. . . sorry! Couldn't resist!
Posted on 01/11/2006 7:51:56 AM PST by presidio9
Get a retriever trainer to help you. They really know how to use the collars.
He followed me constantly and was always staring intently like he didn't even need to blink He circled me while I mowed the lawn!
Do you look like sheep? He was probably trying to figure out how to herd you.
He definately was trying to herd me, but I don't ~think~ I look like a sheep :~D
. . . sorry! Couldn't resist!
Baaaaaa! Baaaaaa!
Bark! Bark!
Ha! :~D
Okay, I have to admit it - I own a Peke-a-poo. AND a Rottador. Out of the two, the Rottie mix is the biggest baby. And he's all like "roof roof roof, I'll eat your face" until you try to give him a shot or put him on a tether, then he just cries.
The Peka-a-poo, on the other hand, is a submissive female who will roll over on a dime - but she'll take on ANYBODY who she thinks is going to mess with my mother.
Both of my babies are smart and well trained, btw!
Unfortunately, most of them around here want to take the dog away to train and then deliver a fully finished product to the owner. I would want to train WITH the dog. Really, my husband should do it, because he's the hunter. However, he has little time and prefers to use his hunting buddy's already trained German Shorthairs. Neither one of them would have any patiences for a partially trained dog.
Also, Max has shown no interest in retrieving anything except a tennis ball. I have bird wings and training dummies for him, but he just looks at me as if to say, "You don't expect me to pick THAT up, do you?"
My previous retriever used to love to bring back a bird wing. (She slipped a disc when she was 4 and could not do field work.) I always kept a duck or pheasant wing in the freeze, and I would hide it around the house and then release her to find it. She loved that game. Max shows no interest in that at all.
She also liked to bring the game in from the trunk of the car and look at me as if to say, "Look what I found for you!"
Perhaps the difference is that the wings I used to have were from freshly killed birds, originally. I just kept them in the freezer and we'd play with them from time to time.
The wings I have now are imports from China and preserved in some way. They undoubtedly smell different. I'll have to try some "real" wings from my husband's next hunt. He keeps bring the birds home already cleaned, unfortunately.
Luckily, we are both quite content to have an office and house dog.
Another alternative is the Dokken dummies. You can buy them in any style of duck you like - we started a reluctant Golden on Saturday with a Dokken green-winged teal (a small waterfowl) so he could easily get his mouth around it. After a little while he got really excited about it. I inject my Dokken bodies with duck scent (and boy does it smell!) which the Dokken people are happy to sell to you!
I feel sure there must be a UKC hunting retriever club near you that would love to train you with your dog. Here is the UKC Hunting Retriever Club directory. That's what we have done - Shelley is not the high-style field trial dog she could have been if I had sent her off to a professional - but we have a lot of fun and she's good to go as far as hunting. (She had a wild time with a live pigeon on Saturday - the pigeon certainly did not enjoy himself, but she did.)
Thanks for the info. I'll see what I can find. My husband would be thrilled if Max could learn to hunt, and Max would enjoy it too.
Goldens generally are tougher to train for field than Labs, so don't be discouraged. Max may well have it in him, it will just take a little work to bring it out.
Thanks for the encouragement. I've printed off the pertinent pages for my husband to consider. There is a club at Horicon Marsh, and my husband hunts there already. The treas. lives in the town the next over. I can't believe we haven't heard about this before.
Give the club people a call! I have found that everyone in our club is just great. Here's a picture from one of our training sessions just over a year ago, as the Shellster and I were just getting started (you can see that I didn't own a heeling stick or even anything in camo except a silly hat. The training collar was borrowed on the spot from the nice blond lady with the black Lab.)
We figure Max is probably about 5 now. We've had him since May of 2002. I can't believe that it has been that long! This looks like a great activity.
I'm going to suggest that my son look up one of these clubs for his Brittany who is only about 3. He lives in Kansas, and I'm sure that there are clubs around there.
Oooops! Quick thought -- would they take a Brittany? It's a pretty sharp dog, bred from hunting stock.
The little Boykin Spaniels work in the UKC and retrieve like mad on land and water. So I don't see why not a Brittany.
They are excellent swimmers, and supposedly a good choice for people with bad allergies.
Because they don't shed in any way.
Unlike our beloved German Shepherds. ;-)
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