Dove Hunt '08'

Headed out west cuz i wanna be a cowboy baby!.....Not. Actually headed out for the opening of the dove hunt! The weather was trying to scare us away but we were not having it. Got to our favorite little watering hole, set up our decoys and found a hole to crawl into behind some bushes. It was a bit chilly and cloudy most the time and even though the sun would peek out in spurts it stayed chilly. To our surprise the doves kept coming in, we thought they would have been headed out of town, maybe we just caught them on thier way out. Whatever the case may be it was the best i had in 2 years, and with a dog that can and will retrieve it makes it that much more fun. I was able to turn it into a small training session working on "Hold" and almost every one was a blind retrieve that helps train as well as basic obedience prepping up for the duck blind ie lay down and stay still. We all had a great time, bagged our share of doves and headed back home.
PICS ABOVE: Bizkit and Todd w/Hessian and our Doves, Hessian holding,
Hessian holding again, Last two Pics are My hunting buddy chilling shotgun in the Jeep ready for action!

HZP / VGP Training

Saturday went out to Lee Kay once again for some training with the ugly dogs and come to think of it not much better looking handlers! Some of us were there to train for HZP and some there to prepare for the VGP. Had some ducks and some chukars and went to work. All together betweem everyone there the subjects worked on were some Search Behind The Duck,Furred Game Drags,Blind Duck Retrieves,Gun Tolerance,Pointing,Steadiness to Shot,BloodTracking and even Dead Game Guide! Learned alot once again, watched some dogs get trained by some great guys met a few new faces and matched them to the dogs we've already heard about! How bad is that when you've heard of the dog before the owner? ! Pretty amusing!
Watched Gracie vom Felsengebirge do a fantastic 17 hour Bloodtrack and as a finale Dead Game Guide work. truly amazing once again showing the true versatility of the Drahthaar. Also watched as Jager vom Wasatch held some tight points stayed steady and retrieved some shot birds as well as Bryndis vom Uintah with great tracking and retrieves on furred game drag and a nice search behind the duck. Ron was there just to watch all the activities and learn about what experiences they are in for with his new pup Nick (Hanks) vom Wasatch. Was able to do some duck work with Hessian and also work on a furred drag as well as get a few points and retrieves out of him. I am concerned about a few things like the fact that he killed the duck and has done this more than once now,wants to pluck birds on retrieves and dropped twicw in the last two weeks. Things that i can hopefully work out before our test but if not thats ok fail or pass i have a great hunter. After all thats what we all want isn't it?
PICS ABOVE: Hessian and Jager cooling off, Some of the guys spectating and helping.
Nate and Mike working with Jager's steady to shot, Jager on point.
Ron's new pup Nick- Hanks vom Wasatch.

Blind Retrieve Video Follow Up

This video is of a Blind Retrieve kind of a long vid but shows alot. This gets back to my previous statement about the frustration i had with his water/ land retrieve. He starts out great. In the water like he is supposed to then once on the other side gets out and begins a land search only finding nothing, returns to the water and upon finding it will retrieve well. I am not certain if this will be ok for the HZP test. He is searching even though out of the water. And upon finding returns the fastest way he can find which in this case was faster to bring by land. I think he has a good manner of retrieve but just not sure if this is test material.
I took him out yesterday on the Jordan River and did some blinds that in my opinion went very well. I wish i had got footage of that. I would throw the duck across the river without him seeing it and then send him after it. Instantly he begins checking the dense cover on our side of the river then swims across and instantly checks the dense cover on the other side. I can hear him using his nose and then i can tell when he smells it because it is a hard, fast swim to where the duck is held up with a great retrieve. To me this shows great marking ability by Hessian to know that that dense cover is where to look first. Again please bring the comments, advice,criticism. Thanks in advance.

Gunfire Sensitivity Video

I am figuring out what it takes to post videos here but it takes alot of time and some computer finesse, which i do not have. I have to record the movie on the camera, convert the file, make it into a movie on a program, save it to a flash drive then upload to the blog. Hope this works for everyone to see.
This is a video on more training i have done, just checking to see if Hessian has any gun sensitivity in water. The answer is no. There is a Dokkens dummy in the water that he has seen, I command "fetch" and off he goes, I fire a shot at the dummy to check. Not exactly sure if i am doing this right but it is pretty much what I saw at the last HZP.
Also not to sure what the high pitch bark is about. He only does it if he can see the object i have sent him after. Could this be considered Loud on Sight? Not sure. Remember comments, criticism, and advice are all welcome here. Don't be shy.

Blind Retrieve Video From 8-23

This is just some footage of what i did this weekend to show where i am in my training, still alot of work to do,I have more than one video, but this one shows what is a bit frustrating to me. I have placed a duck out in the cover and send Hessian to retrieve.

