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De-pop
posted: August 21, 2008
author: Mingo

We haven't done alot this summer, just a few marks here and there and a little refresher on drill, blinds, handling etc. After having problems with sit to whistle in a hunt test this spring, I really upped the pressure on Ike to sit. Instead of the usual toot-nick to sit and handle, I used the continuous button until his butt hit the ground. That got him to sit to the whistle but created the problem of popping, or stopping to sit and look at me when I didn't blow the whistle. I kenneled Ike at WhackAQuack when we went on vacation recently and got a few pointers from the pro. The remedy was to send the dog on a blind and be ready when he popped to immediately give him a nick and a BACK before he stopped.

I set up a modified T drill with a nine bumper back pile, one left over bumper and two angled right back bumpers. After a few trips to the back pile with no whistle stops, Ike popped. I was ready and gave a nick, a back gesture and a loud verbal BACK. We ran to the back pile more with a couple more corrections and some en-route BACK commands (some with a nick some without). That seemed to fix the problem so we reset the back pile and started over. After running a few more good trips to the back pile without corrections, I stopped him on the X and did the over and angled backs. Everything went well so we stopped there. I think a few more session and he will be straightened out.

A little training distraction
posted: July 2, 2008
author: Mingo

Not much of a hatch, but the town mallards at least doubled their numbers.

Maintenance
posted: July 2, 2008
author: Mingo

We have not been doing much but making it out for a session a few times a week. Not really adding much new, but doing some doubles and blinds trying to stay sharp and build confidence. Tonight I found a long narrow pond that looked good, so we ran a few single marks down the middle from about 50 - 75 yds. I guess what little bit of swim-by we did was OK because Ike was straight down the middle, there and back. This spot also had a good space to run some 100yd marks with close cut grass that made it easy, so we ran a double at about 80yds and a single at about 100. Ike has been a little stir crazy because I haven't had him out much but he seems to have retained most of what he knows.

SRC HT
posted: May 22, 2008
author: Mingo

I ran Ike in the Sooner Retriever Club AKC hunt test last Saturday. I had heard about the differences between UKC and AKC and wanted to see, if AKC was harder as most people seemed to say. The morning land series was a little harder at the Senior level than the UKC Seasoned level we had run, but not too bad. We had to honor a working dog, which we did not have to do in Seasoned. The first mark was run as a walk-up with the bird landing behind a terrace at about 60 yds with a few trees around. The second bird was a live flyer at about 75 yds. Ike picked up the first bird no problem, but put on an extended hunt for the memory bird. I might have let him hunt more, but I was afraid it would hurt us, so I handled to the bird. He did great on the blind, needing only a couple of whistles, and OK on the honor, though he crept a little on the flyer. I was not sure if we would get a callback for the water session, but we did and I felt pretty good about our chances for a pass. Then I saw the water setup. First bird down was behind a small island which was behind a point in a narrow neck. Second bird was an easy splash near the far bank, and then the blind. The blind was about 50 yds with a line very close to the shore which was on the left and two islands on the right about 20yds off the bank. Holding a good line to the blind would mean the dog would be about 30 feet from the bank and 30 feet from the islands. I then found out that you only get one handle on a mark per day and we had used that up, and the judges said the dogs must get wet on all marks and the blind or they would fail.

Bird in the pond was no problem then we sent for the one behind the island. Ike took to the water and drove on to the point. When he got there he looked past it, but did not see the bird, so he went off the end of the point to the other bank, made a loop and came back towards me where he stopped and looked at me. Sorry, bud, you are on your own. Fortunatly, he spotted the bird and made the pickup. One the blind he was in running water too close to the shore so I stopped him and gave a right angled back. He sucked over to the second island and as he began to exit the water I gave him a whistle, but he continue on to the far end of the island. I gave him a left angled back, but he went more straight back over the island. I couldn't see him behind the island and didn't know he took a wrong line until he was even with the bird so I had to give him a pretty big left over to get the bird. On the way back he was running too close to the shore again, which probably didn't matter, but I stopped him and cast him off the bank into swimming water and he made it back fine. I was feeling pretty good about his run, but at the end of the day, he did not pass. Only 19 of 45 dogs did. The judges said the blind is what failed him and I couldn't argue that point, BUT it was still a good run for him. He had six birds to pick up and got all six. More than a few handlers picked up their dogs during the test as they knew they had failed. Overall, I think his performance was as good or better than the UKC Seasoned passes he has. We sure did want one of those big orange ribbons, though. Maybe next year.

I wonder
posted: April 30, 2008
author: Mingo

what this Coot thought as Ike was bearing down on him? Just beyond and to the left of the coot you can see the blind.

No More Mr. Nice Guy
posted: April 30, 2008
author: Mingo

Trying to get back into some structured training. We have backed up and run some pattern blinds, adding in some marks with the patterns and even running a few piles under the arc of a mark. Ike has no problems with this. He will even run to a pile with a mark thrown close by before.

A few things I figured out; I have been using collar correction exclusively with the nick setting. My collar goes from 0 - 100, and most of the time I nick at about 40. Ike has gotten used to this and sometimes ignores it, so I started using the continuous button at a lower setting. That really gets his attention! Mostly I use it for sit to the whistle when running blinds and casting. Ike had developed a tendency to loop and sit slow, but I started using the cont. stimulation until his butt was on the ground and it has tightened things up a lot, even though he lets me know he doesn't like it. Another thing I learned is that if you are going to increase the pressure and handle at extended distance, YOU better know what you are doing! I have to put more thought into what I am going to do, rather than just sending the dog and reacting to what he does. Lastly, I figured out that the problems I was having with slow sit and some creeping at the line was all really one problem with the SIT command, so we have been working on that, with more pressure and a higher standard. Most any experienced trainer would tell you that is a no-brainer, but sometimes it takes me a while to get it.

Today I ran him on about a 75 yd water blind straight into the wind which was about 25mph. Maybe shouldn't have run into the wind where the dog could scent the bumper, but did anyway. He immediatley hit the water and turned back to look at me. I gave a verbal BACK, he went a little and did it again. I realized I was commited to running him into the wind and waves, and he didn't want to, but after about 3 BACKS, we went on a good line. As he got about 2/3s of the way there I noticed a coot sitting on the water near the shore at the bumper. CRAP! The coot began to swim away, and Ike honed in on him. Fortunatly this coot was a little smarter than average, and took off. I gave Ike a cast to correct his line and he headed straight to the bump. As soon as he hit the bank, I gave him a whistle and a burn even though he had seen the bumper. This was a problem we had been having, where when he saw or winded the bumper or bird, he would ingnore the whistle and make the pickup. This time though, he sat unitl I casted him back the 5 feet or so the the bumper. It may have been a poorly laid out blind by me, but Ike did a good job of it.

HR Ike
posted: April 7, 2008
author: Mingo

It would be too hard to recount everything that happened this weekend, so, the quick story is Ike got his HRC Hunting Retriever Title on Sunday. He ran everything really well both days EXCEPT the water blind on Saturday. The blind was a short one with a good crosswind, and Ike was very quick to get even with the blind, where I gave him a whistle sit. He stopped, looked back at me and gave me a look like I got it boss and took off before I gave a cast. I whistled him to come back, which he did, sort of, and then took off to find the bird, which he had winded, ignoring my whistles. Everything else he did fine, but that was enough to knock us out. Sunday he was great on everything including the blind on the land series. On the water he was great on everything, except the blind, but I did get a sit and a back cast before his nose went to work, and we got the pass and title. He marked great both days, had no problems with diversions or walk-ups, and was pretty steady, althoug a few times I did have to re-heel him. Now a dog taking a line on a blind to the point where he winds the bird and finds it is great in hunting, but in testing, they like you to show control of the dog. Most judges will pass you if the dog takes a line close and finds the bird, but if the dog refuses a cast or whistle you got trouble. After watching the Finished dogs, I think he can pick up birds in that test, but probably not to the tighter standard in those tests. If the blind is to choppy or you have to handle to marks you are in trouble. We'll worry about Finished next year after some serious work on line manners, handling on blinds and triples.

I get by with a little help from my friends
posted: April 3, 2008
author: Mingo

Met up with some of the guys from the Sooner Retriever Club last night for some work and advice. It was good to run with some experienced dog trainers and we set up a decent double and some difficult blind work to help get Ike ready for the HT this weekend.

This afternoon I hooked up with Urban and Ruby for a little more work. It just doesn't seen like that long ago when Urban was throwing puppy marks for Ike, with Lucy watching the kid work. Now we're watching Ruby progress and Ike gets to watch. Ruby did some fine work in the water, even picking up some land-water-land marks at good distance. It looks like she will be the total package and another fine gun dog in the lineup. We set up Ike for a water triple and a land double at about 75 yds which he did easily. I think he is ready to go, but tomorrow we will do a little easy T-work and pattern blinds just to refresh some basics.

Another HT
posted: March 31, 2008
author: Mingo

We are off to Wagoner for another HT this weekend. If Ike passes Seasoned on Saturday we will run Finished on Sunday. For training we have been setting up doubles and blinds with a few triples thrown in. Ike has shown a little bit of a tendency to pop or look to me for correction without a whistle, so we will do less handling this week and work more on long singles and doubles to build his confidence, hopefully. His marking is improving and I think we are in better shape heading to this test than the last one where he got two passes, so hopefully he will get his Seasoned Title

Stepping Up
posted: March 17, 2008
author: Mingo

It was in the back of my mind that maybe we weren't ready to step up a class in the HRC Hunt Test game since we hadn't really done all that much training since duck season, but I figured we might as well get our feet wet and give it a try. Headed to the Lone Star HRC test early Saturday to find we were running 3rd. I was particularly worried about my handling of the gun, walk-ups, and diversion birds. Time moved fast from the handler's meeting and in no time we were in the holding blind. The first land setup was about a 40 yd blind, then a double spread about 90 degrees apart with the first, or memory bird about 30 yds and the second or go bird about 75 yds in moderate cover. Ike handled the blind well with 3 whistles. The last one I waited too long to give as he had already zeroed in on the bird and ignored the toot while grabbing the bird. I pretty quickly learned that if your dog is running hard, you better be quick with the whistle, or you will be too late. He got a good mark on both birds of the double and pinned the first mark. Now after you shoot you have to be careful to open the breech of the gun and put it on safe, then put it in the holder. On the way back from the second mark, you are to load the gun with a single popper and shoot a diversion bird that they throw over you and the dog as he comes back. Thing was, I was so nervous and Ike was so quick to the second bird, that I forgot about it until I saw him look up. I quickly loaded a round and fired into the air from the hip! I got a warning from the judges, and a laugh also, but they said we were, just calm down and be safe. Ike retrieved the diversion and we were done with the land test. I was more worried about him marking on land in cover as he had been having a little trouble with these lately. You have the option to handle the dog to the mark if needed, but they prefer the dog put on a hunt and find it without help. Thing is when you dog is hunting around, it's hard to keep your cool and decide when to handle if you need unless you have thought about it beforehand.

On the water series there was a walk-up where you put the dog at heal, load the gun and walk, at which time a bird is thrown. You can tell the dog to sit, shoot the bird, then send them. If the dog breaks, but you get him back, you will probably be OK, but if the dog makes it to the bird without being sent, you fail. Ike wanted to heal a little farther in front of me than I liked, and was looking around at the decoys, judges, etc, but when the bird went up and I told him to sit, he did, then retrieved on command. Next up was a water blind of about 35 yds with he lined with no whistles. The memory bird was about 35 yds, slightly to the left, but the hitch was it fell benind a narrow strip of land with some trees on it. The go bird was an easy 40 yd mark out in the open part of the pond. Another thing I learned was that you had better get a good mark on the falls as you might have to handle your dog to them, and the spread on the marks were far enough apart that if the dog locked on the first fall, he might not see the second. I told Ike to mark at each bird and made sure that I swiveled to face each fall before I shot and that seemed to help. The memory bird was not visible behind the strip of land, and I was wondering if I might have to handle him to it, but he had marked it well, cleared the land, back in the water and nailed it. We were done with our first Seasoned pass, and it felt good, even with the mistakes I had made. Urban said that Ike would get me through it and he was right. Not trying to brag, but of the 15 or so dogs that ran, Ike was easily among the top 5.

The second day we started on land again, but with new judges and it looke do be a harder test. It started with the walk-up, then another 40 yd blind. The walk-up went well althoug Ike again was a little out in front (we have some HEEL work to do). He agian nailed the blind although he went a little off at first, then corrected back on line. I wanted to wistle stop him one, to show control, but again I was late with the whistle. Then it got interesting. I had heard the stories about how a good dog could have a meltdown, and it looke like it was happening. Memory bird was about 45 yds, but behind a screen of mesquite at about 35 yds. The go bird was about 75 yds with mesquite down one side and tall grass down the other. A lot of the dogs tended to break down early and turn left into the tall grass and that is what Ike did. Suddenly, there I was and I had no idea where my dog went! When he popped out going right, I stopped him on line and gave a back whick he took, but after running through the area of all he came back and seemed to be going to the memory bird. I turned and asked the judges if the did this, would be be out, but they didn't say anything. The whole thing only took a few seconds, but I was pretty puckered up wondering if I should handle him away from the first memory mark, when he took off back to the first mark and picked up the bird. I'm not sure why he did that, but it almost seemed that he was just so hyped up, he wanted to run. On the memory bird, he took a good line just downwind of it, caught a whiff, circled back and made the retrieve. He had picked up all the marks and showed control, and done well on the blind and diversion, but I wasn't sure if we got the pass. I had seen some dogs pass that did worse, but was still unsure.

At the water we had a blind to the right front across water in the willows, then a memory bird on the left which fell about 20 yds past the bank on land and the go bird right out front about 45 yds on the back of a point. Ike took a line in the water to the left of the blind, so when he got about 10 yds short of the spot on the bank where the blind was, I stopped him and cast him over to the bank, and stopped him again. Now the problem was, the bank was at an angle from me, so a right over might put him in the trees. He needed a straight back, but I was afraid he might just run the bank past the blind. I decided for the back anyway, but he actually took a line more right than back and disappeared into the trees. Sunday was looking ugly again! I hit the come in whistle to get him back on the bank, but he popped out of the trees at the mark with the bird in his mouth. He had circled downwind again, caught scent and found the bird. I remembered what Urban had said, your dog will get you through. The double was no problem, the go bird being in sight, and Ike lining to the memory bird a few feet down wind and scenting it. The kid's got a good nose! We did better on the water, and I hoped that if Ike was on the bubble the water session would get him through, but in fact his work was more than enough to get his second pass.

So he needed 40 points to get the Seasoned title, he earned 20 this weekend and can count 10 from his Started passes toward the Seasoned title. One more pass and he's done for this spring, so we'll probably go to the Three Rivers HRC test at Wagoner in a few weeks. In the mean time we will do some refresher on sit and heel, do some T-work to help with handling and whistle sits, and work in more double marks in cover. The Seasoned tests are a lot more fun and give a much better sense of accomplishment than Started. We'll be checking out the Finished tests, too, so we can be ready next year for them.

Deadline
posted: March 12, 2008
author: Mingo

Well we are off to a hunt test in Texas this weekend and I have been scrambling trying to get Ike ready. We got some great work steadying up at the pheasant shoot last weekend. I was able to keep Ike steady with lots of guns going off, birds falling and flying and dogs working. It seemed to do him good.

Yesterday we threw some marks and shot poppers. Ike stayed steady even with a walkup, that is we walked to the line and as we were walking a mark went in the air, I shot and then sent him on the retrieve. We worked on marks in some cover up to 100 yds and also blinds up to 75 yds. He is doing OK on these but needs more practice, as he usually has to put on a pretty hard hunt to actually find them. He is handling just OK as well, so we will hit it hard in the last few days we have to train. I think he will do OK, but I'm not 100% confident yet. Hopefully he will be OK at the test.

Back at it!
posted: March 6, 2008
author: Mingo

Ike picked up better than 200 ducks this last season. Along with that he picked up a few bad habits as well; namely creeping and breaking. I have decided to continue running UKC hunt tests this spring. In fact I just sent in the premium for the Lone Star HRC HT on March 15th. There is a lot of work to do before then. Last weekend we threw a few marks with dead ducks, but added in shooting poppers as in the UKC tests. It was a bit of a chore, but I was able to shoot while holding the transmitter, and was able to give Ike a little reminder if he moved at the shot. By the time we had gone through about 6 singles, he was holding steady at the shot, but I'm sure we have more work to do there.

Last night we did a little T work to reinforce handling and soon we'll work on some fairly long doubles in cover to get ready

Hunting
posted: November 27, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike is learning a lot in his second season. He handles cripples, diving, and puts on a good hunt in the AOF. He also handles well, although I think that skill is eroding a little because he thinks he knows it all. He is also developing a habit to creep. He doesn't all out break, but when ducks work in close he wants to get a few feet closer to the action, and he is still whining a little. I will have to get with it in the second half, keep the gun socked up a little and break out the whiffle ball bat to teach him his butt stays on the ground until sent!

FYI
posted: October 17, 2007
author: Mingo

Even with hunting going on, we are working in a few training sessions a week. We've been working on handling drills with lots of straight runs to the back pile and working on the quartering back cast. Ike is much more enthusiastic about these drills since we only do them a few times a week and mix in some hunting as well. I need to work on steadying him to shot. If we can get that down, I've got myself a fine gun dog.

Back with the Prize!
posted: October 9, 2007
author: Mingo

After a long swim. He got a (hamburger) steak for this one.

