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why so many training threads and soooo little...

30K views 112 replies 52 participants last post by  SFKennels 
#1 ·
hunting threads?
Is this place just about competition dogs, or are there people here who actually train to have a great hunting partner?
When i did my search here, I wanted a companion dog and hunting buddy.
Lee of wrl contacted me and I ended up buying trap, and started 1.5 yo male yellow.
We had chatted some and she said trap would be a great mix for me.
She couldn't have hit the nail on the head better.
He is awesome.
All these threads here just talk about training. Where are the pics of actually using your trained dogs for hunting?
I learned alto here, and continued traps training, and he now has to straight passes towards his junior title, and has retrieved 78 ducks and 22 geese so far this season.
We will enter the last two junior hunt tests in a few months and go for his senior next fall.
He also goes everywhere with me, even on my oryx hunt. Yet i read nothing of others and what daily life is like with their dogs?
Why?
Are most dogs here just kept in kennel and are not family members?
Are companion dogs not good hunters or competition dogs?
Here was yesterday at 2 below zero.

The oryx hunt.

Climbing thru tree branches in the river retrieving a duck.

His first Jr ribbon.

And a pic from in the duck blind.
I love my dog.

Come on now people, lets see some life pics of you and your dogs.
 
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#35 ·
There is room for all of us here. If you want to talk obedience start an obedience thread, if you want to talk 300 yd blinds start a three hundred yd blind thread,if you want to talk hunting start a hunting thread, if you want to talk SEC football..........never mind.
 
#38 ·
Hi everyone, Thanks for posting pictures of your great dogs. I enjoyed them all.
 
#40 ·
Because its 2 am and I'll be up in three hours hunting just like the rest of you wish you could be! Nite nite
 
#42 · (Edited)
Snakey Jake thinking it is far more important to watch the Ducks in the air then taking pictures!!

 
#43 · (Edited)
Mark,

Some see training as a means to an end; having the dog fit for the field or competition. Others like me see training as an end in itself, a never ending study full of fascination, science, and art. I suspect it's us afflicted souls that go on a bit much for your taste.

There are very obviously skill sets for hunting dogs that can to some extent conflict with Trials requirements, but all hunters benefit from a dog that's under control and handles properly at distance.

Yesterday I was presented with a rather boggy six acre wood with an unknown number of pricked birds within it. I thought me "Jack" and "Louis" did pretty well and so did the host for the day who came over and complimented us. But to do that work properly and in a workmanlike fashion I needed to have pretty solid control, verging on Field Trial standard, whilst at the same time letting the boys work things out for themselves. We couldn't do one without t'other.

I suspect you and Trap would have loved it.;)



Louis about to take a right hand over in "another part of the field" looking for a couple of birds seen to fall on the steep bank.

Eug
 
#44 ·
all 20 yrd retrieves!!:):)




Why my shootin was a bit "Off" that day!




Great memories.




Winchester 21 and a brace.





Most a these are older pictures... I just do laundry now.. and sometimes winders.... and dishes,,,, and crochette....
 
#45 ·
Parkin lot of a public area,, There wers ome dudes already there takin pictures,, so I axed em if they would take ona me and my dog..

Thats Bailey,,AKA Creepy!:)







My favorite of her!



Burlap baggage




Peace brother!



 
#46 · (Edited)
Nicest gun in the world to carry fer miles and miles and miles and miles!:)



Maddie



Flinch! third from left..












View off my patio one afternoon.. I didnt understand why them sirens was a goin off..musta been a fire somwwhere


 
#47 ·
Gooser, There must be a trailer park near you.
 
#49 ·
This thread illustrates, to me, the flexibility of RTF. RTF is so many different things to so many different people.

Many folks go through cycles in their retriever-owning lives.

I can remember well the days I counted and reported my dog's retrieves while hunting, and hung his started ribbons on the wall. For me today, dog training is a therapeutic way of life. Hunting is a therapeutic way of life. I do them both and they are not independent of one another.

RTF is here for the full range - from the person seeking their first puppy and wondering how to do it (Tim Rider) - to the person running all over the continent racking up the all time record number of FT points (Bill and Micki Petrovish), or the person with 2 generations of National Champions (Chad Baker). We have all of them right here on RTF and are fortunate as such. I have met all four of those people, right here through RTF, and consider all of them to be my friends.

RTF's culture can be a bit like training a dog. You don't need to nag or scold it to get it where you want. Sometimes you just need to gently urge it and encourage it. Show the forum (and its members) what you want.... In this case, it was hunting pictures. You asked for it, you got it. (Trivia: for you old folks, what's the advertising jingle that fills in the part in blue?)