The idea is to have him enter the water and begin a search, upon smelling he is to go to and retrieve. The thing that is frustrating me is that he will enter the water, than exit the water and retrieve or re enter the water, retrieve and return to me on land. Not a problem for hunting but not quite sure if it will fly for the HZP test.I will try to post the other videos so more can be seen but if anyone has any comments,advice or criticism it will be eagerly accepted.

NEW DRAHTHAAR ADDICTION STICKERS HAVE ARRIVED!!

 

 O.K Everyone the new stickers have made it! A bit larger print and all in one piece now i will be sending these out to all of you that i had sent the originals to. If you have not ordered yours yet now is your chance to represent your addiction! The stickers are cool and the price is perfect. FREE!!! Look for the ad on the top right side under the slideshows and you will see instructions to order. If you ordered one before I will automatically send you a few new ones. Thanks

Honeymoon Is Over Time To Concentrate On Whats Really Important

 Now a married man and back from our honeymoon in Jackson Hole. Had a great time eating great food like buffalo and elk, shopping for souvenirs, bar hopping daily,taking scenic drives, horseback riding and river rafting. We were able to see some wildlife, moose, deer, osprey, bald eagle,grouse. But now it is time to concentrate on test training. I think Force Fetch is complete and need to really get on training the test aspect of retrieve. I have frozen ducks to work with but will need to get some live ones for training search behind the duck. I also need to do a refresher course in pointing and will be working on drag tracks now so i will be in search of the elusive bunny rabbit once again. My next month will consist of HZP training, and hopefully some hunting too. I hope to be able to use the few hunts before the test as a training crutch, we'll see how things go. I am really nervous about this test,more nervous than my own wedding day! Not sure if I will have enough time to prepare the way i would like. That is all for now, more to come on what the HZP consists of and how we are training for it. Good luck to all others preparing for the test too!

Test Training and Lee Kay Hatchery/Dog Training Info

Went out to Lee Kay for a little training Saturday. I worked on some HZP test things. Using a thawed duck and a Dokkens Mallard bumper i threw numerous unmarked blinds for Hessian. Doesn't seem to be much of a problem for him at all he will search and search until he catches wind of it and then he's all over it. I am amazed at how long he will stay in the water or in the field after being commanded to fetch. What a nose on this dog, i am more and more impressed with how well he can scent anything i put out there and sometimes it is so quick.

I also worked a little on the gunfire sensitivity in water, by sending him out after a thawed duck or bumper he saw fall and as he approached would fire a shot at the duck or bumper. It would only fire him up more, making him bark and swim faster for it. His manner of retrieve is getting much better since i've been working with him on every retrieve.

I was also able to do a little bit with a rabbit drag that went very well also. I had my partner Zac lay out the drag for me, right now just straight ones until he gets it down, got Hessian on the start of the drag track and when i knew he was following the scent I released him with the fetch command. We watched as he lost the track, began a search and as he ran across where the track was he stopped, turned and nose to the ground followed the scent all the way to the rabbit. I had to command fetch once he was there but this is really only the second one i have done so i expect problems like that. All in all it was a great day of training. We were able to work with Grizz as well and in my own opinion that dog will be a great hunter. His search has really developed well, and his nose as well. He loves water and swam more than i have ever seen him before. Zac has been working the obedience angle and is doing great. We were able to put some pressure on Grizz and work with "hold" and "heel". Mind he needs more training but doesn't seem to have a problem holding things and and walking beside anyone while still holding. We were even able to get him to hold and heel with fur! We were even able to toss out the fur and without even being told to fetch went out grabbed it up and returned it to Zac eagerly! We didn't have any issues with possession as we did in the past either, if he had something we didn't want we would walk right in behind him reach into his mouth and grab it out with no attitude from him whatsoever. Good dog. Keep up the work Zac you will have it down in no time.

Also I stopped in and was able to talk to a representative at Lee Kay about the hatchery situation that has recently arose. It seems like it will actually be a good thing and won't ruin the dog training area but actually improve it! I was told they want to build 4 hatching ponds. In order to do this they need to do alot of digging which in turn will give the dog trainers a new pond! They seem more than willing to make the new dog training pond the shape we would like with islands and all. The hatchery ponds of course will be fenced off with no worry for the dogs or fish. Also the fresh water for the hatchery ponds will be pumped in and the constant flow of fresh water will continue into the new dog pond and existing ponds making it that much nicer for swimming. They are still planning on putting in a community fishing pond as well but again will be fenced off and accessible from its own area, without having to go through the training area to fish. I think it will be beneficial for all outdoors men whether it is fishing or dog training. I guess we can only wait and see.