Hunting
posted: October 9, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike is getting more work this year. We are working on steadying him up and he sometimes whines a little. I alternate using a muzzle squeeze and QUIET, a tap on the muzzle or head, and a nick with the collar to get him quiet and he is getting better. I also tell him SIT when ducks are working so he associates that command with ducks which makes him quiet down and look. Worked him this weekend with a couple of other dogs and he is improving on not breaking, but still needs work, particularly when other dogs are working. In spite of the issues he made a great retrieve; I shot a pintail that sailed off into the lake before splashing down. He did not mark the bird down as other birds were shot closer in. I lined him up and sent him and he went about 50 yds before he got another BACK. As he went the wind was about 15mph left to right and it pushed the bird to the right so I tried giving him an angled back but we have not worked these a lot so he stayed on a straight line. Eventually he got even with the bird and I gave him a right OVER, he went a little, then spotted the bird and brought it back in. I don't want to exaggerate the distance, so I pulled up an aerial photo and measured the distance as best I remember it and it was right at 200 yds!

Short Report
posted: September 18, 2007
author: Mingo

Here's what we have so far; a duck retrieving demon, that has to be tied down to keep from breaking at the shot. I wasted a good opportunity for a little training by forgetting to take the e-collar. I won't make that mistake again. Ike made several nice pickups including a 60-70 yd water blind. I sent him and he took off with me ready for the whistle and corrections, but he completely lined it, no casts no nothing. He did not see the bird fall and couldn't see it on the water. Then, later I dropped a bird near the bank looking right into the sun. I thought I saw it, so I just sent him on his name. He went right past it and swam 200 yds on a line, never looking back, and never responding to my frantic whistles! At least he found the bird on his way back. He also dug a bird out of heavy cover, so all in all it was a good weekend for him. If his trainer (me) can get a clue, he might make a good gun dog.

We interrupt this session
posted: September 12, 2007
author: Mingo

for duck season! We have been trying hard to do a little catch-up in training to get through swim-by before hunting season starts, but I think we will just have to come back to it. I didn't feel I could get it solid and have enough time to work Ike on marks in cover and stretch him out before it was time to start shooting, so we'll just see how he handles in hunting situations. He was doing well going straight out and coming straight back, but he needs some work on longer marks in cover, so that is what we are working on now. After just a few sessions he is already marking better and hunting the area of fall better. Tonight on the training grounds I ran into a few fellow dog trainers (Max) so we had a good training session. Hopefully, Ike will get to pick up a few Teal this weekend!

oops
posted: September 10, 2007
author: Mingo

cheating, or running the bank to get to marks. He was pretty good at taking to the water to get to marks, but was cheating on the return, but we have about got this cleaned up.

After a Swim-by
posted: September 10, 2007
author: Mingo

Send to back bumper, whistle and cast to left over pile for a bumper, cast over to get a swim-by and exit at the right over pile. Simple.

Ike doesn't like this drill much, but he is learning it. I also set up a few marks along the banks to work on his cheating, or m

More Swim-by
posted: September 10, 2007
author: Mingo

This is the pond I have settled on for swim-by. I just toss the back bumpers out in the pond and work Ike to the over piles. Seems to have worked OK. I have Ike fairly reliable going to the left over pile and doing a swim-by to the right over pile while I stay at my original spot. I tried to just switch him to take an over to the right hand pile and swim-by to the left without adequate prepatory steps and confused him. Dogs are such literal learners, at least Ike is. He had it down going one way, as I had taught him. It seemed simple to me; OK pup, now we're gonna go the opposite direction, but it wasn't simple for the dog. After a few times of standing behind the left over pile and calling him from the right over pile, I finally got a left swim-by, although he did want to suck into the bank where I was standing and return to me. I had to give him a NO OVER a few times, but he exited the water where I wanted him to.

I will probably work in another session or two, but I want to throw him some long marks and work in some cover, to get ready for Teal Season.

The Perils of Swim-by
posted: September 2, 2007
author: Mingo

I don't take credit for being much of a dog trainer. About the only way I get anything done is by taking advice from people who have been there and done that. I do take a little pride in the fact that I am out in front when it comes to making mistakes, and assuming the average reader of this diary is smarter than I am, you get to learn from my many mistakes. Today was particularly good. I was taking Ike out for some training today, when it occured to me where a little pond was that might make a decent swim-by pond. I had been looking for one for a couple of months with no luck. The pond I found was just about right except it had some flooded brush in it due to the wet weather we had. Still I figured I could make it work, and set out a back pile and a right over pile. The left side was too brushy, but I figured I would just throw the bumpers in the water. I sent Ike to the back pile a time or two and I saw him looking at the over piles while retrieving so I figured he knew where they were. I sent him back and on the way gave him a whistle. He turned to me and I gave a left OVER which he took. I then hauled to the right over pile and got him to come to me, and gave him a good dog, OK as he exited. We did this a few times and then on his way to the right over pile with the left over bumper. I walked back to the start point while giving a right over cast gesture just like it says in Smartwork. It took a couple of times, but eventually, Ike did the swim-by and exited the water at the right over pile after picking up the left over bumper, with me standing at the start point where I had sent him to the back pile from. Success! Never one to accept success. I tossed a bumper in the pond and after he got it, I gave him a right OVER to get him to exit at the place where the right over pile had been. Trouble was, Ike didn't have a clue what I wanted him to do, and came back to me. Oh boy, I screwed up again. Now I have to untangle this mess. I repeated the throw a couple of time with the same result. Ike came back to me just like he had all his life. I finally caught a clue and re-set a large white bumper at the right over, where I wanted him to exit the water and after I sent him for the bumper, walked over to it and called him. It took a couple of reps before I could start over, walking back to the point I had thrown the bumper from while gesturing a right over. Finally, I got him to swim out for the bumper, take a right over cast and exit the water on the right bank with me still at the point where I had thrown the bumper from. Of course, then I immediately threw a couple of bumpers for him in cover, so he could forget everything he just learned! Nothing like a dumb dog trainer and a smart dog.

At last some real dog training!
posted: August 27, 2007
author: Mingo

I got a call from Cullin Saturday night asking if I would like to join in on some dog training at Urbans place early in the morning. All I needed to know was what time? We had a good group of dogs with Cash, Maggie, Sosa and Ike. After a few fun bumpers we got the pigeons out and went to work. All the dogs got a flyer in the pond and made the retrieves just fine. Then we moved to the land and dropped a bird in cover. All the rain had led to a good growth of cover and the dogs had a little trouble digging the birds out but for the most part, the all put on a good hunt and found them. I ran Ike on a blind of about 50 yds, but I let him get too off line before I made a correction. I let him hunt a little and when he got to a point on line with the bird but a little short, I sat him to the whistle and gave a back. When he got the right depth he was off to the left, so I sat him again and gave him a right over and he made the mark. If I had been ready and quicker to make a cast it would have been a pretty good blind. I gotta remember to be ready before I send the dog!

Splash!
posted: August 25, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike is developing a pretty splashy entry.

Busy Summer
posted: August 25, 2007
author: Mingo

Well, I'm almost 6 months into a 3 month remodel/addition of my house that has almost kept me too busy to train. Last summer we were rocking along training almost every day and I would hear people talk about not having time to train and I said that's not me, but it has been. My DVD is packed up and I have no idea where my training books are so we have been winging a session here and there when we get the chance. I can tell the layoff is affecting Ike. When we got back from vacation, his OB was not good, so I charged up the collar and he wore it everytime he was out of the kennel. He knew what he was supposed to do, but wasn't doing it, but about a week of stimulation brought him back around. We got in a good session this morning. I laid four bumpers across a pond, visible about 20 yds from the bank and put a couple of left overs back in a neck. I sent him for the two right hand bumpers first and he took to the water with a big splash. I then sent him for the left bump, but gave him a whistle and a left over, which he took. Unfortunately I set him up to cheat on the return, and he did, running the bank back to me. Then I sent him to the back bumper. After that we moved to the right for the final bumper and repeated, with a whistle and a left over, and then a send to the back bumper. Before we left that side of the pond, I planted a small orange bumper for a blind. We then moved to the other side of the pond and set up about 25yds from the water to run the blind of about 75yds. I couldn't get him lokced on the line I wanted, but when he looked that way I sent him. Sure enough he was off to the left, and it took about 3 whistles and casts to get him to exit the water where I wanted him to. He drifted a little to the right, so I sat him to whistle and gave a left handed back, and he went to the bumper. Not real clean, but it was a pretty long blind for him, maybe the longest he has done. It looks like he will whip into shape in time for this season, and his drive is as high as ever, maybe better.

Mingo And Ike Run'n Dem Water Marks At An HRC Hunt Test !
posted: August 1, 2007
author: urbanduckman
see video

This is a bit late appearing on the site but I just learned how to get it put in. So, I apologize to Mingo and Ike but here's a Short Video Clip on Ike earn'n a Pass during the Tulsa Retriever Club's Spring Hunt Test Earlier this year. Thanks to Uncle Garbage Gut who hung back a ways and took this video.You really can't tell it from the clip but Mingo's STOVE UP SO BAD you could'nt drive a 16 PENNY NAIL UP HIS YOU KNOW WHAT! lol

Forgot another little trick
posted: July 30, 2007
author: Mingo

Set up a blind at about 40 yds, sat Ike at heel and threw a mark a little less than 90 degrees from the blind to the right. Ike locked in on the mark, but I heeled him off it and lined him to the blind. He actually went for the blind and left the mark alone. In fact he was a little off line to the left of the blind, away from the mark. I though he showed pretty good control, to go for the blind he couldn't see rather than the mark he could. After he retrieved the blind, I sent him for the mark with no problems.

It's been hard
posted: July 30, 2007
author: Mingo

to find time to train, with work going on with my house. Too many evenings I don't have the time or energy to train, so Ike hangs around in the house. The last few days we have been working on drills from Smartwork, but I still haven't found a suitable Swim-by pond. I started teaching Ike angle-back casts by going back to the Three-handed Cast setup and adding in the two 45 deg. angle backs. He has picked it up pretty well so tonight I set up a drill with a back pile at about 50 yds, a left angle-back, and a left over. He did well going to the correct pile, once going to the angle back instead of the straight back like I wanted, but I handled him to the correct pile. I also threw in a here cast at the end; throwing a bumper behind the dog as he goes to the back pile, sitting to whistle and giving the here whistle with the dog picking up the short bump that was thrown behind on his way to the pile. I have also been using the e-collar every time out and using a little more pressure because I could see Ike getting sloppy. The first few nicks on the collar really straighten him out. Pretty soon will be time to stretch him out on some marks and maybe shoot a few flyers to get tuned up for hunting season.

Ike handling to an "over" in water
posted: July 7, 2007
author: Mingo

Water Work
posted: July 7, 2007
author: Mingo

Just a couple of thoughts. First, I am noticing that Ike is maturing and his performance slips without pressure, so we are back to using the ecollar for every session. I don't use much voltage but a nick to get his attention really helps whether just on OB or drills. Also, I am thinking more about hunting while training. He knows more than I thought I would ever need in a duck dog, so I am just working on reinforcing his marking and handling, although I have been training by myself so it has been a little hard. I am just wanting to improve consistency in handling for blinds, and he will need some steadying work, and a little stretching out, but he does everything I want him to and I feel pretty good about our training even though I am not strictly following SmartWork. I think we will get back to that after the season in preparation for HTs next spring. It's amaziing how far he's come in a little over a year, and in another year or so he should be a fine working retriever.

Summer
posted: June 12, 2007
author: Mingo

Spent the weekend at a cabin on Blue River where Ike swam and swam all weekend. He actually came down with another case of limber tail, so we took Monday off. Today we did simple three bumper lining drills in a pond, with a quick session of T drills in the water as well. I got good response on all counts. I am going to read up on Smartwork and get back into that again. Hopefully we can find a good swim-by pond. Ike has had enough of a break, but hot weather is setting in so we will have to keep the session short.

Goofing off
posted: June 4, 2007
author: Mingo

Still just kind of coasting with a day of lining drills and some handling then a day of fun marks, with maybe an easy blind or handling in the water. We will try swim-by if we can find an suitable pond, but until then a modified T drill in the pond will have to serve. Ike is really loving the water work and takes to the water with a big splash and much enthusiasm. I think taking it easy is really helping him in that respect and he does not seem inclined to cheat the bank. He is really maturing, but also seems to be going through another phase where I really have to control his playfulness without too much pressure.

Summer Vacation
posted: May 24, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike and I had a few sessions with Irish for a little evaluation. The suggestion, in short, was to take it easy!

So, now that Ike is handling pretty well, and has been introduced to blinds, we are going to do just that with some simple lining drills, lots of single marks with a few easy doubles, and keep things fun. Ike does seem to be in another of those stages. He is high energy and more playful so I have let the force and structure off a little to gain a little bonding and enthusiasm. I did do a little force to water about ten days ago and Ike will take a back and hit the water on a pretty good line, even if a bumper is not thrown. After he goes about 20 yds, I throw a bumer in front of him. He does well with this. Last night, I even did a little three handed casting in the water with a back bumper and one over. I sent for the back a few times, then would whistle stop him in the water and give an over cast. He did fine with this also, and then it was a few fun bumpers and done. He has done everything I asked of him, so I guess he deserves a little break.

Dog people are funny.
posted: May 12, 2007
author: Mingo

Me included.

Well....Your WRONG Bout That One.....
posted: May 11, 2007
author: urbanduckman

and I should know as I get a daily Administrative Report and it shows whick Topics get opened up and how many times.

NO, you and Ike ain't no STAR but you seem to have SOME Fans ? lmao

Urb

Urban
posted: May 11, 2007
author: Mingo

You know nobody reads this stuff anyway!

This dog training is getting complicated. I'm gonna have to get with you for a tune-up session.

Mingo!
posted: May 11, 2007
author: urbanduckman

You were'nt supposed to throw that drill out for EVERYONE to get hold of. But, since you did I just wanted to point out that this thing teaches a Pattern or Concept for several different areas. It's a pattern that you will soon run at the AKC Senior and the HRC Seasoned HT's , IF you continue to run Tests and knowing how badly your HOOKED I would bet on that one.

Secondly, it also has elements of a Pattern Blind but also has an element of a true Lining Drill. The way Ike ran it on the first time is what was supposed to happen a bit later after running this thing for a bit. Oh yeah, you can also introduce the ole Under The Arc Mark off of this but that's for a bit later.

Run this once a day for a bit and like most everything else STRETCH IT OUT to distance. Stretch it out and slowly but surely switch to ground with more sturcture (hills, gullies, ditches , etc. ) and taller cover. At some point this will give you the opportunity to CORRECT via a HANDLE BACK TO THE CORRECT LINE on both the MARK and the BLIND portions of the set up.

It WORKS ! But, DON'T ASK ME HOW or WHY cause I DON'T KNOW! At some point Pattern Blinds ACROSS WATER will be needed.

Also, to pick out a few TEACHING BLINDS or set blinds with structure and difficulty whether presented by nothing more than cover and distance will help bring it all together! Don't worry too much about running ACTUAL COLD BLINDS , YET! DRILL, DRILL and MORE DRILLS! Especially, prior to running in a Test.

Last but not least it won't be long before it's time before you start placing out a POISON BIRD on the Pattern Blind or other Drills along with narrowing the Degree Of Seperation between the Marks you run the Blinds off of. Bet he figures out what you want form him and how to do it right quick!

Run enough of all this and the dog WILL begin to hold a good line furhter and further out. What you want to do is RUN ENOUGH of these or GET IN ENOUGH REPITIONS that the dog don't see much difference between Training and Testing and for sure ON A REAL DEAL DUCK HUNT!

Not any different than when we was learning how to Block and Tackle in HS Football! OVER and OVER , AGAIN and AGAIN till the TECHNIQUE required to produce success becomes HABIT or even better NO THINKING REQUIRED as it has become a HABIT!

A Football Coach that has TRAINED A FEW GOOD RETRIEVERS for Pick'n Up Ducks WILL WIN MORE BALL GAMES! lmao

You can also use the drill you tried out to throw both Marks off on the same side TOWARDS WATER and keep the Blind on the outter edge close to the water.

The FUN NEVER ENDS!

He's COM'N ALONG VERY WELL! Keep it up and GOOD LUCK!

Urb

Back to training
posted: May 10, 2007
author: Mingo

Backed up a little in training before moving forward. We went back to a lead for control on mini-t to enforce quick stops to the whistle and square sits. We are also brushing up on T drills, pattern blinds and continuing with teaching doubles and triples. Tonight we also worked on a drill Urban suggested; leaving Ike at sit, I walk straight out about 50 yds and throw an orange bumper straight away from me, low so the dog can't get a good look at it. I then walk straight back to the dog about 15 steps, then turn right 90 degrees and walk 10 steps (Urban says it has to be ten steps) before throwing a bumper at a 45 back and away from the line. Then walk straight back to the line, and turn to walk the original line back to the dog, after 10 steps I turn to the left, go 10 steps throw the bumper at a 45 back, walk straigh back to the line, then straight back to the dog. This results in a marked double with the marks at different distances and a blind down the middle at about 65 yds. Run the last double down, then the first, then the blind down the middle. After we did this I ran Ike on a blind of about 60 yds. I had the whistle ready to handle him, but he ran a straight line and ended up about a foot to the left of the blind and pinned it! Urban may be on to something here!

Water Series
posted: May 7, 2007
author: Mingo

The marks were thrown from the left and right, not too far out, so that many dogs cheated by running the bank rather than entering the water right at the handler.

Land Series
posted: May 7, 2007
author: Mingo

There was just enough crown on the field that the dog coundn't see the fall.

