Lab trained on rocks?

[orangestew]

How many people out there use rocks to train there labs? I don't know about you but I watch these shows on tv and watch guys blow there whistle to get there dog to go a certain direction and I have to laugh. All I have to do if the dog doesn't know where to start looking for a bird is to throw a rock in the direction of a bird and my lab will find it. It doesn't matter if it's ducks or pheasant if I shoot a bird and the dog doesn't see it go down I throw a rock in that area and 9 times out of 10 he will find it. If the bird is to far out of range for my throwing arm I have learned to bring a slingshot with in the boat for a little more distance. I'm not a professional trainer by any means but this method has worked for me with my dogs and I was just curious if anyone else out there has used the same method??????

[Caesarfishinguytoo]

Hey Stew,

When I seen the subject of your post it made me laugh!! Sorry nothing personal, but when I was younger, maybe between 13 and 20 my Uncles and father had dogs that would only go out into the water to retrieve a duck if you threw a rock. Problem was sometimes we didn't have rocks so it was whatever we could find with some weight that would be thrown. Man if it works for you, great but it was a pain in the a$$ sometimes to get the dog to retrieve the duck! There were a few times the only thing with weight I could throw was my little brother, but I got my duck and that is all that mattered!!!

AK

[BLACKJACK]

I always make sure I have a bag of rocks with on opener!!! Its sure better than throwing shells!! Some ducks have such a low profile that the splash the rock makes gets the dog in the area. Yeah, it would be nice to have a dog that would stop on a whistle, turn and face you, then you direct them left or right, but for the amount of duck hunting that I do, my meat dogs and rocks get it done. If the duck sails too far, then I get to go for a walk with the dog to get then in the area, or get the boat out.

[Gus]

My dog does hand signals pretty well. But he will usually only go back so far for some reason. Throwing rocks will keep him moving back and he gets the bird. Yeah, it can be a pain the a$$ throwing rocks instead of watching for birds but is does bring the duck home for the dinner plate. throwing shells does get expensive

[korn_fish]

I used rocks as well when my lab lost her mark on the bird. However, I don't think rocks would work too well in trials

[stayman79]

I keep a bag of rocks in the boat all of the time to help my lab find the birds. Make sure you bring big enough one's so you can get them out there a ways. No, he's not hand signal trained either. But I don't mind, I'm not a perfect shot either!

Just try not to hit the dog!