( #2828155 - 12/11/11 03:30 PM Re: Atta Boy, Rusty ... Get That Bird! [Re: Fooshman] )

Well ... we took her this morning, hoping for a miracle but fearing the worst. She's still the best marking retriever I've ever hunted over. Same with her tracking skills. On blind retrieves she remote handles beautifully. One whistle blast and she remote sits at 100 yards plus. She takes crisp overs and backs and is a jewel to watch work.

This morning she had 6 out of 7 birds as medium to long blinds. Why so many blinds you might ask. Because at LST and the first birds dropping in she went completely bonkers! Yiking and barking at the ducks! I let her pick up the one bird I knocked down from that first group. She saw it fall and marked it.



After I took that bird from her at heel she was kenneled in the back of the Jeep 75 yards away. The next six ducks were picked up 3 at a time, re-kenneling her after the 3rd one.







Carol had a 9 am appointment in town so we only hunted an hour. I honestly couldn't have taken more than that. Remi is now officially retired permanently. Breaks my heart for those skills to be wasted.

Sorry Cappy. I hate to hear that.

I hate to hear it too. You can't explain to them that the excitement they feel is actually keeping them from what they want and it hurts.

Heck, let her have a hunt that she sits in the blind and goes bonkers with barking and whining at each duck. Remi prbably figures she has been a good girl for all these years, it was time for her to Let GO!!!

Not too bad of a place to retire

You're not kidding. When Daisy and I go to visit I don't think she wants to leave.

That sucks. I wonder why she does that.

Maybe she's just really angry at them.

Cappy,

You would think you could condition her to being around the ducks on your home pond. Does she whine or bark at them?

No, absolutely not. She is oblivious to the ducks, geese and training pigeons we raise here. In fact she's often retrieved bumpers and catch frisbees that took her within scant yards of those birds and she pays them virtually no attention at all. She is quite focused in that regard.

Remi is from a 3rd repeat breeding of two HRCHs. Overall there were 33 pups from those 3 litters. 3 pups ended up with cancer, 2 of the left eye. Maybe coincidental but much more likely a genetic predisposition. Similarly, three are "hot wired" like Remi where the synapses in the brain just don't fire correctly in certain stress situations and the result is inappropriate (whacko) behavior to specific stimuli. It had gotten to the point with Remi that just my grabbing the shotgun in the blind or hitting the hail call hard was enough to trigger it.

Texas Ed has seen the signs by his just lining Remi at his heel and preparing to throw bumper marks for her and she's already yiking in excitement. Understandable in a 7 month old pup. Unacceptable in a 7 year old retriever.

By the way, Remi has a really painful looking case of cold water tail tonight. Lack of conditioning before hunting this season is likely the cause. She's on Benadryl and rest right now. I still love her.





Unforunately that doesn't work. She yikes, cries and barks at EVERY bird she sees within 100 yards and expects me to shoot them all for her. Started as a mild distraction 2 seasons back, got progressively worse and by late last season she was already retired rather than being "beaten" every time I took her out trying to "break" her misbehavior.

Man, ya that's tough. Really hard to try and correct as well.

Ask any serious trainer/handler of Field Trial & Hunt Test competitors about overcoming the problem with "vocal" dawgs and they will tell you it's extremely difficult if not impossible to correct. Believe me, I consulted with some of the very top professional trainers across the country trying to find a workable correction.

Even the breeder where Remi came from, who is a NAHRA and HRC judge, and his wife who's a Veteriarian ... couldn't solve the problem. And that included trying canine Prozac and some homeopathic meds to calm her.