Texas Panhandle HRC
posted: May 7, 2007
author: Mingo

Took Ike to the Texas panhandle yesterday for a shot at his fourth pass and a UKC Started Hunting Retriever (SHR) Title. It had been over a month since we had run a HT but fortunately we got a tune-up at the OWA event on Saturday. Sunday went about like the other HTs with Ike a little hyper getting to the line. His land marks went well, but he still is a little sloppy with his mouth habits, dropping the duck on one mark before picking it up and bringing it to hand. The second land mark he tried to break early and I had to restrain him and re-sit. I think this broke his concentration on the mark a little and he pulled up about 10 yds short, but after a short hunt, he retrieved the bird. The water series he did well, with no cheating on the shore. He was straight out and back with no problems. Overall, these HTs have not been to difficult. Ike got his four passes in four attempts to get his title. I would estimate from what I've seen, about 80-90% of the pups pass these tests. I don't want to brag, but Ike seems to be as good as any of the dogs we have seen run these, and probably better than the majority. Still, I need to work on steadying him at the line and his mouth habits, as well as doubles and blinds before attempting to move up a level. I think we will do a refresher on hold with ducks and a lot of healing around carrying the duck in his mouth, applying pressure if he drops. This is something I should have done a while back. That said, I am pretty proud of him.

Todd and Gus
posted: April 26, 2007
author: Mingo

I got a PM from Todd last week, so I gave him a call today and he brought his CBR Gus down for a little work. It was good to have company training. We have be alternating working on three handed casting a day or two and then a day or two of marks. Hit a pond with Ike on one side and Gus on the other, alternating marks. This was good because if gave both dogs long, 60-70 yd water marks and also because it made each dog honor the other. Both dogs nailed the marks so we moved to land marks of about 75 yds. Gus nailed both of his, while Ike went past both of his on the upwind side and went long. He hunted his way back and picked up both marks. I guess it's good that he went long instead of short, but it impressed on me how quickly their skills can erode if you don't train often enough. I will be running lots of marks for Ike for the upcoming HT on May 6th.

T
posted: April 17, 2007
author: Mingo

Still been working on T drills. Ike likes them for about 5 minutes. I am finding pattern blinds, T-drills, etc to be a grind and Ike is too, although the pup usually mirrors my attitude. I am going to follow Smartwork pretty carefully through T drills to make sure Ike is solid in 3-handed casting, and then take a break, with most of the work getting him ready for the hunt test on May 5&6. After that, I plan to stretch him out on single marks to 150 yds or so, and work on doubles and blinds. This is not strictly following Smartwork, but I think we could both use some light, fun work for a while. We will start back in with the book in a month or so.

T
posted: April 17, 2007
author: Mingo

There I Go Again
posted: April 6, 2007
author: Mingo

pushing too far ahead. Last couple of nights I was pushing too fast on T work, even setting up a double T. Ike did OK until he went to the wrong over pile, and I got to happy with the collar. After that he alternated between going to the wrong over pile and the back pile. He got confused and I got frustrated, so we finished up with some mini-T work. Tonight I went back and re-read Smartwork and started over on the T drill, by the book. Identified the back pile from about 30 yds and sent Ike. Then backed up to the apex at 75yds from the back pile and sent him again. Then backed up the full 100yds and sat him facing me and cast him back, alternating the left and right back. A couple of times I cast him back, sat him to the whistle and then re-cast him back. Finished with a couple of overs and one line to the back pile from my side. It all went off smooth. Good session, happy dog, happy me!

FYI per Smartwork, the T setup is a back pile at 100yds, with the left and right over piles 40 yds at a right angle from the line to the back pile,and the line between the over piles 25 yds from where I was standing.

blind
posted: April 4, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike takes a line and exits at the tree, then takes an OVER to get the bump

Handling
posted: April 4, 2007
author: Mingo

Still doing T work to get consistent on BACKs and OVERs. Ike pretty much has the commands down, but he is still looping a little to his right on a whistle sit, so that he ends up a few feet off the line. I have started correcting with a NICK just after the whistle to try and get a quicker sit and minimize the looping, and I am forcing with a NICK on BACK sometimes to tighten up his turns to the back pile. We have also run a few simple blind marks. Ike understands the DEAD BIRD, BACK and moves out smartly on land and water. The problem is he doesn't yet fully understand that my hand is giving him the line. He generally follows the line given, but tends to look around a bit, and generally goes in the direction he is looking. It takes good timing on my part to send him when he is looking at the line. I can tell he hasn't had the AHA moment yet when he fully understands that the hand is showing the direction to the bumper. To help, we have started working on some lining drills, using 4-5 bumpers laid out in an arc in front at about 15 yds. I line him up on the bumper I want and send him. If he goes wrong, I call him back and re-line the one I want. It sometimes takes a few trys to get it right. If he goes to the wrong bumper, I go to him on the way back, take the bumper and toss it back, then re-heel him to the line and start over. No big fuss, but I try to show him that is not what we want. I did send him to a blind across a pond last night. He was off to the right in the water, so I gave him a left-handed back. He turned left, and actually took a straighter back than I thought he would so he still ended up on the bank to the right of the bumper, at the tree in the pic. He sat to the whistle on the bank, and took a left OVER to the bumper. All in all, not too bad. Still need to work on lining. From what I can see in hunt tests, and hunting, lining is the most important thing. I a dog will go in the direction you point for as long as you say, there's not much handling needed!

Water set-up
posted: March 26, 2007
author: Mingo

Ran water both days here, just from opposite side.

Left hand blind
posted: March 26, 2007
author: Mingo

Started land
posted: March 26, 2007
author: Mingo

Not too long or difficult, but just enough cover to give some dogs a little trouble.

I hate myself for doing this...
posted: March 26, 2007
author: Mingo

but here it is anyway.

I had a good time at the Lone Star HRC. It was pretty much the same as the Three Rivers HRC, although the marks for Started we just a little more difficult, I think. In some ways these tests are pretty simple, but in other ways, not so, and even if you get a pass, it can show you things you need to work on.

The good news for us was that Ike pretty much nailed every mark; no hunting, just run to the bird and bring it back. One bird on the last day he seemed a little reluctant to pick up. I didn't think much of it until I heard someone else remark how nasty and smelly the birds were.

We need one more pass for a Started title, and then will work more on handling in preparation for the Seasoned level and duck season. Probably won't run any hunt tests this year at the Seasoned level, unless we try one in the fall.

I guess I'm bit!
posted: March 21, 2007
author: Mingo

Taking Ike to Bowie TX this weekend to run in another UKC hunt test. I broke in a new bird boy this evening with some fairly long marks in cover. Ike did well on them. He seems to be really marking well right now. Only hitch was on a water mark into flooded cover. About half way, he seemed to lose the mark and drifted to the right where there was no flooded cover. Once he hit the bank though, he bee-lined to the bump. Just for grins I ran him on a short blind, which I had to handle him (twice) to. We are going to try and get him a Started title by May or so, then get back to handling with T drills etc til duck season.

Here's A Good Pic Of How Mingo And Ike.......
posted: March 21, 2007
author: urbanduckman

spent thier time when not Run'n Marks.

Like Mingo said , THIS STUFF IS A FEW MINUTES OF SHEER TERROR BETWEEN LONG PERIODS OF SHEER BOREDOM!

Oh yeah, I just wanted to add that Mingo WAS LOOK'N VERY STYLISH!

Mingo And Ike In Line......
posted: March 21, 2007
author: urbanduckman

and wait'n for the time to MOVE UP ONE MORE HOLDING BLIND! This pic don't do justice to how TIGHTLY Mingo has ahold of Ike. On the way to this blind Ike's front feet NEVER TOUCHED THE GROUND. Ike is VERY Birdy and he KNEW WHERE DEM DUCKS WAS!

Now one thing that Mingo has emphacized in Ike's Training has been his OBEDIENCE. During a regular training session Ike runs with a check cord and ECollar and will come to heel and SIT until get'n his marks and released. BUT , the thing about run'n Hunt Tests is that the pup is JACKED and IS NOT the same pup you see in a regular training or even Hunting session for that matter.

Only ONE MORE BLIND And....
posted: March 21, 2007
author: urbanduckman

WE'RE UP NEXT BUB!

The closer you get to go'n to the line the more the ole PUCKER FACTOR GOES UP! This in turn carries over to the dog as they sense most any physical change we go thru whether it is outwardly visible or even our HEART RATE or the SIZE OF THE PUPILS IN OUR EYES!

Don't know it you can tell it from this pic or not but Mingo has got Ike in a DEATH GRIP!

FINALLY! It's Time To ......
posted: March 21, 2007
author: urbanduckman

WALK TO THE LINE and set the dog up in order to CALL FOR YOU MARKS and LOOSE THE DOG!

Gut took a nice piece of Video and caught Ike's efforts pick'n up both of his Water Marks.

It is posted up in the VIDEO SECTION! Now there is more than one Short Clip of Video featuring MILESTONES reached during his Puppy Training. The one of him running these Marks is entitled MINGO AND IKE RUN 3RIVERS HRC.... .

Be aware that it may not play on every computer and it will take a bit to load!

Test Time
posted: March 18, 2007
author: Mingo

After some last minute training with birds at Urban's country estate, the time for Ike's first Hunt Test arrived. Urban picked me up at 3:45 with Gut along to act as the Crew Chief. We got there in plenty of time and located the test grounds. We were able to see the test set up, and I was thinking that Ike would nail this. Only about 18 dogs running, so once the thing kicked off, we didn't have to wait too long. The judges did a great job of explaining everything and we settled in to wait our turn. We I got Ike out of the box, he was wound up like an 8-day clock. It was all I could do to control him from holding blind to holding blind and up to the line. In fact, on the land series, his front feet never touched the gound up to the line. The left mark was first, at only about 35 yds. When we were ready, the judge signaled the bird boy, who blew a duck call and launched a dead duck. At this level, I didn't have to shoot, as a shooter was provided, and stationed just to our right. I was also allowed to steady Ike with a hand on his collar. He was out and back in a flash, and delivered the bird to hand. The right mark was a little farther, about 50 yds, and Ike handled that one well also. Just like that, we were through to the water. Urb and Gut showed up for a report, and we grabbed some lunch to wait for the water series. Ike was again all keyed up, so that I had to kneel down and bear hug him to keep him under control. My only fear was that he would go nuts, and disturb the hunt of the dog in front of him and get disqualified. He just couldn't stand not seeing what was going on when he could hear duck call, shooting and whistles. We came to the line and again it was left first, then right. The line was set right at the edge of the pond and the first bird was about 30 yds. Ike made that one no problem and retrieved to hand. The right bird was a little farther out at about 45 yds. Ike made straight for it and headed back. I was just wanting him to make it out of the water with the bird, and soon enough he was at heel with the bird. We were off the line with our first pass. Overall, the test was pretty easy and enjoyable, and the folks running the test were top notch. I guess now we will look for some other tests to run and go ahead and work on a title.

Special thanks to Urban for all his help and advice. A guy couldn't ask for a better mentor, and we couldn't have gotten half this far without his help.

T
posted: March 14, 2007
author: Mingo

Ran T drill tonight with back pile at 70 yds and over piles at 30 yds off the line. Sent Ike to back pile to identify it and then would alternate stopping with a cast to the overs with running straight to back pile. I had about 10 bumpers in the back pile and after a while Ike decided this was NOT FUN. Then it was BACK NICK BACK to get him to go. I stopped him en route to the back pile a few time and gave him a BACK cast to the back pile as well. He did well with this, but I did have to get on him with the collar some to keep him going. A few times he went and then looped back to me. I would heel him, walk him toward the back pile a little then send him again with a nick. He didn't like it much, but I felt he was due a little pressure, and the lesson that he does what I say even if he doesn't want to. I probably will not get on him too hard again until after this weekend's hunt test. I want to up the pressure on him a little, but give him fun sessions with marks in between the tought sessions.

Southern makes a splash
posted: March 13, 2007
author: Mingo

This little black dog is a ball of fire
posted: March 13, 2007
author: Mingo

Acea doing his thing
posted: March 13, 2007
author: Mingo

Training Day
posted: March 13, 2007
author: Mingo

Had a good group of dogs and guys today. I'm terrible with names, so I won't attempt to remember. O got the Big Head and ran Ike on a long double. He did make it back with both bumpers, but it took a while for him to do it. It was pretty obvious that while he had a decent idea of the area of fall, he did not have the bumpers well marked. Really wasn't fair for me to run him such a mark, but it does show that that is something we need to work into, and he went without hesitation to the second mark even though he did not really know where it was. He did fine on his two water marks. The big dogs ran some triples and blinds and it was good to see dogs work at the level we hope to be someday. Attached is a pic of the land setup.

Mingo!....Dat's Some......
posted: March 12, 2007
author: urbanduckman

GOOD STUFF!

Got the Pigeons out back of the business. They got water and food BUT today when I fed'em we was ONE SHORT. The door was unlatched and from the feathers lay'n all about it looks like some of dem ALLEY CATS done SCORED ONE SKY RAT!

Need to BLOW DEM UP dat's left in the next day or so. Let me know what and when you want to do this week prior to head'n out to RUN DEM KNOTHEADS!

When you decide it's time to clean up dat canted SIT all you gotta do is give him a come in off the whistle and a bit of HERE....HERE....HERE... till he starts back and is squared up and then it's a quick TOOT/SIT/NICK when needed. Usually , this will clean it up right quick!

Urb

T work
posted: March 11, 2007
author: Mingo

Got out after the rain for a little session. First set a pile, and sent Ike from my side with a BACK. Following Smartwork, I gave him a BACK NICK BACK at 5 yds, then on the second run at 10 yds, third at 15 yds and so. The last run to the pile was without any NICK. This really got him going to the pile. Then set up a T, bigger than a Mini-T, but not quite as big as the T drill in Smartwork. Was about 20 yds to the apex with the over piles about 25 yds from the line to the back pile which was at about 50 yds. I would send from my side to the back pile with no stop, then send again and stop en-route for a cast to one of the over piles, then send him straight to the back pile after he returned with the over bumper. I also sat him en-route to the back pile a few times and then cast him BACK to the pile. Ike did OK with this, but took a wrong rotation a few times on the BACK. He stops to sit sometimes not square to me, so I cast him to the opposite side that he is inclined to, that is if he is facing me and a little to my left, I cast him right. We will probably do a little extra work on the back cast to make sure he has it down.

Rain Out
posted: March 11, 2007
author: Mingo

Had a big training day planned today, but I guess we will just be glad for the rain. Luckily, I took Ike fishing yesterday and got in a little work. Unfortunately, he decided to spend the day in the water so I didn't do much fishing. Threw Ike a bunch of bumpers, singles and doubles in water and on land. Threw a few over his head as he was on the way back with a bumper. He was really ready to work. There was a small bar in the neck of the pond where we could throw some land-water-land-water marks. Good stuff, I just wish I had someone with me to throw some longer marks. I also threw a dead duck for him on water and land and he did fine. He didn't cheat as much running the bank. Finished up with a little three-handed casting, and a short (25yd) blind with a planted bird. I need to watch that I don't get too far ahead of the training program, but he seems to catch on quickly. Hopefully, we can get in another session or two of prep for the hunt test this Saturday.

One thing that I think is important, and is paying off, is that anytime I see Ike has trouble with training, I do pretty good NOT getting frustrated with him and just back up in training. When I do this, after a review session or two he seems to breeze right along. I do tend to test his limits, but he lets me know if we are going too fast.

Acea
posted: March 8, 2007
author: Mingo

High speed, low drag, all business

Lucy
posted: March 8, 2007
author: Mingo

On her way back. Urban ran her through a triple with two longs and a short, and then finished up with a blind for good measure.

Cash in action
posted: March 8, 2007
author: Mingo

Cullin is going to have his hands full with this one!

Man, is this fun!
posted: March 8, 2007
author: Mingo

More training tonight with Urb, Zac and Cullin. It's just great fun watching all these dogs at different levels do their thing. We ran a pair of land singles for Ike which he handled with no problems. I held him behind a holding blind until the marks were ready, then walk him to the line and let him look to identify the throwers, then call for either the left or right mark, after I tell him MARK. The thrower fires the blank gun and then throws. At the junior or started level you can steady your pup, so I hold him by a flat collar until the mark is down, then send him on his name. He doesn't try hard to break, but he does get antsy, so I will need to work on steadying him up. Ran a water mark and a land-water-land which he did no problem as well. He is not shore broke yet, and will tend to shortcut. I will probably throw a few marks for him with birds before we head to the hunt test. Also the last few days we did CC to SIT and HEEL. He already knows this, but following Smartwork, I decided to go ahead and refresh and work it again with a single session of each. Next, will be CC to FETCH and to BACK. CC to BACK will be new to him. After that, and after the hunt test, we will begin Mini-T.

Yeah......It was GOOD....
posted: March 7, 2007
author: urbanduckman

to get together some of the pups and guys and GET SERIOUS bout this deal. Course , Mingo is in for a real emotional ride when he steps to the line on his and Ike's first REAL DEAL. Nuth'n gets the juices flow'n quite like run'n your knotheaded PRODIGY in front of a live audiance made up of folks who KNOW what's go'n on!

As hard as I try I just can't keep from set'n up stuff that is in all liklihood a bit tougher than what the test , especially what an AKC Junior or HRC Started will consist of!

Zac's pup , Southern , continues to amaze me even though he is a CHOCO DOG! lmao

RentAKid's pup , Cash , picked up some shorter stuff and needs a lot of work but he continues to show that he does in fact have a knack for this game!

Mingo has brought Ike along very well as the amount of time and effort he has put into the pup is really showing up. I was truly impressed when we ran the Water Marks. This consisted of a short mark into the water with a big splash and a LONG mark tossed into some fairly tall and thick cover just off the opposite shoreline.

