Was just sitting here at work wondering how I will set up in the morning on a cruddy spot that I will prolly only shoot a few...

then I realized that one buddy called and asked me to go with him to his "honey hole"

I declined that invite because I didnt want to leave my pup at home on another hunt,

Then my buddy from houston called and was on his way to Madisonville to his private lease.

I declined that because I didnt want to drive that far...

I also have a standing invite for snows and speck til I die in houston as well as another east texas lake that all I gotta do is show up.

however I would rather go to the sorry place close to the house to spend some time with my pup...

There you go, I know I'm not because I did the exact oposite the past few weeks so that I could get on some birds hard n heavy. However, I did only do that 1 day out of the weekend and went to my own so-so spot the other day so that I could take the dog.

Thats all you need. You can only shoot six anyway right?

Im doing the same this weekend to work with my dog, i declined a free canada hunt to hunt decent at best public land

yep and will prolly only get a couple... and one of them will probably get thrown out and retrieved several times

Yea, after the birds settle down and the flights seem to be over I take the opportunity to reinforce good retrieving with my dog also. I don't know if thats legal on the refuge but what the hey, she loves it!

will your buddy not let you bring your dog, or is your dog still too green to hunt with other ppl?

well she has never hunted with another dog so I am not sure how it would go, and honestly the last thing I want to do is be stressed out on a hunt.

We need to go on a hunt then with both of our dogs. Call it dog distraction training. I can let Blaze provide as little or as much distraction as you want. No stress. I have not met another man's dog yet that we did not enjoy hunting with no matter what the dog's breed, age, experience, and training.

there you go nogeese problem solve, I started hunting my dog around others so it hasnt been a problem for mine, atleast nothin the Ecollar can't fix

I dont want to start the e-collar discussion again but I dont use one.

oh I see, thats cool if you can go with out one, means some major quality time with your pup, the dog I have right now I got him when he was 2.5 yrs old so I really had no choice to get him to where he is now, but goodluck with the pup

she is a year and minds great getting decent at hand signals but still tends to break. I am very pleased with her progress thus far.

When I put Oak around other dogs her intensity goes from about a 7-8 to 9-10...she thinks every single bird is hers and they are stealing it Since I have been battling this breaking issue I haven't put her back in that situation but I think I am going to and if she takes a single step let the other dog make the retreive. Might be one of those days where she don't get a single bird...unless I don't shoot.

I took her to the skeet range Wed afternoon and shot 150 clays and she never acted like it bothered her but a couple of times. Then today I take her out and as long as I don't shoot she is fine but as soon as I pull the trigger she is going to try and get out there She is smarter than I am I think

On a really good note, she ran her first blind today and I was so proud of her I was stupid, more so than normal

Unfortunately, we only got 4 birds. But she did really well today just one bad deal and that was when I shot and dropped a bird and she tried to go get it...just a single step though so it was better. It wasn't an easy retrieve either because she had to get in the water swim to the other bank and get out and get on the other bank but she nailed it.

I say train around another dog and she how Dude does and go from there. Let me know we'll hook up for some birds...I need to start freezing a few so I have some in the offseason for her to train with and I haven't done that yet.

There you go Nogeese. She might just surprise you...

No E collar or force fetch here either. I probably would if I had a Lab or other retriever, but this being my 8th dog to train and a relatively easy breed to train, I just wanted to try a different approach related to natural dog behavior. Every form of training is not right for every person and dog. Nothing wrong with that at all nogeese.

What breed is your dog sniperjohn?

Vizsla

X2 Me either!

I think you mighr be wrong. You're in whatever stage has to do with methods since you won't hunt without your dog.

"Dude" is the third retriever I have trained... there have been more mutts and foo foo dogs than I care to mention, but far and away the smartest dog i have ever had the pleasure of owning.... actually its somewhat of a challenge to always trying to think 1 step ahead of her!!!

you could be right... it aint about the killin, and as far as gear, I use old decoys some more than 30 years old! I buy shells that are on sale, and I shoot them out of a 10 year old nova .

I guess if you have small kids you can relate, the way their faces light up this time of year when you start talking about christmas... well Dude lights up the same way when I reach for the camo. and that is real cool!

The Dude abides.

been loadin up and gettin all my stuff ready and she is goin NUTS!!!

Man I really miss my dog, After school I'll get another one...