New Pup

[Penelope]

Glad to hear it, good for you. Hopefully she come good and help heal the loss.

 

Good luck with the Pup.

 

Just sorted myself out a new Lab pup as well. Will be the proud owner of a 8 week old black Lab bitch from the 31st.

 

 

 

 

[marsh man]

First of all good luck to anser2 and all the members who have just taken on a new canine family member to help to make there shooting days and life in general more enjoyable .

 

I am now on my sixth Labrador and what I have found with each dog I have had, is no two dogs are the same , apart from one I had all the others have been from a 6 to 8 week old puppy , with a couple I had the training went like clockwork , where as the others ended up as decent gundogs but the early training was testing your patience to the extreme , but when I look back , I was the one who needed training rather than the dogs , at that stage in life I was working long hours , bringing up a young family and trying to fit in as much shooting as possible , leaving little time for training and expecting the dog to do work he wasn't trained to do.

 

Now I am retired and time don't mean to much now as far as training my young dog goes , he is now nearly a year old and is with me all the time I am out , in a pigeon hide he is as calm as a cucumber , sitting and watching what is going on without trying to run in mainly because I haven't moved on to dead birds with his retriever training , this might be the wrong way to go about things but I find with a good working pedigree the retrieving is the easy bit and I like to spend time on the practical side rather than the artificial side .

 

This might be to young to take a pup pigeon shooting but like I say , he is calm enough and is getting used to a hide where he will be spending a big part of his life in without getting to excited trying to pick up each pigeon shot .

 

So good luck with your dogs training and let us know how it goes .

[anser2]

Pip is settling down a bit today, not pulling so hard on the lead keeping to heel for short periods until she wanted to play with the old dog. I took her on a large fenced field this morning and after a wild couple of minuets she settled down and came back when called. I do not think I will have any trouble with water with her. She delighted in running up and down a shallow ditch just for the shear hell of it splashing water everywhere. Had to turn down a days pigeon shooting though , typical no pigeons all winter and now quite a few on the drillings.

[oowee]

Reading about your dogs (all dogs ) on here makes me miss my dog more. Looking forward to my new arrival soon to share in the misdeeds and challenges that a dog can bring. Anser what do you do about introducing your dogs to the gun? My last dog came out pretty early on (probably too early) to a driven shoot and was fine then later on a walked up shoot with me and again no issues. Then suddenly when I thought he was ok he started hanging back and would not walk ahead as soon as i picked up the gun. Dont want to make the same mistake again.

[anser2]

As my friends will tell you i am by far from a good gundog trainer. Most of my dogs have trained themselves with a little guidance from me. AS for getting them used to gun fire. Meg, Penny and Tunkie were no problem. I just got a friend to stand a few hundred yards away and fire off a few shots , slowly getting closed stopping 50 yards away for the first training session. Repeat but slowly get closer on the second day and provided the dog shows no concern slowly get your mate to get very close until he is next to you. It helps to distract the dog with a few treats and plenty of affection.

 

Honey was very different. She was gun shy before I got her ( unknown to my self at the time ) , not just scared of the shot , but also the gun as well. I bought her in March and spent the summer having a gun with me during walks and when I fed her. Slowly she got used to the gun. Then repeated the gun shot method above , but with just single shots in each session and I also kept my old dog with us. After several months she would sit ok when a gun ws fired 50 yards away , but was clearly very nervious. At the start of the season I still was not sure if she was going to get over her gun shyness. As I have said I sat her 50 yards off during the morning flight , but no duck came near so no shots fired. I then took her walking up water filled dykes , allowing her to quest a little in front smelling moorhens and then ducks. When the ducks jumped infront of her I fired and she never had time to get nervous before a duck was down and she then retrieved it. We later hunted out a few moorhens which again she retrieved after a shot. She seemed ok at the time , but when we did another flight a few days later she showed signs of being nervious. But she remained sitting when I had a shot ( missed) and the next time she was much more calm. It took a few more weeks , but she slowly got over her gun shyness. I must confess the first day I took her out I was not very sure she was ever going to be a useable gundog and was already looking around for a replacement. But she came round and became a very good gun dog and loved her fowling.

 

It took five months to get her over it so if you are having problems give your dog plenty of time and stop as soon as she shows serious nerves. I have also found walking her near , but not too close to a clay shoot for brief periods can help as can the presence of an experianced gundog.

 

Update on Pip. Well she is now sitting well to both voice commands and visual signals. 5 days ago . Last Sunday you did not take her for a walk , she took you for a drag. Tonight she walked fairly well on a lead . She did pull a couple of times , but nothing too serious , even when a couple of dogs came running past us when out. I have had her off the lead a couple of times , but I cant really control her off the lead yet , she usually comes back , but not always so more lead work and then walking to heel off lead is the next target. Also given her a few dummy retrieves which she did ok with , though at first if she could not see it in the open she lost interest. But today she did hunt a couple out and brought them back. Not serious dummy work , just a couple of throws in a fenced in field. Long way to go yet , but a promising start.

Edited March 25, 2016 by anser2

[bigads28]

Anser, I really enjoyed your stories about your old dogs. I'm looking forward to reading about Pip in the future!

 

I hope to get my first lab in August all being well, it's been a while since I had a dog and frankly can't wait! I had a springer called Meg when I was a teenager and she went everywhere with me. I've just dusted off my guns last season and shooting wouldn't be the same without a dog. What my wife doesn't know is that one will become two when I can find another springer.

[anser2]

Bigads, good luck with your new dog\s . Pip is coming on in leaps and bounds. Just simple stuff like sit and down , but holding her interest is more tricky. As long as there no distractions I have her walking to heel for short periods , but would not trust her yet if another person or dog apeared as I know she would run to them. Walking to heel on a lead is a lot better now , but she still pulls form time to time if she has a distraction. She now comes back to me too without too much problem ( its amazing what a titbit will do. ) Still not doing much on the retreiving front yet , just the odd easy throw every now and then and she seems to be doing ok. Had her first experiance of the saltmarsh today and she went a bit loopy jumping into flashes and charging down small muddy creeks. I am not expecting any trouble when it comes to swimming , but that can wait until the warmer weather. I have to keep reminding myself she is still a puppy and let her have a bit of fun off the lead. I made sure this was just before tea time so she was hungary and responded well to treats and never went more than 30 yards from me , returning each time I called her..

 

All this is a bit fast realy , but the crash course ( 4 hours a day in short spurts ) is because I start a new contract next week and if she is going to be with me at work all day I need to trust her to come when called and behave. She took a little too much interest in a running roe deer yesterday ( she was on a lead ) though she made no attempt to chase rabbits the other day ( again on a lead.) when two popped up close to us. The Meg is a godsend in steadying her down though the old dog is having to put up with a mad puppy wanting to play with her . Pip has realy taken to me and at the moment is dozing on my feet under the computer desk. She craves affection , but showing a lot of good signs. Saw her first geese today. 40 brents croaking away across the marsh and she watched them out of sight ( a good sign ). She looked up at every gull too as we sat by the big creek where I do a lot of my fowling later in the year.

 

On the down side I am having a bit of trouble with her indoors. Sometimes I have to stop her driving the old dog mad with her playing . Usually I start with a sharp NO , but if that fails try and catch hold of her by her collar. She hates that and twists and tries to get away from me. And yet within seconds later she will come to me of her own accord , but is not keen on me approaching her. I suspect her previous owner had chased her to punish her after some wrong doing.