Mingo called for the long bird first and when Ike got his release to GO he started RUN'N DA BANK! While he has not been fully SHORE BROKE Mingo has done some work on this area. As soon as Ike hit the POINT OF NO RETURN Mingo gave him a loud NO and a good DOSE OF ELECTRICITY that painted dat bit of the shoreline BRIGHT RED!

Mingo returned Ike to Heel and realigned the pup to the mark. I had a HELPER in my hand cause I just KNEW that the bit of electrical stimulation that Ike had experienced and the re start meant the he was NOT gonna remember the Mark. Boy was I WRONG!

Mingo again released Ike and he was off ON LINE into the water and drove across the width of the pond and held a good line and PINNED DAT BUMP!

All in all I think everyone learned something about thier pups and for sure there was enough diversions what with walking from Holding Blind to Holding Blind and Southern VOICING LOUDLY and INCESSENTLY that IT'S MY TURN TO RUN. For sure , Ike won't see nuth'n new as far as moving from Holding Blind to Holding Blind is concerned when it comes to GAME DAY! One thing I've learned bout Ike is that once dat bird goes down he's gonna MARK IT and DRIVE TO IT!

Gotta come up with some Live Birds as we need to work with some of those.

Mingo needs somebody to HOLD HIS HAND so I'm gonna haul Acea and Lucy along as we have never run any of this HRC STUFF. Got them entered into the Finished Division. So, I've got to get busy and get some of the kinks out that have resulted from so many actual hunting scenerios this last season. One of the most pressing comes in the area of STEADINESS! Go thru this every year.

One way we'll work on this is to kick out a live pigeon on the ground but a few yards in front of the dog and then BLOW THE DAMN THING UP. Then we'll move a few feet off the line and do the same thing for another of the pups and HONOR the other dog get'n his BLEW UP PIGEON! It will take several sessions to get the point across even though both Acea and Lucy KNOW what the hell they are SUPPOSED TO DO!

It got dark on us quickly and when it came time to work my dogs it was too dark. This next time out I'M GO'N FIRST!

Hope this is the start of some sort of REGLAR TRAINING situation as it looks like we got the guts of our own lil RC?

Go IKE!

Training for the Big Show
posted: March 7, 2007
author: Mingo

I have decided to run Ike in a UKC Hunt Test later this month, so we rounded up some folk and dog to set up a mock test. Urban agreed to be the Hunt Test Master, Zac brought his dog Southern and Cullin brought his pup Cash. We set up blinds and holding blinds for two land singles and two water singles and went to work. It was a lot of fun to run this way, and seems to be really good prep for a rookie like myself. Urban set up some fairly difficult marks, but Ike handled them pretty well, such that had it been the real deal, I think he would have gotten a pass. We will run this scenario a couple more times before the test.

BumperBabes ready
posted: February 27, 2007
author: Mingo

If you can get 'em, kids make great help throwing marks.

A Fine Pair
posted: February 27, 2007
author: Mingo

Had TWO BumperBabes to throw marks with today so we did some double marks, one in the water. I think this may have been Ike's first water double. The only hitch was there were two fat town geese hanging around and Ike really wanted to play with them. I didn't want the local homeowners association on us, so I said, NO. He did fine on the doubles, land and water, and we finished with some more 3-handed casting.

Good Session
posted: February 26, 2007
author: Mingo

Three-handed casting session went well. Ike seems to be getting a good understanding of his backs and overs. Set up three piles; a back and left and right overs with three bumpers and was able to send him to the appropriate pile with a few mistakes. He could come back when called of he headed to the wrong pile, and eventually ended up cleaning up all three piles as commanded. Tried a mini-tee setup. Idenitifed the back pile with a thrown bumper and sent him to it from a sitting position in front of and facing me. With the first bumper, I would heel him to my side and then send him for the second back bumper. At a line between the two over piles, I would sit him, and then cast him to one of the over piles. He did well on this. Still need lots of repetition with this. Smartwork calls for Collar Conditioning before T-drills, so after a few more session of three-handed casting, we will probably do that. He is already CC'd to here and heel, and had CC during FF with Irish, so this should go quickly.

Urban says
posted: February 19, 2007
author: Mingo

my back cast looks too much like a Nazi salute!

Rope-A-Dope
posted: February 19, 2007
author: Mingo

Ran a three dead duck pile of about 80 yds today, then threw a couple of doubles with bumpers. Finished up with some three-handed casting on a rope lead. Ike knows the command BACK and OVER, but the book says to stick with FETCH right now. I forget and mix them up, but he goes on either. I usually follow a right over with a left back and vice versa. He seems to be picking it up fine. In a week or so, we should be able to move to Mini-T. There's no rush as we have all summer, but I am considering running him in a Hunt Test in May, so we will start working on those scenarios by April.

Cold as a Brass Monkey's.......
posted: February 15, 2007
author: Mingo

elbow today, but we got in a quick session. Wanted to try a few ducks today to see how Ike would react to it. Set up a 75 yd pile, then had my son throw a bumper from near the pile to identify it. Sent Ike, and when he was on his way back with the second bumper, had the bird boy sneak a dead duck into the pile. Ike went to the pile and spotted the duck, picked it up and came back to heel and held until told, DROP. Dropping ducks, and having some trouble picking them up off the ground had been a bit of a problem during the season, but he did fine on this one. Took the duck, lined him up on the pile and sent him back. He went without hesitation and cleaned up the pile. Sometimes he gets so fixed on the duck that he doesn't want to go fetch a piece of plastic, but he did great today. I plan to repeat this drill, gradually increasing the number of birds, until he is solid. Finished up with a couple of double marks and beat back to the warm house.

A little help
posted: February 12, 2007
author: Mingo

Went out with Urban to train yesterday. Urb brough Ike's Uncle Acea, and Lucy. We have been running pile work for a while now with a few marks thrown by me at short distance. Urban threw a few longer marks, 75 yds or so for Ike, and he took off like his tail was on fire, with more drive and speed than I have ever seen out of him. I guess he was a little bored with pile work. Urb would throw a long mark, and I would throw a short one. Ike would be sent to the short first then the long. He did fine. He still needs some work on holding bumpers too loosely. Also, I need to clarify for him where the HEEL spot is because he often wants to HEEL directly in front of me. I think part of this is due to me correcting him to HEEL when he is too close to me so that he is confused about exactly where the spot is. I plan to lay off the collar for this, and use a lead with a heeling stick to clean it up.

Pile and Pattern Blinds
posted: February 8, 2007
author: Mingo

Worked through FTP and on to the three-legged pattern blind in Smartworks. Ike seemed to pick up on this pretty quickly. He will run all three legs to about 40 yds with or without a thrown bumper to identify the pile. Going to stay on this until I get him going about 70 yds. I did notice improvement the more we repeated this drill. The first few times we ran it, he would occasionally head out, then loop back to me because he didn't see the pile. Now he seems to understand that the pile is there and looks for it. I am also gradually moving completely away from the 2 bumpers to only 3 bumpers. He sometimes has trouble with the plastic larger bumpers, but he picks up the larger ones in the middle rather than the ends, like he sometimes will do with the smaller ones. If he does, I just re-position the bumper in his mouth when he brings them back. I'm planning on picking up several 3 canvas bumpers as he seems to handle these the best.

Back to Training
posted: January 29, 2007
author: Mingo

The season is over, and Ike managed a little over 90 retrieves. There were many proud moments, and many frustrating moments, and but I don't think there was any harm done. Ike really seemed to come into his own on the last few hunts. He marked well, chased cripples, and generally brought ducks to hand, although he still has some sloppy habits that need to be cleaned up. He even took a BACK or two, and put on some decent hunts for birds on the bank. We will pick up work on Force to Pile, Three-Handed Casts, and Mini-T using Smartwork for a program. It should be fun.

Heel, Hold, Cripples, Limber Tail and other stuff
posted: January 25, 2007
author: Mingo

Ike continues to make progress with my haphazard training. First, if someone tells you should not to take your pup hunting until he is completely trained, at least through Force Fetch, Force to Pile, etc, they are right. Now if someone tells you, you CAN'T, well, you can, you just have to be prepared to get what you get. Every hunt with Ike takes on-the-spot training to steady him, to make him hold when he comes to heel, etc. It would have been great if we were already through that before he hunted, but that's not what we did. Regardless, problems crop up in hunting that you don't see in training. I have found that he is doing better retrieving to hand if I give him a HOLD near the bank and then, HEEL. We have been doing some heeling drills with the collar and he responds better to that than HERE, when retrieving. Plus I feel better, and he responds better to HEEL NICK HEEL, and a FETCH NICK. If he does drop the duck, I give him the heel with a nick, and he will pick it up and bring it to heel. Ike a a couple of long 75-100 yds retrieves on cripples on the last hunt and did a fine job. He seems to be a fast swimmer, and is still marking well and taking a decent line. He even went through a little skim ice for one. After the hunt he came down with Limber Tail. His tail is limp due to some inflammation at the base of the tail. He does not seem to be in any pain, but I have given him some ibuprofen. Some recommend buffered aspirin. All I read about it says it should resolve in a few days to a week. He has made about 70 retrieves so far, and never fails to go get 'em, he's just not great after he gets back on dry land.

Making a List
posted: January 19, 2007
author: Mingo

Been doing little training outside of hunting the last few weeks, but I am keeping a mental list of things to clean up. Ike is sloooowly getting better bringing birds to hand, but will need to work on it over the summer. The little Knothead has better than 60 retrieves, some good, some messy, but he loves to go get 'em. The last few hunts I have not tied him up, and he is doing better, although he still needs steady work. Stopped by Urb's pond on the way back today, and Gut had a few ducks to pick up, one of which landed across a narrow neck, about 15 yds up the bank. I guess this could be called a cold blind. Couldn't get Ike to take to the water, so I heaved a stick (redneck dummy) and he swam to the opposite bank, where, I made him sit, and then gave him a back. He hunted around a little, but did not take the back line far enough, so I sat him again and gave him another back. This time he took a better line and picked up the bird. LOTS of work to do, but Ike shows me just enough to think that he is going to get it.

Snow Job
posted: January 10, 2007
author: Mingo

Well, I finally figured out that Ike has been playing up the poor me routine. Been getting on him a little harder for dropping ducks, even giving him a NICK, FETCH! He went two for four on delivering to hand this morning. The first two, I didn't want to mess with too long, as I figured we would have more ducks coming. The last one he held, sitting at heel for about 10 seconds before I took it. Throwing a duck after the hunt, he went to it, but dropped it on the way back. I gave him a NICK and FETCH, and he snatched it up and brought it back to heel. Still a lot of work to do on this, but it looks like we are moving in the right direction. Urban also showed me some good drills to reinforce HEEL that I think will get him to my side quicker and give him less time to think about dropping and shaking.

This is what we're after!
posted: January 8, 2007
author: Mingo

Because sometimes we drop them on the bank!

This is what we
posted: January 8, 2007
author: Mingo

Fetch it!
posted: January 8, 2007
author: Mingo

Aha moment.
posted: January 8, 2007
author: Mingo

I just love it when I get a good idea without even knowing it. I still had been having trouble with Ike dropping ducks and not picking them up. In particular if a duck dropped on the bank he would not want to pick it up and bring it in. He is doing better holding them until told to drop when retrieving from the water. Today during lunch, I worked him on fetch with a dead duck. He showed a little improvement, but still wouldn't pick one up consistently if I didn't have a hand on his collar or the duck. This evening I took him to a pond where we do some training. On Urban's advice I wanted to try him on a land-water-land mark to see if he would pick up. He has done this many times with bumpers. First I threw a bumper into the pond. It turned out the water was shallow, just about chest deep on Ike, so he ran out and picked it up, brought it to heel, and dropped on command. I have then started giving him the command shake to try and teach him to shake after I take the duck because he drops them to shake. He did OK with the bump, so I threw the duck. First time he brought it back he dropped it to shake. Told him fetch and he picked it up and held it. Second and third throws he comes to heel and holds it until I tell him drop. Now this is a little different because he has either retrieved on land or in deep water, never in shallow water where his feet stay on the ground. We turn 90 degrees and I throw the duck into the grass on the bank, he goes and picks it up and heads back, gets back to me and drops it. I tell him fetch and give him a nick, be backed off the bird, bit when I told him fetch again, he picks it up and holds. Throw it again, and he brings it all the way back, holds, sits, and drops on command. This is what we are after! Try one more and he does it no problem, so we quit. Would not of thought of retieving in shallow water where the pup keeps his feet on the ground as a transition to a straight land retieve! Seemed to work for us

Ike gets goosey
posted: January 6, 2007
author: Mingo

Been working a little on walking fetch and mini pile and getting in some hunting. The one thing I don't have to worry about is Ike liking birds. He is very keen to pick up ducks, and marks pretty well. He is improving holding until told to drop with ducks he picks off the water, but still stuggles to pick them up off land. I will probably work him on FF with ducks even as we do pile work. He made a nice long mark of a gaddie yesterday, but just as he got to the bird it made it to cover and he couldn't find it even though he put on a decent hunt. Today he picked up two off the water, but we dropped three on the bank which he marked but, was very sloppy picking up and dropping, etc. Highlight of the day was a goos that I dropped on the pond. I swatted it again to make sure it was dead before sending Ike. He actually picked it up and started back, but was having a little trouble, so I met him half way. Lowlight and funniest episode was when we dropped three mallards. I am still hooking Ike to a short lead attached to my chair to ensure he doesn't break. Ike held steady, but a drake flew right over the top of us,I poofed it, and it fell about 20 yds behind us in the grass. Only problem was I stood to shoot, and the next thing I knew, pup and chair were heading out at a high rate of speed! It was too funny for me to get mad. I guess I may be making more work for myself by hunting Ike before he is completely trained, but we are having fun, I only correct him for commands he has been taught, like sit, here, and hold, and we'll have plenty to work on over the summer. So far he has about 30 retrieves.

Now Dat's One VERY FUNNY......
posted: December 31, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Pic!

Don't know if this works
posted: December 31, 2006
author: Mingo

but it was worth a try.

Wokred Ike on some walking fetch yesterday. He did OK but was not very enthused about doing it. I threw him a few fun bumpers and started over, but this time I tried walking faster going to the bumpers. He seemed to pick up on the pace and was much better driving out to the bumpers. It was a lesson for me that a little thing like upping the pace caused him to move faster.

Took him hunting today. Same routine; meet him at the water, tell him HOLD and take the duck quickly. He also got a lively cripple off the bank that he fetched back, but dropped at my feet, the duck took off to the water, and Ike chased him down again and brought him back. I hope that was a lesson for him. After hunting, I threw marks with a dead duck for him. In the water he did fine. Didn't go until sent, held it, came to heel and released the duck to hand. On land, he would pick it up, but not bring it to me, then usually drop it, pick it back up, etc., so I worked him on a lead and tossed the duck a few feet in front, command FETCH, and ear-pinched all the way to the duck. I would then have him heel and return to the spot where we started, HEEL, DROP. It's gonna take a lot of work, but I think we will get there.

Gun Dog?
posted: December 29, 2006
author: Mingo

Still working a session a day on FF, with ducks and bumpers, and a session or two on walking fetch and three-handed casts. One thing about Ike, he loves to get ducks. He is doing fine marking and retrieving, even taking a back if needed. He made a nice retrieve on a cripple greenhead today that beat it out across the pasture. Ran it down, and fetched it back. This tells me he is improving, as he was having trouble picking ducks up off the ground. He made 6 other retrieves off the pond today, with a couple of doubles. Mostly easy stuff, but he seems to be getting the hang of it. I need to work more on his OB as he gets restless and won't sit if no ducks are flying, but I haven't worked him on SIT to the collar. He also wants to break so I tether him. After the hunt I threw a duck in the pond and he broke for it, so I nicked him and called HERE. He came back, but needed encouragement to go for the duck. Thought I might have messed up, but he did go get it. The second time his butt came off the ground and he got a NO, but no nick. He waited until sent on his name, and did a third go with no problems. Still got a lot of work to go, but looks like I got me a gun dog.

Getting There
posted: December 22, 2006
author: Mingo

Been working Ike on some walking fetch and continuing to work on fetch with a duck. Decided to take him this morning as I was taking a couple of kids on their first duck hunt, with Urban hosting. Had a pair of mallards settle in the dekes early and the boys powdered both, with one crip swimming off. Sent Ike for the DRT and he made a nice retrieve. I met him at the water's edge and told him hold, and he did until I took the duck. I did not give him a lot of time to drop it. Uran threw a couple of marks with a dead duck and Ike brought both in. Again, I met him at the bank, commanded HOLD and took the duck fairly quickly. After the hunt one of the boys went to take a pee and found a duck in the grass that we had looked for earlier and not found. I sat Ike about 25 yds away and gave him a BACK. He took off and went a little off line towards the pond, but this put him downwind, and he soon winded the duck and found it. He has had trouble picking ducks up off the ground and he had a little trouble with this one before picking it up. He soon dropped it, but it seemed to me he just lost his grip rather than spitting it out. He picked it up again and carried it about half way back before dropping it again. I gave him an ear pinch and a fETCH to make him pick it up and had him carry it at heel for a little before taking it from him. It's looking more and more like this is a problem we will get fixed. Partly, I think he just has some trouble handling the bigger birds, so hopefully he will get the hang of it soon.

Progress
posted: December 16, 2006
author: Mingo

Hated to leave Ike home this morning, but I wanted to get a little more work in with him before I take him back out. When we got back to the house with limits of ducks, we took a GWT and worked Ike on fetch and hold with it. Then Gut threw a short mark in the yard. Ike mouthed it a little, but then picked it up and brought it back. I took him to the back yard and worked a little more with the GWT. I plan to work him almost exclusively on ducks this week and see how it goes. Looks like we are making progress!

