A weekend of hunting with new pup

[Ranger482]

My son and I hit the woods this weekend with the new yellow lab pup and went too chase some grouse. This is the first time I have hunted with a dog and wow, what a level of excitement it brings, he is 14 weeks and took him out and I was amazed at how well he stuck by us and when he would get out ahead and i would call out, he stops dead in his tracks and waits for us while looking at us the entire time.

we spent the last two days north of Duluth on a few of the trails up their trying our luck at walking the roads and hitting a few of the older logging roads and for me it was more of watching the pup do his thing as he would work between us going back and fourth, but he does not venture too much off into the ditches until one of us would do so, but as far as listening and stopping when told and when walking between us....when we would stop, so would he.

I know he is not a bird dog yet by any means, but to obey the way he did and also not cower or take off scared when we fired a shot now and then, was a graet outing for me and I think a pretty good one for him being young, but figuring being out there with us is about the best way he can catch on and learn.

As far as the number of birds....we saw 2 on Saturday and 5 today, but all birds were a ways off and seemed to be really jumpy, pretty tough to even try and take a shot with the distance that they would fly off at, but the weather was great and the pup responded well, so a bird would have only been a bonus, but came home empty handed both days, but pretty satisfied with the weekend overall!

[123fish]

Well it sounds like you had a lot of fun as did the dog. 14 weeks is way young to expect anything serious from as far as performance. Keep him close and eventually everything will fall in place.

[Ranger482]

Ya he is pretty young yet, but watching him do what he did was great, and I have never trained a dog for this so maybe I got excited for what he had to show for now, but guess I do not know what he should be doing on his own, but picked up a book on the basics too help me along.

The one thing I want to work on is getting him out in front too posibly flush if possible and not sure the best way to do it, but like you said he is young so every outing at this point is a learning experiance for the both of us.

[strait-meat]

not sure if you have him trained towards gun fire yet but make sure to do that right so you do make him gun-shy

[TRITC]

Ranger,

I've done my own training as well; I've had/have britts but a lot of the same theories apply. The main thing I've learned is that the dogs will usually show you what they are bred for...hunting. For your part a lot of it is just a bit of control or a push here or there; nothing to extensive. Also, I'm coming from the "I just want a solid hunter, not a trials dog" kind of point of view (no offense to the trial guys, respect the heck out of what you guys/gals do).

As for your comment about how to get the dog out front to flush; just try to make sure you are hunting into the wind as much as possible. Doing this the dogs natural instincts usually kick in and you'll know it when it happens; we all know this as "getting birdy".

Hope that little bit helps.

TRITC

[Ranger482]

Thank you for the replies.

As you said, I am just trying too see what he will do on his own and then try too teach him what other steps are missing...... It's like you mentioned, just trying too have a dog that is behaved and likes to hunt, not looking to make him into the

master field hunter because I am not either, but i give those guys a ton of credit also for their accomplishments.

It was like what I mentioned earlier about how well I thought he did and just too get him out to get the ball rolling and like you mentioned about his natural abilities coming out...... He came with papers an paid 250 for him, but both parents are hunters and on the mothers side, there were six champions in the bloodlines, so maybe it will come easy for him too be at the level I am hoping for.

[zackthehunter]

sonds like a great dog keep workin him and you will be very happy

[MuleShack]

Lets see some pictures of the hunt and the pup.