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Jim Robey: Hunters, hunting dogs ready for the fall
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Every time the subject of hunting dogs and training them comes up my wife starts laughing.
Donna can't forget the day she went along when I took Sam and Polly to a quarry. The purpose was to instruct the dogs in the art of retrieving.
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Both dogs were Labrador retrievers and didn't need a lot of work in this respect. Labs are natural retrievers.
My concern was having dogs that would retrieve on command. I didn't like the idea of both dogs swimming out to retrieve the same bird at the same time.
So there we were, at the edge of a gravel quarry. Sam, a big, strong, rambunctious male was on my left. Polly, a smaller, smarter and kinder Lab was on the right. Donna was observing from behind.
The training began. "Polly, sit." Polly sat. "Polly stay." Polly stayed. The training dummy was tossed out. Sam leaped into the water and made a good retrieve.
Now it was Polly's turn. I enticed her with the training dummy and she was anxious to display her ability as a retriever.
I turned to the bigger dog. "Sam, sit!" Sam sat. "Sam stay!"
I was sure Polly would do well with this training exercise, but I was not so sure about Sam. He was not a great listener. So I attached a leash to his collar, just in case.
After the "Sam stay" command the training dummy was tossed in the water. Polly leaped into the pond and swam for the dummy as fast as she could.
Sam could not stand the competition. The big dog broke command. He leaped into the water, taking me with him, still holding the leash.
My splash was bigger than that of the two Labs. It must have looked funny to anyone watching.
"Your heels were dug in and it looked like you were skiing down the gravel slope," Donna said.
This dog-training story is offered as a reminder to all hunters looking forward to having a good dog ready to go, come fall.
A person who waits for the hunting season to start before working with his dog surely will be disappointed. A good hunting dog is a well disciplined animal and one that has experience in the field.
No practice can match the real thing, but a simulated hunt can help a great deal. Many use professional trainers to get their dogs ready for hunting and that's not a bad idea.
We have about a half-dozen shooting preserves in southwest Ohio and all of them have excellent dog trainers. They also have an advantage in that they are able to show an untrained dog what a real bird looks like, and what it smells like.
Hunting time is not far away. Dove season will begin on Sept. 1; an early goose season will start the same day, waterfowl hunting generally opens the third week of October and pheasant, quail and rabbit seasons start in early November.
So take a tip from guy who is not an expert. Get outdoors and work with your dog, do it in the morning and evening hours when it's cooler ... and be careful around water.
Contact Jim Robey at
Dayton Daily
News, 1611 S. Main St.,
Dayton
, Ohio 45409.