My version of ear pinch
posted: December 14, 2006
author: Mingo

I pinch on the flat of the collar without much pressure, unless I get a refusal. Rarely, I will pinch on the buckle. When I started I would only hold the ear firmly to the collar. Lately, I have upped the pressure a little, but Ike does not seem to notice. After a few pinches I can give him fetch without a pinch and he fetches just fine.

FF complete?
posted: December 14, 2006
author: Mingo

Ike is picking up bumpers off the ground consistently without a pinch from about 4 feet, so I think we are ready to move on to walking fetch in the next day or two. He goes after the bumpers pretty hard, even if I hold him back a little. He has had about three days of good sessions, so last night I took him to our training grounds and threw a few marks in a pond. First one he dropped to shake so I ear-pinched to get him to fetch it and told him HOLD. After that, I would meet him at the bank and command hold, take the bumper and then tell him SHAKE. He did this three times. He may still want to drop the duck to shake, but since I have run him back through FF, I feel a lot more comfortable about correcting him, and I think he will too. If he can get through walking fetch, I think we will make it. I don't sense that he is getting too much pressure. He actually seems to enjoy the training.

So far, so good
posted: December 11, 2006
author: Mingo

Although I have to qualify that, by admitting that I may not know what I am doing. This morning's session was good, with Ike fetching both a canvas bumper and a plastic bumper with a duck wing tied to it, off the ground. I am most encouraged that he is doing the normal things; tried to bite me once or twice, refused a fetch so I put more pressure on, and he fetched, but he is not going to the ground and quitting. Worked a little with a dead duck yesterday and he did pretty good. I think that being in his own backyard in a familiar setting allows him to relax a little so the pressure does not add up from session to session.

Tried him on walking fetch and he went to the bump but refused to pick it up the first two times, so I ear pinched and forced him to pick it up. On the third try, he picked it up and held it. Still, I don't think we are ready to move on to walking fetch yet. Maybe we can by the end of the week. FYI, I am following FF as presented in the Fowl Dawgs DVD.

Training Table
posted: December 8, 2006
author: Mingo

Here's my version of a FF table. We moved off of this a few days ago to work on the ground. I also put a couple of PVC collars on the bumper to encourage holding the middle of the bumper. Right now we are doing 3 short sessions a day. Some sessions he does well, some he doesn't, but he is making progress and not quitting me. Once or twice when picking up the bumper off the ground he tried to lay down, but I just stick the bumper in his mouth and pull him back up to a sitting position. Since he has been through this once already, he is moving along pretty good, and at times really lunges after the bumper, but he has not yet convinced me we are ready to move to waking fetch yet, even though he has picked up a bumper off the ground without an ear pinch. I am going to work him pretty good through the weekend and see if we can move on next week.

FF
posted: December 4, 2006
author: Mingo

Well, we are three days into running through FF again. So far, no problems. Because of the pup's past negative experience with FF, I only use the ear pinch about a third of the time. Actually, all I do is hold his ear firmly against the collar, and release pressure as soon as he reaches the bumper with his mouth open. He goes for the bumper readily, in fact he will try to beat me to the punch, so I have to reinforce sit until I command fetch. He will take the bumper close, held at the end of the table, and off of the table with my hand off the bumper. To end, I let him hold the bumper, jump off the table and lead him at heal a short distance before sitting and dropping. Then I throw one fun bumper. He seems to enjoy this routine, but I am not sure at which point the trainer began to have problems. I bet it will be obvious when we get to that point.

Re-boot
posted: December 3, 2006
author: Mingo

I have decided to take advantage of the split and run Ike through FF again. If we are lucky I can have him finished before the end of the season and get him on a few more hunts. I just think that it will be better to try and clean things up now rather than hunt him and let him develop habits that may be harder to fix later.

Pickin' 'Em Up
posted: December 2, 2006
author: Mingo

Ike's number of retrieves is slowly growing. He got a couple yesterday and three or four today. He has pretty good manners in the blind, and has loves to take to the water and pick up ducks. His first few hunts he was pretty good about delivering to hand, but the last few he has started to drop the duck after exiting the water to shake. He will not pick up the duck again. When told to FETCH he bites, nibbles, paws and licks the duck, but will not pick it up unless I force him to with an ear pinch or put the duck in his mouth. Once he has it, he will hold it, but it looks like it will take some doing to fix this problem. He really wants the duck after I take it from him, and if you leave one on the ground, he will eventually pick it up, but if you give him a command like HERE or HEEL he usually drops it. With some coaxing, after I put a duck in his mouth I can lead him at heel and sit him and he will hold it, but it is pretty tricky to keep him from dropping it. So, right now I am not sure if I will work on this or just let him swim out, pick them up and take them from him at the water's edge, and work through FF again in the spring.

Second Hunt
posted: November 25, 2006
author: Mingo

Just me and Ike today. Had a lot of ducks working prior to LST til just after, but I was waiting on good close shots so Ike could get a good mark. First duck was a ringneck drake. I gave him another swat just to be sure he was dead, and released Ike from the tether I use to hold him from breaking. He picked up the duck and came back, but I had stayed in the blind, and he dropped it on the bank. I went to him and took his ear to give him a pinch and make him pick it up, but he beat me to it, and held the duck until I took it from him. Later took a single teal, but Ike couldn't find it. We were in some timber and it was still a little dark, with weeds in the water. I couldn't see it either, so I called him back. Later I got another single teal and sent Ike. This one he got, but did not come right back, then I could see he was trying to bring back TWO ducks. The first teal was dead right next to the second one. I whistled him in and sent him back for the second. Both of the teal he brought back to heal, sit, and held until told to drop. It was an hour or so til a gadwall came in high, and dumped it farther out, about 35 yds. Ike took a good line, but pulled up short and looked around. When he looked back at me, I gave him a hand straight up and a BACK. He took the back, picked up the duck and delivered to hand. We quit on that one! I'm not sure why he took the back, but we have worked on that some with simple casting drills. At any right, he got a BACK!, went back, and found a duck, so I figure that is a good thing.

Ike was pretty well behaved in the blind and watched for ducks. It will take some work to get him steady to shot without a tether. He did get a little bored and want to chew stuff, and whined just a little. The whining seemed to be more from boredom that excitement. I took him for a short walk so he could run a little, and when I got back in the blind, he was fine. I could tell from him dropping the first duck, that while he has had FF, he is not completely solid on it. We will revisit that after the season, and work on handling, though I may work on handling a little during the season to see if he really gets it, or we just got lucky today. Still, he has made 6 mostly good retrieves, and has good desire to go get ducks, so the little KnotHead might just make a duck dog.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
posted: November 23, 2006
author: Mingo

First the bad. Went by to check in with Irish to see how Ike was doing. I knew the training was tough on both of them with just about as many bad days as good. Irish told me he was sending him home. I could tell he was pretty upset about it, but he said Ike was not making progress, and in fact was backsliding a little, and he felt it best to end the training. Ike was just too soft to take the pressure. It's not fun to hear your trainer tell you that yours is the only dog that he couldn't train, and it wasn't fun for Irish to say it, even though he did tell me that it didn't mean Ike couldn't still make a gun dog. Irish brought Ike back that afternoon. He was still pretty much the same pup, but did seem a little down. I have been told that after a training session, you should put your pup up to let them think about the lesson, so it seemed a good idea to me to get Ike busy ASAP to clear his mind. We headed out to the training grounds and I let him run a little just to loosen up before I threw a bumper. I teased him up with the bumper a little and gave it a toss. He ran right out and started back, and to my surprise he came to heel, and sat on command. He then held the bumper intil I commanded drop. Just to test him a held a bumper and told him fetch. He did and again held it until I took it from him. I then tossed the bumper on the ground about 5 feet from him and said, fetch. Again he took the bumper, came to heel and held it. It seemed to me Ike knew what to do, he just would not do it under much pressure. As Irish had said, He does it, but does not have a solid foundation.

Talking to Urban, we decided to make a quick hunt this morning. Just after legal time, a pair of Gadwall came in, and Ike spotted them. I had Ike tethered with a snap lead to hold him steady while Urban blew up one Gadwall right out in front of us. Ike had obviously seen this and was ready to go. I released him on his name, and he headed out in a hurry, got the duck and headed back. Again, he exited the water, came to heel, sat, and delivered the bird to hand! Not bad for a wash-out!. Not long after, a pair of Wigeon came in and again we cut one. This one was not dead, however and made for the opposite bank. Ike hit the water, but couldn't find the bird and returned to me. I walked him around and the birds broke from the bank back into the water. Ike was on him quickly, but then proceeded to take a line, back to where he entered the water. I started back around the bank and made it halfway when he left the water. I called him to me; heel, sit, hold, drop. Just like he knew what he was doing.

So what now? I plan to go ahead and hunt him the rest of the season, then in the spring run him through FF refresher, moving on through force to pile and casting, etc. I think he is going to be OK, but it will be tricky if he develops bad habits that I have to correct. The tricky part will be applying just the right kind of pressure at the right time. I am hoping that a little more maturity will help, and also being in more familiar surroundings will make it easier for him to take it. That said, if I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way, and have Irish train the dog. I have a hunch that Ike got more out of it than he was showing, and I hope with patience and consistency, I can draw it out. It still hasn't sunk in that the first retreive that we worked so hard to get to over the summer has finally come.

Update
posted: November 16, 2006
author: Mingo

Latest update from Irish is that Ike is progressing well, with some days better than others. When we started this thing, he told me that he would be done when he is done, and the price would be the same no matter how long it took. I have seen dogs he trained work and talked with him a lot about dogs and I believe his work is worth any price, and certainly more than he charges. That said, I just wish the old coot would give me an idea of when Ike will be done. He just smiles and says Ike is doing fine, don't worry about it. I feel like a kid waiting of Christmas!

Update
posted: November 1, 2006
author: Mingo

I had lunch with Irish the other day and got an update on Ike. To get right to it, he's soft. This doesn't particularly bother me, but it is making for slow going with the FF. The way Irish puts it, (or at least the simple way I get it) you need to set up conditions for the dog to fail so you can apply force to correct. The dog is not so much learning to retrieve as he is learning that he must retrieve every time, not matter the conditions. So, you get the dog to hold, then slap the dummy out of his mouth, apply pressure (ear pinch) and make him hold. A soft dog does not respond well to the pressure, and will shut down when the pressure is applied. It seems Ike is also smart, maybe too smart because he picks up really quickly on what he needs to do, and this doesn't allow for him to be corrected. Seems in FF you want that good young hard-headed young, dumb and full of...well anyway probably from being a little too smart and being somewhat of a pet, makes things a little different. I have probably done a poor job of explaining this, but the result is that FF is taking longer than expected. From talking with Irish, however, I am confident that he has a good approach to deal with this trainee. He still says he will get through FF fine, it is just taking more time and a different approach.

Lock down
posted: October 16, 2006
author: Mingo

Went by to see pup on sunday. Irish says Stay away. Guess I just have to bite the bullet and be patient. Everything is going fine up to this point.

Visit
posted: October 10, 2006
author: Mingo

went by today to give Ike his heartworm meds. I swear he has grown a lot in two weeks. He was so happy to be out of the kennel he ran crazy for a while. Spent a little time with him, but didn't want to baby him too much. Irish says everything is going fine, so I hope he will be finished in a month or so. I will probably check in on him again in a week or so.

Man, It's just not the same.
posted: October 5, 2006
author: Mingo

I'm going into dog training DTs.

A little good news
posted: October 4, 2006
author: Mingo

today from Irish. Ike is doing well with his FF. Good attitude, not too soft, and is learning quickly.

Boot Camp
posted: October 2, 2006
author: Mingo

Ike is off to FF. Sr. Drill Instructor Irish will be handling all training. His barracks will be located on the grounds of Whack-A-Quack Kennels. DI Irish says he has never seen such a motley crew, but he is confident he will have them whipped into shape and ready for operation with the standard training.

Send off party
posted: September 30, 2006
author: Mingo

Ike got a good send off party as tomorrow he goes to FF. I thought I had a week to go, but Irish wants the boy standing tall tomorrow at 0900 hrs! He smacked a pigeon mark today in fine fashion, but about half the way back nature called and he stopped to take a dump and lost track. FF will take care of that! We also did a land-water-land mark with a pigeon that was no problem. The fun part was Ike chasing the shackled duck. I actually did pick a puny looking duck, because I didn't want it to give Ike the slip. Should have picked one a little meaner, as this one didn't stand a chance. It did give him one good dive however, but Ike just circled and looked until it came up. He acutally was a little amped up today with all the shooting and dogs and birds, but I guess that lets me know we didn't do anything to curb his enthusiasm. Today the penthouse tomorrow the outhouse. I am going to miss him, but when I get him back, he will be well on his way to being a gun dog.

It was so much fun
posted: September 28, 2006
author: Mingo

we ran it twice. He actually seemed to enjoy bustin' brush and crawling int the mud. Everybody got a bath when we got home.

Here's what Ike saw
posted: September 28, 2006
author: Mingo

Here's what I saw.
posted: September 28, 2006
author: Mingo

Ran a couple fairly long 75-100 marks with a little structure tonight, then decided to throw one in a small pond as shown in the pic. Ike had to bust some brush and like a dummy, I realized that I could not see the mark, so I couldn't see what the pup was doing. He was gone a pretty long time with just the rustling in the weed giving any clue to what was going on. My clue should have been that when I threw the bumper, instead of hearing a splash, I heard a splat!

Yep! That Dog'l Pick Dem Ducks Up And.....
posted: September 27, 2006
author: urbanduckman

bring'm back to Daddy!

I had not seen Mingo and Ike for almost two weeks and when Mingo called look'n for somebody to toss a few Marks I was READY!

We swung over a block or two west of the house to a spot that is on the outside edge of a big Public Park. The City keeps the place picked up of hazards and fairly well mowed. It has some hills and valleys and trees that make for some good Land Marks.

Mingo set Ike up on top of one of the more severe hills that provided a good drop off. I picked a spot to land the bump on up the side of another hill at about the 45 yard spot.

I gave Ike his verbal que that something was go'n UP and OUT at about 45 degrees. There was a bit of a line of tall tress as a backdrop and with the quickly declining light this mark would have a bit of Meat to it.

Ike sat up really nice and locked in. By now he KNOWS how this game is played and he wanted to PLAY. More to the point the lil Yellow pup was READY TO RUN. Run to the well marked bump and scoop it up.

He came down that hill and in a few strides he was at pretty much full speed. Run'n all out with his ears laid back. Dis lil boy was serious about the task at hand. I was starting to see HIS DADDY in him by the way he ran. And that IS A GOOD THING! Ike has for the most part matured well past that clumsy pure puppy stage. He actually is starting to look like a Gun Dog is supposed to look.

It was straight back to Mingo at a good clip. Not much off the pace of he was on on the trip out to the mark. I moved over a bit and tossed another mark of about the same distance. The only thing different about this one was that it was down into a bit more of a bowl. A bowl that was defined by tall grass , trees and a high embankment. There was no wind at all and the bump I was us'n was an older bump that looked about the color of dormant Bermuda Grass. Ike just might have to put down a bit of a hunt to locate this one.

Up and out goes the bump. It did break the horizon in good shape and then dropped on down into the bowl where it landed. Ike was locked in and I could tell that he had got a good mark. Now came the fun part. Would he PIN the mark or would he come in close to the AOF and have to PUT DOWN A HUNT! The last time I actually ran marks with Ike he was put'n down a hunt but it was not a well defined or set hunt. By that I mean IKE'S HUNT or the hunt that was HIS and HIS ALONE. The one that you could PREDICT!

Ike drove off the hillside and held a good line to the AOF. He drove right past the bump lay'n out on top of the close cropped grass. He missed the dang thing by about two feet.

He drove on past about 15 yards and realized that he had gone a bit further than the picture he had taken of it. He immed. started to lay down a hunt. He worked in a semi circle around the back side of the where the mark lay and then broke down and worked back past the mark. Again almost STEPPING RIGHT ON TOP OF THE THING. He worked on into the short side of the mark and while he never even thought of giving up he worked back to the AOF and closed down the amount of area he was hunt'n. He finally got on the downwind side of the bump and located it. While there was not much of a wind blow'n across the bump there was just enough to kick up a bit of scent and that was all he needed.

While we always want our dogs to PIN DA MARK to watch a young Gun Dog Prospect lay down a damn good HUNT and NOT GIVE UP in order to finally locate a mark is enough to damn near bring an Old Fart to TEARS!

Irish , who will instill the lessons to be taught in the Force Fetch part of Ike's EDUCATION was there to watch. He messed around a bit with Ike on a short lead while I ran Lucy on a Blind and when it came time to Kennel both Ike and Lucy Mingo asked THE QUESTION.

That being, whatta ya think? Is he ready for FF? Irish for the most part being a man of few words replied , Yep . Ike will be right at six months of age when he goes off to BOOT CAMP. He goes in a little boy and he will come back a Young MAN!

While Ike has benfifted greatly from Mingo's hard work and everything points in the direction that Ike should come out of FF in good shape there are NO GURANTEES. He has in Irish or at least IMO one of the BEST ACTIVE FF Trainers around. Or at least in THIS AREA!

If all this works then Mingo has a great chance to be able to take Ike on his first REAL DEAL of a DUCK HUNT right around the Zone 2 Opener. I hope that I will get asked to help Transistion Ike from the Schoolyard to the REAL DEAL?

