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To: AnAmericanMother

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.


151 posted on 01/15/2006 2:54:46 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Well, a lot of Goldens have had the desire to retrieve game bred out of them. If he's got no interest in retrieving a pheasant wing or a dummy, he may be one of them. On the other hand, as you say those Chinese wings probably smell funny - ask your husband just to disjoint a few wings and bring them home. If you wrap them in newspaper and pop them in the freezer, they'll freeze-dry themselves in no time. Just attach them to a bumper with a couple of rubber bands.

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.)

152 posted on 01/15/2006 3:06:30 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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