Spring Training is here.

[BMaxus]

Now the snow is almost gone, the weather is nice,and it's time to work our dogs.

What are your training goals for 2011?

[Kyhl]

Refresher courses that they are hunting with me, not the other way around.

Then continue to work on retreive to hand.

[BMaxus]

My wife and I took the pup out for a run. Things didn't go as well as I hoped, but I got some pics. Now I just have to figure out how to post'em.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Running my GW pup in NAVHDA Natural Ability Test this spring.

[Farley]

8 month old GWP is going to get pointing down, hold steady through the shot and is going to learn to honor other dogs points. He's pointed and honored before by instinct so I'm hoping he gets it pretty quick. Other than that just getting him on birds, keeping him birdy. Although I havent been exactly waiting for the snow to melt, about once every few weeks, over the winter, we've been walking the swamp\grasslands on our property.

[HookEmHard84]

St_Croix_Banks, I will also be running my one year old GSP in the NA test this spring, probly see you there.

My training goal is to work on "come" and to get him on a lot more real birds, he will retrieve a dummy all day long, but still gets wierd about the real thing.

[rundrave]

I will also be running my one year old GSP in the NA test this spring, probly see you there.

My training goal is to work on "come"

a trick i use for the NA test when running a young dog is to carry a plastic water bottle and use it while you train to give your dog water. Then during the test I just carry it in my vest. You never know when the judges will tell you to call your dog, and if they are still "hunting" its hard to call them back. So what I do is crinkle the bottle in my hands when i yell "come" and the dog knows he can get water.

Only say the command if you can enforce it or your score will reflect it if you keep yelling. The NA test is usually pretty straight forward, the water and field test is easy, its the tracking where it can get tricky. Just too many variables with weather, wind, moisture and how the bird runs/hops.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Good luck Hook Em. Are you running May 21/22 at Four Brooks in Milaca?