Thanks for let'n me tag along guys. Had a GREAT TIME!

Pa Pa Urb

Look familiar?
posted: September 26, 2006
author: Mingo

More marks and quality time with the pup. We were lucky to be joined by Irish who scoped Ike out. Ike got the thumbs up to start FF the first week in October. We are ready for this next phase. Ike is showing more drive and ego, and I am getting a little stale. It will be a good time to send him for FF. I can get in some early season duck hunting while he goes to boot camp, and he should be ready for his first real hunts by late November or December.

Fun stuff
posted: September 20, 2006
author: Mingo

Lately, been throwing a few marks, and very little OB. Mainly just letting pup have some fun. FF is coming the first week of October, and I have decided to kennel Ike at the trainer's. This will be a big change for him, but probably harder on me. I've really been trying to spend quality time with my boy. Every so often, I just check him on stuff to make sure he hasn't forgotten; here, sit, etc. His drive has kicked up a notch with this cooler weather, but along with that, he is a little more independent. This is good, as it tells me he will benefit from FF.

This Week
posted: September 16, 2006
author: Mingo

Just running easy marks. That is, marks that Ike has run before. Have decided not to push him hard before he goes to FF. He is just about finished teething, so I am considering when to send him to FF. Took him on another teal hunt this morning, but we shot nothing. Threw him a few bumpers in the wind and waves to let him swim in rough water.

Real Teal Hunt
posted: September 11, 2006
author: Mingo

As Urban mentioned in his hunt report, Ike got to go on his first real duck hunt this weekend. I was afraid that he would be too much trouble to handle, but with Urban's go ahead, I put him up on the tailgate and told him to kennel. I swear he knew something was up because he couldn't get into that dog box quick enough. He usually needs a good shove, but he knew he didn't want to stay in the backyard, and practically shut the box door himself. It was good experience for him just to ride in the box, and the boat ride on the lake was good practice too. The next morining, he was well-behaved in the blind, and like any kid, when he got bored he simply laid down and went to sleep. He did wake up long enough to growl at the Game Warden though! As Urban described we ran a few marks with a dead teal and he did surprisingly well. After running off with a few doves on a dove hunt, I was not sure how he would react, but he did it like he had done it before, and he sure did want that bird. There was no picking it up and dropping it or chewing. He just picked it up and brought it back. This is getting about as close to real hunting as it gets for him, and it looks like he will take to it with no problems. The second hunt we even ran the mark with a little more realism as PaPa Urban hid in the reeds and Uncle Gut popped off a round to kill the teal. Ike was off into the dekes and soon on the way back with the bird. At first on the way back he acted like he wanted to keep it for himself. Urban said in a low voice nick. Now, before, he had told me, whatever I do, DONT nick him with anything in his mouth, as this might make him think the picking things up was a bad thing, but after seeing how Ike reacted with birds in his mouth the day before, he felt there was no chance he would drop it. Sure enough, after a couple of nicks and here, he brought the bird to hand. Sometimes he will spit out a bumper a little early, but he held onto his prize long enough for me to get the camera out and take this pic, the gave up the bird, when I told him drop. Ike is going to the table soon for FF and I am confident that after that he will be ready for a nice easy pond hunt and his first real retrieve. Can't hardly wait.

Light week
posted: September 7, 2006
author: Mingo

This week we have backed up just a little. Still throwing marks with structure, but making sure the bumper is visible. Also worked a little on three-handed cast, and Ike is picking it up well. His big dog teeth are coming in so we will probably send him for FF in early October. Otherwise, just letting him have lots of fun. The cooler weather really has his motor running. He eats up those easy marks.

The Dove Hunt
posted: September 5, 2006
author: Mingo

Decided to take Ike dove hunting to maybe get his mouth on some birds, expose him to hunting environment, etc. Took him down to Johnston Co. where my Dad had a place lined up. I figured I could handle him and have my son shoot birds. Got to the field about 6:30 and the circus began! I tied Ike off on a check cord to a tree about 20 yds from Zac and the shooting commenced. There were a lot of birds around and Ike figured out pretty quickly that there were birds in the sky and people shooting at them!. He wanted in on the action in a bad way! Guns going off just seemed to get him going more, and when one hit the ground he wanted it! Finally one hit about 20 yds in front and I set him loose. The field had been shot over pretty good that morning and there had been lots of live birds on the ground, so there was a lot of feathers and scent around. The first bird he had a little trouble finding and I walked over near the bird and called him. He came in and found it, picked it up and got a mouthful of feathers. I called him and it was like Ike had picked up a record setting homerun ball. He was off! He liked that bird and was not about to give it up! There was not much I could do as I had let him off the check cord and the only control I had over him was the e-collar. No way was I going to zap him with a bird in his mouth, so I just had to wait til he settled down to play with his prize and then take it from him. A little later, Zac dropped another bird close in and I sent Ike with the check cord still attached to make him easier to catch. He was off like a shot to the bird, ran over it and just kept going! There were birds and feathers all over and his little brain was just going berserk. He was just on overload. Finally got him back to the bird and drew him back to me with the check cord. Later, Zac crippled a bird and couldn't find it so I took Ike on the cord to help look. Ike spotted the bird about 50 yds out at about the time the bird spotted us and started flapping, trying to get off the gound. I let him go and he zoomed in on the bird and caught it. Fortunately Zac was close enough to grab the check cord and led Ike back to me. Had a similar run with one other crippled bird as we were picking up to leave.

So the good stuff: Ike is not gun shy and in fact pretty quickly picked up on the fact that gunfire meant birds on the ground. He was marking birds in the air and birds as they were falling. He REALLY liked to get those birds in his mouth in spite of the fact that he ended up with a mouthful of feathers.

On the negative side, he was just too excited and too inexperienced to handle in a hunting situation. I probably would not do this again if I had a do over, but we will just move on. It was still a lot of fun and a good lesson for me. After the hunting was over, we threw dead birds for him where I could control him on the check cord and make him bring back the birds.

Hopefully the good outweighed the bad. He is really juiced about getting the birds, but not so keen un giving them up!

Mid-term exam
posted: September 5, 2006
author: Mingo

It was great to watch this training session and get Ike checked out by a Pro. The marks Ike ran were similar to marks he had run before, and it was good to have some distractions and new surroundings to check him on. He made all the marks with a little help, and got a passing grade which was encouraging, and we got some great advice. Ike had been doing well on sight marks so we have been pushing him a little. The past few weeks he had begun to shake his head in the water when running land-water-land marks where he could not see the bumper. Urban noticed this because he did it on the way to the bumper, but not on the way back with the bumper and told me it seemed to indicate Ike has having problems with these marks. Sure enough Whack's take was that he was afraid and/or nervous about not finding the mark and said we should throw more marks that he could see, or we would run the risk of making him too hesitant. We will now run more easy marks and few hard ones. Like Whack said, He is still just a baby. I took Ike on a lead and threw a few bumpers on land for him after he had run for Whack. Again this drew some comments from the Pro. His advice was to QUIT after running marks to let the pup think about the marks he had just run and not put more stuff in his head that would make him forget about the marks he had just run. OB work should be done in getting him from the truck to where he would run his marks. In other words, KEEP IT FUN!

Double Check'n Da Program!
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Mingo is out run'n the kids to out of town soccer tourneys and such though he will sneak in a Dove Hunt wit his Pappy down on the home place in the middle of all that.

Since he is indisposed , it's rain'n outiside and an early morning trek out into the stuff to run some Blinds with Lucy and Daisy to do a bit more TUN'N UP prior to the kick off of the Teal Season this coming week end is finished and the girl's are dry'n off I thought I would go ahead and put a bit of stuff up on our run out to Whack's place.

The reasons for us making the trip was to help out a bit as Whack had 6 three month old puppies and 2 8 week old puppies he's got at the kennel. Wit dat many he needed some HELP! Besides , it was high time for Ike to run some Marks for his GrandPappy on his Daddy's side of the family in order to make sure we was on track!

I will let Mingo put up the details as you never leave a session with Whack having not learned something! I did take a few pics that I thought might fit in here!

The pic with this post shows Cody, Ike's Pappy , help'n out wit get'n the 3 month olds as this is thier first trip to water where they got a bump tossed out to pick up and bring back.

Whack SWEARS dat Ike looks just like Cody did at this point in time. Cody is a gool look'n dog and we can only hope dat Ike looks a lot more like Pappy as he matures. lol

Five of the six did thier part but the black pup in this pic seemed to have a bit of a problem put'n two and two together and com'n up with 4! Seems he just could not quite bring himself to pick the bumper up in his mouth off the water. Won't take him long to get the idea as he will go to a water hole every day for this kind of workout.

Urb!

Urb

Ike Finish'n Off....
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

a Water Mark! Like any good aspiring Gun Dog Prospect Ike don't really like to give up the bump!

Ike Is Just About HALFWAY ......
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

there on this Land-Water-Land Shoot and Toss into heavy cover Mark!

Ike Is About To LAUNCH ......
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

off dat Red Clay Point stick'n out into the pond on the front end of a nice Land-Water-Land Mark dat Whack laid out!

Hav'n All Six Of The 3 Month Olds.....
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

in the same Litter present can help a Breeder actually SEE the results of his efforts. To evaluate IF the breeding is on it's way to accomplishing what you THOUGHT you saw in the match up initially. Part of what you want to evaluate is to get a feel for the pup's TRAINABILITY and if in fact it will fit your Training Program.

Whack is a bit of a Task Master! A lot different approach than the younger generation of Trainers out there today. Some say he is OLD SCHOOL .

This pic catches the Old Master showing that while he is a hard man to please he still has got a soft spot for not only the little ones but ALL dogs regarless of the breed. Simply stated , Whack LIKES dogs a bit MORE than his fellow HUMAN BEINGS .

While some folks are a bit put off by this I personally LIKE IT and look for a certain amount of this when selecting or considering a Trainer. This is also another reason why I also like to look for a BREEDER/TRAINER and not just simply a Breeder?

Ike's Pappy , Cody.....
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

helps INTRODUCE the 2 Eight Week Old Puppies out of another litter to WATER. While they had been on walks around ponds and water they had not been expected to get in and SWIM!

This would be one of thier TESTS to see if in fact they could in fact actually SWIM. Not just swim around a bit but to SWIM distance wise. This takes a bit of ' heart or boldness in a pup. Taking another and older dog along is one of the best ways to lure or coax a young puppy into the water.

NEVER pick up the pup and TOSS IT INTO THE WATER! Let the puppy THINK it's HIS IDEA.

It was evident that the 3 month olds LOVED THE WATER and this fact based on what we saw of them coming out of the truck just may be a product of thier breeding.

We would get an ideal on just how the little ones would or would not view this water thing in short order.

One of the 2 Little Ones is a male with his litter mate being female. We took the pair across on the opposite side of a channel about 20 yards wide and tried to call them across. Sometimes this works and sometimes it don't. Depends on the dog!

Whack then employed Cody as a bit of Bait by sending Cody out into the water. THAT DID IT! The male tentativley made his way to the edge of the water. Thing is he then FELL IN as his front feet was on soft MUD. The little female hung back but as her big brother got further and further away and she was left ALL ALONE she decided that she would in fact FOLLOW.

She also more or less fell into the water and as she came up she kicked into high gear and swam across the channel.

This pic is of Big Brother com'n out of his first REAL SWIM as an aspiring Gun Dog Prospect.

Last But Not Least....
posted: September 2, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Little Sister climbs out of the Mud as she also made her first Retriever Swim .

Mingo got Ike to SWIM in much the same manner. Thing was Ike was not quite as tenative about being called into the water as Mingo had already established a much better BOND with his pup.

But, that is one thing that a Kennel Soldier pup has to contend with while wait'n on his NEW MASTER to come along and take him on as a member of a real family.

Light work
posted: August 30, 2006
author: Mingo

the last two nights. Last night took him back out to the hay meadow and ran a mark on the pond similar to one we ran with Urban last week. This time there was better light and Ike had a good mark. He had to run downhill about 50 yds to the pond then swim about 50 to the bumper. He hit the mark well, but did cheat coming back and run the bank a little before re-entering the water. Also ran him one across the draw again. He got all confused looking for a place up and got up on the high ground a long ways from the fall and needed a helper. Ran a 50 yd mark in grass that he did well on.

Tonight worked a little on holding a gloved hand and some OB. Worked on sit with a short piece of fishing rod to give his butt a swat to help him sit. It was surprising how well he responded to that. He was sitting quicker than last time. We did a few three-handed casts and he follows the hand signals well, but didn't want to bring the bumpers to me much. There was a lady there with a 12 week Wiemariner (sp?) so it ended up with an hour long play session. Both pups were worn smooth out.

NOT YET......
posted: August 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

wit da Ecollar!

This being slow to get his butt on the ground is NORMAL! This will be FIXED later on when his PERFORMANCE OB is established. Right now be pleased with the sit that he gives you and don't worry bout it.

One thing it may be time to include in your LIGHT OB SESSIONS is to lay a Heeling stick over your OFF HAND SHOULDER ( this would be your RIGHT ) and couple bringing it down and across to give the spot on top of his little butt a bit of a SMACK! Time the move to be instantaneous with the verbal command.

DO NOT use your hand to PUSH DOWN on his backside and proceed carefully with the stick thing. READ your dog! Start light and work up.

You have shown good judegement all along with this thing and I don't see why you would GO NUTS adding this to his routine.

He will not know where the tap of the heeling stick is coming from. He should not be able to associate it with you and IF he does having it coming from your RIGHT SIDE will not result in any negative reactions that will effect your LEFT SIDE from being a SAFE and GOOD PLACE TO BE!

Remember , it's a VERBAL SIT/STICK APPLICATION all at the SAME TIME. This will insure that he CAN'T BEAT THE STICK. He will at some point simply start DROPPING HIS BUTT LIKE A ROCK TO THE GROUND when he hears SIT !

See you boys this evening!

Urb

That is a good tip
posted: August 28, 2006
author: Mingo

for obstacles. We'll work on that. Ike will sure be up for some bumpers tomorrow (tues). We did OB tonight. He does well on heel and here, but he was slow to sit. Finally heeled him and had him sit from heel. He would sit at a distance but it just took too long. he was doing better on sit in the past, so I guess he is just testing me a little. I was tempted to use the collar, but didn't.

We also did some of those three-handed casts that Brad showed us. I actually got him to go to pile with the overs. I dropped two and threw one more to the pile. I gave him over and he brought one in. I then took him back to his sit position and gave him over and he picked up the others.

Mingo! To TEACH Ike To Jump.........
posted: August 28, 2006
author: urbanduckman

over stuff is a GOOD THING! He will ALWAYS take the EASY ROUTE if he's left with a way to get to it.

So, simply sit him right up to it as close as possible and then toss the mark. Use your body to block on side. Chances are he will go ahead and jump the obstacle. Just remember to start off on stuff that is very low and slowly work up to stuff that is higher.

Later on you can work back'n him off at distance and send him after marks that have the obstacle in the MIDDLE of the line to the mark.

Plus, after you get him to where he will HANDLE you can correct to the obstacle when he goes to go around it. It ain't PRETTY at first but he will soon learn that ANY obstacle , within reason , that is in between him and the mark will simply be JUMPED and is NOT to be run around.

He sure is GROW'N UP!

See you guys tomorrow?

Urb

I was hoping
posted: August 27, 2006
author: Mingo

Ike would jump over the limbs on the ground or go through it, but he was too smart and just went around.

Dig it out
posted: August 27, 2006
author: Mingo

Rain
posted: August 27, 2006
author: Mingo

Nice to get some cooler weather so I didn't have to wait until late to run the dog. Was able to spend about an hour and a half throwing marks, but most of the time I just let Ike run and sniff. Threw short (about as far as I could throw) marks into cover. A couple in the water, some in tall grass, one in the woods, just to try something new. He did fine on all of them, and had to hunt for a couple. He really seemed to enjoy the weather. I was like a field trip for him.

Mishmash
posted: August 25, 2006
author: Mingo

of stuff tonight. One 100 yd long single. Then a down the draw and up the other side mark. Urban, this one was east end of the pond. He did fine except on the second mark there were some bones just in front of where I sent him from, so on the way back, he dropped the bumper in front of me and picked up a bone. There's a good advertisment for FF!

Finished with some sit, here and heel on a check cord and some easy three-handed casts, then a couple of fun bumpers.

Taking it easy
posted: August 24, 2006
author: Mingo

Two nights ago went with Urban and Ike to meet Ike's daddy Cody at Brad Smith's. Had a good visit and picked up a few tips as well as set a tentative date to take Ike back and run a few marks. Last night we did some OB again. This is not Ike's favorite activity! Started with the e-collar, choke collar with check cord. Worked him on the leash at heel and he did pretty good. A few times he got too far out front so I used the tag end of the check cord to swat his nose to slow him down. We then worked on sit. He does pretty good when he is at heel or close to me, but he was slow to sit when I was away from him, even if I could give the check cord a quick snap. I am sure we can clean that up with the e-collar later, but I don't want to start that yet. I just ended up walking back to him and taking him back to the original sit spot and making him sit there. We then worked a little casting drill that Brad showed us. Basically you sit the dog in front of you a few feet and hold the check cord to the left with your left hand, then throw a bumper a short distance to the right. Slight tension on the check cord keeps the pup in place, then you give the right over command, and the pup retrieves. We did that to the left and right, then did back with both a left-handed and right-handed back depending on which way you want the pup to turn. Throwing the bumper just over the pup's left shoulder caused him to look to his left and take a left-handed back. Same with the right. He did well with this, although he is a little hesitant. I can tell he is not sure what this new game is all about and doesn't yet connect the hand casts with the action. That is he just goes to get the bumper but it hasn't quite clicked that the hand cast is telling him where to go.

