I have to pull myself back at times from all the bow hunting prep work and remember that my dog needs some attention TOO. Especially for his first trip out west to hunt ducks & geese this fall. He's been getting plenty of conditioning this year, with daily jogs with my wife, and a few times a week with me. We play fetch all the time in the yard, as well as run drills every now and then. But even with all that you still need to switch things up and change the scenery. Whether it be a field somewhere, or a quick dip in the lake...
We've been out a few times to play in the water, but tonight instead of going out to fling some arrows we hit a field and ran a few drills along with some longer retrieves. After being out there for a few minutes I realized there's not much rust to knock off. This dog is ready to run!!
Timber marking the first bumper being launched...
After using the launcher a few times I switched things up and just did some directional refresher drills. He did good, going to the bumper I cast him to, rather than the easy ones thrown intentionally as distractions...
The biggest thing I need to work on with him, is honoring other dogs when it's not his turn to retrieve. He's competitive, not in an aggressive way, but in a good way in that he wants to get every retrieve out there. Working with Longdraw's pooch & JohnROhio's pooch should help him a bit more on that.
Oh.... and we did road scout a bit on the way home.... just does and small bucks though.
We've been out a few times to play in the water, but tonight instead of going out to fling some arrows we hit a field and ran a few drills along with some longer retrieves. After being out there for a few minutes I realized there's not much rust to knock off. This dog is ready to run!!
Timber marking the first bumper being launched...
After using the launcher a few times I switched things up and just did some directional refresher drills. He did good, going to the bumper I cast him to, rather than the easy ones thrown intentionally as distractions...
The biggest thing I need to work on with him, is honoring other dogs when it's not his turn to retrieve. He's competitive, not in an aggressive way, but in a good way in that he wants to get every retrieve out there. Working with Longdraw's pooch & JohnROhio's pooch should help him a bit more on that.
Oh.... and we did road scout a bit on the way home.... just does and small bucks though.