Why doesn't RTF have a hunting subforum? RTF has added subforums over the years, and not a lot of them. To my mind, a subforum is added when the subject matter dominates/clutters the main forum. Examples are: POTUS (which was created about 12 hours after Obama's first term was official) and Puppy Classifieds (which was driven primarily by lab puppy demand and members' activity in that area). If you guys clutter the main page, and show a demand for an excessive amount of hunting threads - we'll probably have to add a subforum.

Mark, don't take it as an affront that your perception is the main forum is all training and not hunting. I say this as a perception, because as Jay Dufour pointed out, there is a WHOLE LOT of content on the RTF main forum that is not about training at this tme.

I'll start another thread on this, but will point it out here. I'm very proud to be associated with RTF right now. Franco and Raymond Little were both KEY in helping Davis and Jamie Arthur gain some closure with their tragic loss of Boz. If it weren't for these 2 local folks' awareness via RTF, one with media contacts and experience, the other with law enforcement/detective/prosecution connections in the local area, there's a decent chance that the Arthurs may not have gotten the kind of resolution they got. No it did not bring Boz back. But this pulling together made me proud to be part of RTF.

Sincere thanks to Raymond, Franco, and many other RTF members who worked to get the word out and try to help get Boz back. I had a very nice talk with Mr. Davis Arthur yesterday, as many of you reading have as well. What happened is terrible. But the scumbag who committed the crime has been caught, and perhaps many of us have benefitted or learned something in the process. The way bad guys are kept from pulling it off in the future is through awareness and preventative action. One benefit is that my own local animal shelter will likely spend some of their budget on training for their staff to establish a more robust protocol around the use of euthanasia in their program. RTF's own Lauren Hays and her connections have already been helpful in moving this project forward. If it weren't for RTF, I'd likely never have had the opportunity to communicate with Lauren. (I don't play dog games at her level...... CONGRATS Lauren - on your incredible run at this year's National with "Slider"!)

It sounds like the Lafayette folks could also perhaps modify their processes in determining if euthanasia is appropriate.

Mark, enjoy RTF. If you want more hunting pictures, just lead by example and ask for participation from others. I bet you get it. Maybe enough to justify a subforum! (We already have folks offering to be a new moderator for said forum. For that, I thank those offering)

- janitor
 
#50 ·
Thank you Chris.
I am about training, alright not as much as some/most(?)...
I have a buddy first, a hunting partner second, and a competitive dog third.
I have learned so much from lee and here, that i feel it makes trap a better hunting dog.
I was just curious what everyone does with all this training.
Trap did 2 blind retrieves well over 100 yards today. Had to dive into the ice choked flowing water, over the solid ice, then back into the flowing water.
He isn't perfect but some whistle stops and hand signals he got the first goose. Second was on the solid ice on the gravel bar, but down stream.
Here is my boy after going back for 5 of the geese we left by the blind. He carries 1 bird all the time with, then i send him back for whatever is left behind.
6 geese, 3 shooters.

Tired boy sleeping on the front seat of my old huntin truck.
 
#51 ·
Any more hunting pics?
Lets ask a situation question then.
How many here hunt in moving water?
Iirc, one requirement in a ht, is that the dog returns back in a straight line?
How do you over come this when the current carries the dog down stream and it returns on the bank?
 
#59 ·
Any more hunting pics?
Lets ask a situation question then.
How many here hunt in moving water?
Iirc, one requirement in a ht, is that the dog returns back in a straight line?
How do you over come this when the current carries the dog down stream and it returns on the bank?

Most all my hunts are around moving water. Many of the HT I have run have been run on rivers, where dogs need to learn current.. The Bird may be placed on land across a river, or in a calm back eddy,, but there is current between the line and the fall..In Fact, I remember one test, where handlers would handle the dog once it picked up the bird, on the far bank, upstream on land, then when the dog was in a place where current would drift the dog back to the line,, they would call the dog back in... SO,,, a straight line on the return really isnt a factor in MANY HT,s

Common-place to hunt rivers here.

Gooser
 
#55 ·
Here you go Mark... I hunt moving water almost excusively.....as in swift mountain smallmouth type rivers. But no, (it may be preferred), but it's not required for dogs in HTs to return in a straight line. Most try to maintain the standards they train for by requiring them to return straight.

Usually not a factor in lower level JH type test because they will not typically set up cheating entry or return marks. By the time you get to upper level stuff, you should have a dog with solid handling and swimby skills and the knowledge of the difference between training, testing and hunting, so it's really a non issue IMO.

My dogs have hit the bank 100s of yards down river after making a retrieve. They've also ran up the bank a good ways before entering the water!



















 
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