He is also losing teeth. He lost a jaw tooth last night and others are missing. All four canines have erupted, and he lost one of his baby canines tonight. Good thing cause those things were like needles!

TooBad.....
posted: August 22, 2006
author: urbanduckman

those Train'n Grounds we was run'n on yesterday evening is ABOUT TO GO UNDER THE DIRT SCRAPER and get COVERED WIT HOUSES cause there is MARKS ALL OVER THE PLACE. RIGHT THERE IN ONE SPOT!

Urb!

Second mark
posted: August 22, 2006
author: Mingo

was to the left of first mark up on the flat gound. Ike again moved out and up the far bank, then went right to the area of the first mark! This one obviously messed with his noggin a little. Urban threw a helper here to straighten him out, and we re-ran the mark. Second time around he again had to hunt it a little, but went to the right area and made the retrieve.

Threw one last mark in a pond with me sending him from about 50 yards from the water. He had to swim all the way across the pond to the bumper which was right at the bank along the dam. He took a good line to the water, but then drifted off the the right. He began to shake his head and look around and then turned around back to me so Urban gave him a hey hey to get his mind back on the task. He exited the water to the right of the bumper and worked up the dam before working left where he probably caught a whiff of scent and went back to the water's edge and made the retrieve. On the way back into the wind, he shortcut the swim to exit on a bare flat bank on the far shore, and it took a little work to get him back in the water. Urban motioned me to move toward the pond and to the right to get his attention and then move back to the spot he was sent from after he got back into the water and coming towards me. It was also after sundown at this point and it seemed he had trouble seeing the bumper when he was in the water. It also seemed that the previous marks had taken some of the steam out of him and he was just about ready to quit at this point. None of these marks were run clean and it was clear that they really pushed the pup, but he did not quit and finished them off. Like I said Urban seems to know just how much this pup can take.

Wrong pic
posted: August 22, 2006
author: Mingo

here is the correct pic for previous post

Tough!
posted: August 22, 2006
author: Mingo

Urbab set Ike up on some tough marks last night. It used to make me a little nervous, but he seems to have a knack for pushing the pup right up to, but not past his limit. First mark was across a wide draw as shown in the pic. We are sending from about the same level as Urb is standing on the other side. The fall is just past the hump in front of Ike near the little cedar. Ike got a good mark and moved out. It was a little difficult for him getting through the cover in the middle of the draw and he pulled up short,as shown in the pic, to start the hunt. He pretty much stayed in the area and after a minute or so pushed on past the hump and found the bumper. This was one mark that a month or so ago he most likely would have given up and needed a helper.

Now Dat's MARK'N DA EYES OUTTA A SNAKE!
posted: August 21, 2006
author: urbanduckman

While it has looked like Ike was gonna be a good Marker this kind of stuff pretty much NAILS IT DOWN. Dis lil Yellow Dog can MARK DA EYES OUTTA A SNAKE!

IF you want to take him further out it may be time to either tie off a piece of white cloth as a tail onto the bumper. Or, tie a length of light line onto the end of the larger white bumper ( I have plenty ) and after laying out a bump or bird onto the ground stand back and toss the larger bumper up and over to the same spot. Then as the dog is coming downrange reel in the larger bumper. Just gotta make sure that early on the whole pile is out of his sight.

Nice piece of work!

Urb

OK, so I will brag........
posted: August 20, 2006
author: Mingo

Balled up with a soccer tourney this weekend but took Ike out tonight, back to the cut-over hay meadow. Got my better half to go with me, and even practice her bumper throwing technique a little. Ran Ike back up the hill in the truck and went an honest tenth of a mile by the odometer. That's right at 175 yds (1760 yds per mile, times .10 with a few gozintas and drop the naught). Despite the practice the throw was low, but this was good as it kept the white bumper silhouetted along the dark green treeline. I wasn't sure if Ike saw it but when I released him, he was off. I thought he was off to the left and long, but when he stopped, I got the raised arm from BumperMom, and Ike was one his way back with the bumper. His proud Mom said he had smacked it, but thought it funny how he stands for a second and looks around before picking it up. I told her that is just his style to make sure somebody is watching! Let the wife throw some fun bumps and took him on a long walk after that. On the walk he whipped around and worked upwind to a cedar tree, then burrowed in and produced a dead bird. He was pretty proud until the ants all over it began to bite.

Well,.....
posted: August 19, 2006
author: Mingo

I'm just hard-headed enough to do it, but I ain't too proud to admit when I'm wrong!

I guess some times I just gotta learn the hard way! But, I don't want this to be some kinda brag board where I talk about how good my dog is and how good a trainer I am. Good advice and a good dog can make anybody a dog trainer, even me. Like I said, I can post the what, but I think the best information is the how and why.

Mingo!
posted: August 19, 2006
author: urbanduckman

That's one thing I appreciate bout help'n you wit Ike! That is, you don't always take what I say as GOSPEL and go out to SEE FOR YOURSELF. THIS IS GOOD!

Pity more guys don't QUESTION these things like YOU. At least IF you ever have to deal with a PRO RETRIEVER TRAINER they won't be able to SNOW JOB YOU into parting with your hard earned cash.

Good Job!

Urb

I suppose this is why
posted: August 18, 2006
author: Mingo

you don't re-run marks. Last night's mark kinda bugged me a little bit, so tonight I decided to take Ike back and re-run the mark with a little change. I think he learned a little by it, and I learned a lot. We threw the marks to a little different spot because I wanted Ike to take a different line. Here's what I found interesting; on the first throw he took a good line but when he got to the high bank he went right and went up the spot he used last night. This didn't really surprise me, but it was interesting that he seemed to remember the route he took last night. Then after a short hunt at the area of fall he went to where the bumpers fell last night. I actually thought it was cool that he remembered the mark from last night. Urban has told me that every time a pup runs a mark, he stores it in his brain, and this really showed it. He did come back to the area of fall and find the bumper and made the retrieve. Threw another a little farther to the left, still trying to make him take the correct line. Again he went right, up the bank in the same place, but then went directly to the fall and made the mark. Tried one more time a little farther left and this time he took the correct line all the way up the bank and smacked to bumper. I hope he learned a little to trust his eyes and not rely on old marks. I sure learned a lot!

Second mark
posted: August 17, 2006
author: Mingo

Tough Marks
posted: August 17, 2006
author: Mingo

Ran a couple of tough marks tonight. Pic shows Urbanbirdthrower with the area of fall the left of him. First fall was in line with the tree in the center. Ike got balled up in the cover at the bottom center of the gulley and struggled to drive on and up. After he worked around for a minute, he got a hey, hey from Urban but no helper bumper. Ike then drove onto the flat and, first worked to the right before working back to the left and retrieving the bumper. Repeated the mark and Ike drove on and up on the flat towards the area of fall, but again went too far right and had to work back to the left to retrieve the bumper. He does show more persistance in hunting the bumper and is finding them, but his hunt is a little random. I would like to see him get closer to the area of fall and put on a more methodical hunt in that area, but I suppose that will get better. At least he is finding it.

Second mark as shown in the pic, the fall is beyond the willow bush in front of Urban. Ike took a good line to the far bank, but angled right through the cattails before working on along and just below the bank that Urban is standing on. After working around and back towards me he went to the left, just clearing the cover and ran the open bank back towards the fall. When he got to the right distance he cut in toward the bumper and retrieved it. Don't know if he smelled it or not, but again, while his hunt was not textbook, he did stick with it until he found it. We'll work on style points later. At least he is finding them and not needing a helper bumper.

Tonight's work
posted: August 16, 2006
author: Mingo

Tonight was mostly OB/leash work. Put on the e-collar and choke collar. Worked on heel,and sit,with some sitting at a distance with 20' check cord. Sat pup and walked backward to end of check cord or just beyond. Called him, here, and sat him at me a few times, then sat him halfway a few times. He sitting him halfway, I would step toward him and point an old fishing pole at his chest to help stop him. He did pretty good but sat him once about 20 yds away and he crept a little. I did not use the e-collar to correct this, but did go to him and scoot him back to the original spot I sat him at. Used the e-collar once to call him to me away from another dog in a nearby backyard. It took a few nicks to get him started, but once he turned, he came straight in at a trot. The training and temperatures seemed a little hard on him, so I threw a couple of fun bumpers and quit.

Second mark
posted: August 15, 2006
author: Mingo

The Bolo Pond revisited
posted: August 15, 2006
author: Mingo

Went back to a pond we had run a mark on about a month ago where Ike did not get it in three trys. He swam the pond but did not drive up the bank and hunt the bumper. Each time he got a helper.

Tonight he took a good line to the opposite bank and drove up the bank to the right of the fall and proceeded to push farther to the right. He then cut back to the left towards the fall, found the bumper and made the retrieve. Not sure why he went right first, but it was good to see him drive past the bank and work back to the left to find the mark. It looks like the mixture of long singles and shorter marks in cover has increased his confidence that the bumper IS THERE somewhere. Threw another mark with pretty good cover on both banks, as shown in the second pick. He hesitated a little after clearing the reeds on the far bank, but took a perfect line to the bumper.

Last night was a rainout, but did get in a walk with some leash work that went well.

Long Mark
posted: August 14, 2006
author: Mingo

Iwas a bit worried on the long mark because Ike actually was looking to the left of the thrower, while the fall was to the thrower's right. Fortunately he got a high throw and it seemed he caught it out of the corner of his eye and looked just as it fell. Kinda like those flash marks you were telling me about.

Now That's A Couple Of FINE LOOK'N MARKS!
posted: August 14, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Though Digital Pics are a bit tough to make out at times from what these show there was SOME MEAT in both of them. Enough that Ike LEARNED SOMETHING from the effort.

The contrast of running the LONG FLAT OUT MARK and then requiring him to BREAK DOWN on the SHORT MARK with COVER thrown in was a nice touch.

The Long Mark had a bit of a TOUGH BACKGROUND that required the Bird Thrower to make a good toss so the pup could get a good mark. A TREE LINE as a BACKDROP can play hell on a dog get'n a GOOD MARK!

The shorter mark in cover also looks to have plenty of structure or diversions that could serve to PULL A YOUNG PUP OFF HIS LINE! I like the picture presented to the pup that the taller unmowed grassline next to the shorter mowed area coupled with the way that taller stuff curves from left to right created.

Though there were not that many small trees there was enough to enter into the overall equation .

Course Ike's Mammy and Pappy can both MARK THE EYES OUTTA SNAKE so it's look'n like SOMETHING came thru all dat GENETIC SOUP? While some dog's eyes are better than others TEACHING THEM TO BE GOOD MARKERS is IMO a lot of what this PUPPY TRAINING IS ALL ABOUT!

A set of GOOD EYES and the ability to actually USE THEM to MARK THEM BIRDS DOWN helps when it come time to RUN A SET OF WELL SET UP MARKS. And THAT is WHERE YOU COME IN. In fact, YOUR GET'N DANGEROUS at this!

The ability to run these things is as much TAUGHT as they are genetic or instinctive . The pup must LEARN how to use it's physical abilities . Ike's propensity to be able to not only fairly quickly LEARN the concepts his marks are designed to teach BUT the pup must still be able to put what it has learned into action.

This TAKES a certain degree of INTELLIGENCE. The ability to put all of this together or the ability to WORK IT OUT ON THE RUN requires a certain degree of INTELLIGENCE. While bragging on a young pup will at some point get one into trouble I am prepared to state that it is apparent that IKE AIN'T NO DUMMY!

There IS a BIG DIFFERENCE in how a young pup progresses in this area IF the marks are well designed and well thrown. Like these appear to have been set up and executed by the pup. He LEARNS SOMETHING from each and every mark. This is why we never throw the same mark on the same piece of ground!

Toss'n Marks off your side will in most cases get the job done BUT what your doing WILL COME BACK TO SERVE both you and Ike on both the actual HUNT and in all his training to follow.

I GURANTEE YOU that on his first actual REAL DEAL of a Duck Hunt he will make the TRANSISTION from a TRAINING SCENERIO to the actual Duck Hunt kind of like NO BIG DEAL HERE Pops!

Of course we are going to cover as many POSSIBLE SCENERIOS that he may be faced with WELL BEFORE he even gets there!

Wish I could'a been there to SEE HIM RUN THESE TWO!

Urb

The white dot
posted: August 13, 2006
author: Mingo

in the previous pic is the thrower. Here is a pic of the cover marks of about 40 yds with wind over our left shoulder.

Stretching out
posted: August 13, 2006
author: Mingo

Ran Ike on a mark a little over 150 yds tonight. Other than the length it was pretty easy. Slightly downhill and he could see the bumper from probably 50 yds away. Only problem was I couldn't see when he had it. He was already on his way back before I hit the whistle. Then ran a couple is cover with wind at our backs. He seems to be marking really well.

E-Collar
posted: August 11, 2006
author: Mingo

The Dogtra 1200 NC I ordered came in today so it was off to Urban's for a short collar session (and a much longer BS session). First, I will say, I decided to try it on myself before the dog. Strapped the collar to my calf and started nicking at 0. The intensity is on a rheostat dial that runs from 0 to 100. It was about 15 before I could feel it and by about 25 it was plenty uncomfortable. Put the collar on Ike and waited til he was sniffing around the yard before I called here. Calling him continuosly, I very gradually upped the dial until Ike twitched his head. At this level I continued to call and nick only when he wasn't coming to me. When he started to me, I continued to call, but did not nick. This was at about 20 on the dial. Pretty quickly, he came. Not long after a neighbor pulled up and got out of his truck with a little dachshund. Ike immediately ran over to visit. I started the here and nick. I had to up the dial to about 25 to get his attention. He sat and scratched at the collar as I continued to nick and call. He started to me and I let off the nick. About half way back he stopped and looked back so I nicked him again. He came to me at a pretty good trot, none the worse for wear. Never did he cry or go to the ground or have any strong reaction. I think this thing is going to be a good training tool.

Mingo's A Bit .....
posted: August 11, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Busy as the kids are get'n ready to get back into school and I THINK he actually HAD TO DO SOME WORK. So, I'm gonna add a bit of an update on Ike.

Mingo and the lil Yellow KnotHead by the house yesterday evening and we pulled down the road to a pond for some water work.

We had been on this pond on two different occasions over the past two months so Ike had had a few marks on it BUT the time between each one had been long enough that we would not be running too close in time to OLD MARKS! Besides, I already had on in ming for him and it was nowhere close to what had been run on this spot with him in the past.

The pond is an L shape. It sits WAY DOWN in a bowl type of setting as it was dug as a catch lagoon for the new housing development being built around it. The long part of the L is approx. 75 yards in length and 40 yards in width with the bottom of the L being about the same in width but a bit shorter.

The lower part of the L looks more like a true channel and it was time to introduce Ike to something channel like .

Aaron sat him up about halfway down the edge of the dam to a point that cut down the entry distance. Even with that Ike would have one of the longest entries to date. The cover around the line was so tall that Mingo had to stomp it down a bit so as to enable Ike to have a spot to sit on and still SEE the mark that I would launch at the opposite end of the channel . Hey , we wanted the mark to be CHALLENGING NOT IMPOSSIBLE!

By the time that Mingo was set up and I was in place just under 80 yards away it was get'n a bit on the DARK SIDE. We pushed the light limit as the days temps. had hit 105 degrees.

I lined the AOF up to be in line with Ike and did the ole HEY UP, HEY UP to que the pup up. Ike locked on the bump as it left my hand. I threw the bump up onto the bank on a 45 Back so that Ike would have a bit of a run upon exiting the water. With the channel and distance diversions present there was no need to BURY THIS ONE UP IN COVER!

Ike made the run from the line to the water's edge and hit the water right DEAD ON! He began to churn and DRIVE in the water.I have said it before but I truly do love to watch Ike SWIM. He held his line until the approached a bit of a point sticking out into the channel. Sure nuff Ike took the bait as the little point of land started to suck him off the line to the mark. I did not allow him to reach the shoreline as I simply gave him a hey, hey , hey .... This worked to bring his head back to where it should have been as he recovered and corrected back to the proper line to the mark. Usually , we would consider this as a HELP and as such this would require RE RUNNING of this mark. BUT, with the light situation getting the way it was this was not going to be possible. IF Ike blew up completely then he would NOT learn anything from this mark. Come on Ike DRIVE !

Ike held his line to the point where both parts of the L converged and once the thing opened up he no longer worried about the closeness of the shorelines and made land in a short time. He drug himself thru and out of the soft muck and stayed on line till he was at the Mark.

He picked the bump up and headed back to Mingo who was toot'n dat lil whistle for all he was worth. As Ike re entered the channel he wanted to give in to the suction of the shoreline but Mingo talked him out of it and he finished off the Mark quickly and effeciently.

IF it had not gotten dark we would have Re Run this mark. As it is I dont thing too much in the way of harm was done. I also think that Ike actually did learn a wee bit of this Mark. We WILL return to this Mark from time to time until he DRIVES the ENTIRE distance and pays no mind to the channel effects. Then we will look for a more severe channel to run him up into or out of.

When we all met back at the truck it was time to HOOK IKE UP ON THE ECOLLAR for a bit of CCing to HERE . Ike just turned 4 months of age and the ole NOPE , I ain't gonna come all the way to you thing . Since we had had Ike simply wearing the ecollar turned off for a couple of weeks it was time to JUICE HIM UP A BIT.

