"Summer Goals"

So whats your "off season" goals for you and your hunting buddy? I want to work more on some 300yrd+ blinds a bit more this year. I kind of cut it short last year so I am excited to keep it up this year. I also want to work on letting "hunter" use his nose more and less what I think MY eyes saw. LOL I find that I do this every season at least once or twice...and every time I do it he shows me how bad my eyes are haha.

A bunch of you most be hard at training! Good for you Dandigger! Looks like a lot of classes, but will be great for you and your dog. Every bit will help for sure. Always good to keep learning. Even after 20+ yrs of training. I still read, and watch all sorts of stuff on training. Never know when that little light will go one. I left out what should not be called the little stuff like obedience. I think of it as little stuff because it is a daily thing here. Multiple dogs, multiple ages, and all need a reminder of things from time to time. One pup is a bit wound up already this morning. So lots of obedience going on. No, don't chew the couch!, etc! No dogs off leash on state lands coming quick here. Which is working out well this year. Pups are real close to the point of no more walks in the woods anyway. Starting to follow tracks out a bit farther. So have to quit before they cause some sort of trouble, or I have to stop them from doing what they are supposed to be doing. The rest of the tracking and trailing will be learned once the season starts. Under the guidance of their pack mates.

i want to try to get my dog to hold to the shot and then go fetch the duck. as soon as we drop a bird he is after it then have to send him on hand signals for the rest. he is way good on pheasants with over 600 flushes in his 1st 2 years. no worries there. good artical in the d.u. mag in last months issue on holding....

Force Fetch my one year old. teach him more about using his nose. get into some tracking classes and some nosework classes while continuing general obedience classes. get him use to the sound of a gun. look into going duck hunting for my first time ever with or without him (probably without while I first try it out so I can actually hunt).

Run some AKC Field Trials to get Qualified All Age

Really going to try to get the dogs in chiseled up rock hard shape by July 1st. Hope to at least get them all doing a minimum of 5 miles 5 days a week. Working on building a dog walker to help out. Would really like to have them doing 8-10miles a day 5 days a week or more. It's tough with the number of dogs we have to walk all of them. If on foot can take 3-4 out at a time at most. That is a bit dangerous for the wrong person. Had just 2 of them hit a bear track a few years ago, and pull my wife right down and drug her into the ditch before she got them stopped. Will take them for bike rides as well, but that is pretty much restricted to 2 dogs. Again for safety reasons. Rest of the training is a cake walk compared to trying to get the winter fat of all of us! A lot of work before the start of season on July 1st, and that's just the dogs!