after owning two labs and hunting with them for twelve years follow. You might want to consider force breaking to aid in the retrieving. There are trainers that believe all hunting dogs should have this training. I didn't do it or have it done. One of my dogs was an excellent retriever and the other not so good. If you don't know about this I'm sure you can google it and find info or go to the library and get some books on dog training.

 

I have seen dogs that will come back and walk with their master when they get tired. I have also seen dogs that will do this if they are borderline gun shy and so they come back to the owner for a feeling of safety/security I guess. You can probably tell if it is the latter problem.

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I do know of force fetch, I plan on doing it, but I am not to sure about it, I've seen the process, and if you do it with the wrong dog, you chance ruining his birdyness.

 

He is definately not gunyshy, I could bang a 10 gauge over his head while he is sleeping and he would wonder where the bird fell, not that I would do this. But he does it when he gets tired, which is kinda annoying cause sometimes he gets tired after 20 minutes of hunting, which does me no good.

 

He will retrieve anything I throw, heck he was retrieving a screwdriver just a minute ago, but when I throw birds fresh dead or frozen, he tends to play with them, throws them up, flings them, he'll get it to me, but it is very annoying watching him mess with it.

 

Then when I shoot a live on over him, he thinks its his bird, he'll play with it, pull feathers, walk away with it. The only time he does good is in water, cause he will bring it to the bank, but then its hit and miss from there. I think I am gonna force fetch him, and make sure I do it by the book. Its hard on the dog, and hard on the trainer, and my dog having half weimaraner, he doesn't respond well to training, or high pressures, which I've heard true weimaraners have a hard time with both.

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