Re: Hunt training. I'm in hot water w/ family
Flathead Thanks and I'm glad all is well. I read your pre-edited post last night and agree that non pro-trained dogs can be very efficient. The natural instincts of a Lab (unlike most other hunting dogs) is not to hunt , but to please its owner, and retrieve. Labs have keen "Marking" abilities, but is far more difficult in the blind (as opposed to field hunting). A good Lab in the blind must sit still while ducks fly in and mark 2, 3 sometimes 4 ducks at a time, depending on how many hunters are in the blind. Alot of training goes into a Lab that looks straight down the barrel and Marks where the ducks have fallen, and has the patience to mark all birds. Bullet hunts well in the field on upland game, but that is only 40% of the hunting I do. I will go every 2 weeks and work all day with the trainer. I've never had a problem converting the training from the pro over to me. It takes all of about an hour. At 3 months we took Bullet to a trainer who introduced the gun, worked on "hunt em up", and retrieves. he quickly advanced to the adult dog program within that month. He's had about 40 pigeons shot over him and will have another 200 shot over him in training. Blind work, boat work, blind retrieves, multiples, force fetch,hunt em up (in close), marking skills, retrieve to hand, are just a Few things he'll learn and I demand. Bullet comes from pure hunting breed stock,( not your typical Westminister dog show Lab) so he has an edge. Or as Barlow put it he already has "It". Flathead sounds like your pup has "it" as well.