We utilized the smaller SportDog 400 as the other collars are too big for Ike's neck. We put the collar on him and I walked away from Mingo with Ike tagging along. We got down from Mingo about 40 yards and Mingo began to call HERE, HERE IKE , HERE..... Ike of course paid no mind and this is when I activated the NICK feature on the collar with the setting on the lowest level possible. NO REACTION OUT OF THE PUP!

I upped the control to 2! Still no reaction. I KNOW the collar was working cause I tried it out myself prior to put'n in on the dog. I turned it up to level 3. NOW I got a reaction. I could see Ike's neck muscles twitch or more correctly CONTSTRICT. He also sat down and began to scratch at the collar. THIS IS GOOD! We found the level that got a reaction out of Ike.

Mingo kept calling and I kept nicking. Ike got up and started towards Mingo and I let off the nicking. He made it about half way and stopped. I began to nick again. He made straight for Mingo as it looked like he was want'n to get NEXT TO DADDY cause whatever was caus'n him the discomfort would NOT DARE follow him.

As soon as Ike restarted towards Mingo I let off and he did go all the way to Mingo.

We increased the distance from Mingo a bit and repeated the drill. This time we could tell that Ike had figured this thing out a bit in that he did not stop , hesitate or deviate in any manner as he ran all the way to Mingo. WE'RE DONE FOR TODAY!

We will do this pretty much daily for a few days and each day we will increase the distance. We will not use the collar on Ike when he is running a mark and decides to stop and go his own way FOR A WHILE. When we think it's o.k. we WILL activate the ecollar on him BUT ONLY for HERE .

When this day comes Ike MAY drop the bumper BUT we will not stop him and continue to bring him in all the way to Mingo's side were its SAFE! Ike will not or should not connect this as coming from the Bumper.

We will NOT shock Ike in the water as Mingo can head him off at the shoreline. The time WILL come that we will be able to shock Ike in the water but that time is a ways off. This is due to the fact that it is easier to create a bad result or make a mistake in water work that could negativley affect Ike and take longer to clean up later.

All in all Ike is still on track. The CCing to the ecollar is another milestone out of the way. It will simply make it easier for Irish when he starts Ike on his Performance OB and FF Program.

We also did one more INTRODUCTION or CONDITIONING deal. We started putting our hand into Ike's mouth. This is another technique used that gives the pup a head start in preparing to enter FORMAL OB and FF. It simply gets the pup accustomed to having a humans HAND AND FINGERS IN HIS MOUTH!

Urb

If
posted: August 10, 2006
author: Mingo

we can get the Guru to admit that Ike might make a decent dog, I will be proud!

Hey Up , Mingo......
posted: August 9, 2006
author: urbanduckman

talked to the Old Fart of a Retriever Trainer that owns Ike's Pappy and when he gets back from NoDak he wants to see da pup. He says that he will toss him some set ups that HE WON'T SMACK and WILL need a HELPER!

Seriously , he is very interested in do'n some stuff with you and the pup as this would be Cody's first litter and he wants to evaluate Ike for as we might want to repeat the breeding?

Later,

Urb

Busy
posted: August 9, 2006
author: Mingo

Actually got too busy last night to work the dog. I felt bad but knew it would happen as it got closer to the kids being back in school. Had to opportunity to talk to Irish about the FF training and came away very impressed with his approach. I am convinced this is a very beneficial aspect to Ike's training. We will be looking to start him by October or maybe in September if he is ready. In the meantime we are doing a little OB work once or twice a week along with the marks. I have ordered a Dogtra 1200 NC and hope to have it in soon. Will work on here with the collar.

Tonight ran a mark about 125 yds in mown hay meadow with a slight dip in the middle. He was about 10 yds off to the left, but spotted the bumper and made the mark. Then threw a couple of about 40 yds with the bumps about 10 yds back in tall grass with wind at our back. He had to hunt these a little, but took a good line to the AOF so these were not hard. Threw one about 20 yds back in trees and grass with the same result. It was hot and Ike was slowing some, so we quit.

Couldn't ask
posted: August 5, 2006
author: Mingo

for a better spot to train. It's got ponds, open short grass, and good cover.

Hunt for it!
posted: August 5, 2006
author: Mingo

Last night with bumper girl, one long mark in the cut-over hay meadow, slightly down hill about 100 yds. He took a good line and had no problems. Moved to an area with a little more cover. Threw one about 40 yds into high grass at the edge of some brush. The wind was at us quartering right to left. He started to hunt about 10 yds short working in and out of the grass. He must have caught the scent because as he passed about 15 yds short of the bump he turned and made a beeline for it and made the retrieve. Threw a couple more as shown in the pics, one just in front and one behind the grassy knoll. In front he broke before the bumper fell. When I say broke, I mean that I did not have a good hold on him and he went when the bumper was in the air. He hunted it pretty good, but needed a helper. We ran it again and I held it until the bump hit and he made it, no problems. The mark over the hump he stopped and made a short hunt on top of the knoll before going over and making the pick-up. I am trying to mix in a few marks that he has to hunt along with the 'easy visible marks. Hopefully he gets enough easy ones to know that there IS a bumper there and that will improve his persistence to find the bumpers he can't see. I also got some pointers from Urban on OB work with heel and sit, and will work on that once or twice a week.

Been a lot of ups and downs but more and better ups. So far he seems willing to do anything we want him to.

Dock Dog....
posted: August 5, 2006
author: Mingo

or Rock Dog? The second time off he knew what was coming and did not launch quite as well. You can just see his tail as he goes under. To his credit, he did make the leap and fetched up the bumper.

It sounds like..........................
posted: August 4, 2006
author: Hooter

that little Ike is doing very good for his age! I can't wait to see him entered into the Dock Dog contest! You and Mingo are really getting Ike ready for hunting season. I hope I get to watch the little guy retrieve some ducks this year!

Hooter

Hey UP , Hooter!
posted: August 4, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Me thinks Ikeie may just have some of dat Big Air Dock Dog in him. The reason I say this is yesterday we were run'n him on some of his first Down The Shore Marks and after we were done we took him over to the Fancy Smancey Water Fall that connects two find Swim'n Ponds in this Hotey Totey Gated Community development we was work'n in.

Mingo set Ike up out on a big rock about 4 feet off the water and I tossed out a bump onto the surface of the water. He LAUNCHED! Well, he launced as much as a gangly assed long legged Puppy can. Point is he did grab some air and hit the water with a resounding PLOP!

We ran to the truck to get a camera as we wanted to catch him hang'n in mid air but by the time we got everything we needed is was simply to dark to get the shot.

I was hop'n to get a HELPER off on the Down The Shores as I put the first one right up against the shoreline with the second one half way up and the third well up onto the top of the dam and down in a bit of a depression. He handled all 3 without the need for a HELPER! Guess I'm get'n soft in my old age as next time I WILL toss'em so as to create the need for the pup to get a HELPER.

Think I'll start with the first one on top then go down to the bottom and then hit the middle. That ought to mess wit hil lil knothead.

Or, I just may toss him a set of 3 walk'n marks and toss all of'em right up against the shoreline. We need a steep bank that he has to climb up when get'n out of the water and plant that down the shore mark(s) in between the flat mud flat and the steep bank. Get him to run up on top and see if he will work back once he does. THAT'LL GET HIM! HE'LL LEARN SOMETHING OUTTA THAT ONE!

Urb

Hey Up! Mingo...............................
posted: August 3, 2006
author: Hooter

You haven't seen anything yet! Wait until Ike is about 6 months old....has cut his teeth and his family jewels have dropped! They get real independent at that point in the game.

Water work
posted: August 2, 2006
author: Mingo

Problem Child
posted: August 2, 2006
author: Mingo

I had heard about pups getting a little independent about the 16th week, and sure enough Ike is showing his. There have not been big problems, but in the last week he will sometimes fail to bring the bumper all the way back. It started when he took the bumper to the truck last week. A few days ago running some good marks with Urban he quit on one retrieve about a third of the way back. Tonight on a water mark he shortcut to the bank and I did not cut him off. He took it a little way and then sat. The pic says it all. I am starting to scold him for this, but I do not correct him physically. I am just trying to show him a different reaction than the praise he gets for retrieve to hand.

Other than that he is still doing well and is improving on sit to whistle. I can sit him to whistle at about 25', call him to me and sit him again, either halfway in or at me. Got that drill off an article Urban got for me off the internet from Ponderosa Kennels. We are also going to start him on the collar to here. I will let Urban detail how that works.

First let me say......
posted: July 29, 2006
author: Mingo

that having good help and advice makes this dog training stuff look easy! I feel that today's trainig was a big step in Ike making a gun dog (and maybe more) and it just could not have happend without Gut and Urban. Gut set up with the birds and his vintage 20ga about 75 yds off with a little drop in gound between us and him. Lucy got first honors and we waited behind the truck so Ike would not see the mark. I tell ya I was a little nervous when Urban called out dog to the line. The first bird took off low and towards us and in spite of the fact that Gut smoke him, the bird never got more than about 15ft off the ground and Ike did not see it. Second bird was better and Ike was off. He was a few feet off to the left on his line which was a good thing as this brought him downwind. He made good time just past the bird, then caught scent of it and smacked it. Back he came and made me proud. We made a second mark in a different location. At the shot the bird kept on flying and went behind a tree before it crashed about 70 yds from Gut. Ike lost it, but his momma Lucy did not. Urban sent her and I swear she was just showing Ike how it's done! Second run, Gut smoked the bird and I held Ike till the bird hit the ground. He had this one in his sights and smacked it. By now he was liking this and about 20 feet out from me he decided he would like to keep this bird for a while. I couldn't get too mad at him though. A little collar work will fix that!

Moved to the water, but just as Gut drew a bead the skyrat did a 180 on him and flew away back up a neck. Urban thought he saw the bird fall and sent Lucy, who swam all the way back, before he called her back. Ike then got his bird. There was a cross wind pushing up some waves and on the line out he seemed to want to suck over to the right on the line he had seen his momma take. This was OK as if he went past the bird it would put him downwind. The bird was low in the water and he passed it. At about the same time he caught the scent and turned back he got a helping dirt clod from Uncle Gut, homed in on the bird and brought it back to hand. Ran one more toward the dam in calm water which was no problem, although he did pull into the bank about 20 feet short of me. All in all, I was happy.

Looking at where he is now. He is marking well out to 100 yds depending on the amount of cover, he retrieves well, he is not gunshy, likes the water and has done water retrieves to about 60 yds, he likes boats and will enter the water from one and retreive back to it. He is also coming and sitting to whistle reasonably well. I feel he is well on his way to being the dog I want, and in fact I have upped my expectations of him and plan to run some hunt tests when he is ready.

I couldn't be more proud of him.

Hey Guys ..........
posted: July 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

WHERE WE GO'N/? What're we gonna do. What's that long stuck look'n thing Uncle Garbage Gut is carry'n?

DADDY....Where's that crate of SKY RATS that were in the back of Urban's truck?

COME ON LET'S PLAY DA GAME!

I got home first and got my pics loaded up so I'm gonna steal some of Mingo's THUNDER. I don't know how many he actually shot as he HAD HIS HANDS FULL handl'n his young Yeller Dog , Ike!

We ran Ike on a Live Flyer/Land. A Live Flyer/Water and then introduced him to LAUNCH'N OUT OF A HULL to pick up a float'n Sky Rat!

I shot a piece of video on Ike mak'n his first launch out of the boat in the middle of the Triple Nicle Lake. Well, there are actually 2 pieces of video. One is the FRONT END of the deal and the second is the BACK END as I can only run about 15 seconds before I have to COMPRESS the stuff and I HATE DO'N DAT!

IF you wanna see da video go back out onto Video Clips and Look for Front End Of Ike Launch'n Outta Da Hull and Back End Of Ike Launch'n Outta Da Hull . IT'S A HOOT!

It's hard to get pics and video when all you really wanna do is WATCH a youn'n DO HIS FIRST Real Deal or Live Flyers. Ike really suprised me in that most pups are not that ready and willing to even get into a boat much less LAUNCH OUT out of it while on Land much less into WATER. But , Ike took the new experience on and performed like he'd been do'n it his whole life.

He would not get much in the way of Style Points as he is still a BABY and he ain't all that co ordinated yet. But, it looks like Mingo is gonna have a Big Water/Boat Hunt'n Buddy by November!

Here are a few pics as I'm gonna let Mingo do take care of describ'n the marks and how they went.

I'll just leave it at Ike DID HIS JOB like you would draw it up on the board and is ON TRACK!

Thanks to Garbage for do'n the SHOOT'N and BLOW'N UP OF THE SKY RATS. Thanks Mingo for let'n me be a part of this!

Urb

Yep.....Pick'n Up Dese SKY RATS .....
posted: July 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

is FUN and I'm ONE COOL DUDE!

Damn It Ike........
posted: July 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Gimme dat bird!

It looked like Ike was gonna come right back to Mingo all the way BUT at the last instant he thought it would be better to take his prize where HE wanted to go and NOT all the way back to Daddy.

I got Mingo LUNG'N for Ike BUT I did not put the pic of him ended up LAID OUT FLAT ON THE GROUND look'n like a BEACHED WHALE after he MISSED the Yeller Dog!

LMAO!

The Set Up......
posted: July 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

for the Live Flyer/Land!

Pick'n Up .....
posted: July 29, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Da Sky Rat dat was shot for the Live Flyer/Water.

Ike IS a WATER DOG! Anything to do with being IN or GET'N IN or OUT of the water he handles very well.

He also LIKE DEM SKY RATS and this should transfer easily over to REAL DUCKS. Irish will make sure of that during FF!

DAMN, mess'n wit da little ones IS FUN!

Flyers
posted: July 27, 2006
author: Mingo

Big Saturday, going to shoot a few flyers.

In Wolter's book Gun Dog he says that dogs get a little hard to handle about the sixteenth week. Well Ike is about at 16 weeks and after a nice retrieve last night he takes a perfect straigh line back.......to the truck!. The door was open and he decided to just head to the truck with the bumper. Hey, but I am learning. I set up another mark for him but sent him from the truck, so we quit after that.

I teased him with a pigeon this morning to kind of get his juices going and I will probably only throw one mark or none tonight and friday night. I want him to be chompin' at the bit come Saturday.

One FINE MARK!
posted: July 26, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Most of us think that our dogs are bout it. Even when they don't quite hold up thier end of things. This is especially true when they are but wee ones.

Mingo is no different! In fact, it has been a good thing to see him with this pup after not having a dog for many years. He LOVES DAT IKE!

I have helped quite a few guys with thier pups over the years and most of them have put in the proper amount of time and effort and all the pups have turned out to be good Gun Dogs. Thing is most of them simply did what was instructed and really did not seem to be all that INTO THIS THING MENTALLY. That is , they did not experiment or try to figure out WHY the pup did or did not do a certain thing a certain way.

Mingo has been a lot different in this area. He is always TRY'N NEW STUFF. Stuff that he just thinks up on his own. This tells me that Mingo is BIT HARD on this Retriever Train'n ( I warned him about this early on ) and this is relating to how well his pup is taking to this thing. I am for the most part HARDER on the OWNER than the pups and CUT NEITHER OF THEM NO SLACK. With Mingo there has been no need for this. Besides , HE'S A BIG OLE BOY!

Now that I've pumped Mingo's head up a bit I would like to put my .O2 cents worth in on today's Mark.

The mark we ran today is one that I usually keep for when the pups are a bit older and have had a few more marks. But, Ike has progressed so well that we decided that it was time to TEST THE PUP A BIT.

Mingo ran Ike from up on top as this pond set way down in a bowl . The drop to the water's edge is very steep and the cover is high. So , the dog is up high and can get a good initial mark BUT the steep grade down and then thru the high weeds usually means that by the time the pup get's to the water they are a bit or a lot DISORIENTED to the AOF! First time on this they all usually NEED A HELPER TOSSED.

The water itself lies well below the opposite bank so the pup LOSES SIGHT of the bumper while swimming across. Most of them IF THEY MAKE IT THAT FAR will BLOW UP while in the water and end up no tell'n where in relationship to the AOF. The swim across precedes a high bank exit and a drive up onto the side of the opposite bank.

The cover here is very short and thin and the white bumper is laid out in this area so the pup can SEE IT when he gets close. Mingo ain't REALLY convinced that WHITE BUMPERS are the best thing to use at this point in time BUT I THINK I BOUT GOT HIM CONVINCED.

Ike got a good Mark on the bump and LOCKED IN! He was off on his name and even though he kept his feet the whole way down the slope he came very close to taking a big spill. He held the line down the slope and hit the line of high grass and cat tails that hide the water. He fairly BUSTED out of the high stuff and did not see the water coming up. He LAUNCHED off the bank and hit the water like a ton of bricks. He was still on line when he started his swim. Ike is a strong swimmer and he kicked up a nice wake cut'n thru the water. His head was laid out on top of the water and no other part of his body was visible. He shows good DESIRE FOR THE BIRD as he CHURNS dem lil skinny legs.

Ike got to mov'n his eyes around a bit as he approached the high bank. I could tell he was think'n about what he had to do when he hit land. A lot of pups will hesitate or swim the bank look'n for an EASIER spot to exit but not Ike. Or at least on this particular mark. He struggled up the bank and proceede towards the AOF that at this time was about 15 yards up the side of the bank.

He did stop and seemed to get his bearings as he looked back at Mingo and then over at me. It was more like he was think'n , o.k. , I left from there and there is Pa Pa and that bird SHOULD be RIGHT OVER HERE. A lot of pups stop and LOOK for HELP and don't ever work the mark out but IKE WORKED IT OUT!

He came up the slope on the upwind side of the bump. He passed by the bump a few yards and then as he turned his head to his left he spotted the bump. He picked it up and on the whistle from Mingo he retraced his steps.

About the ONLY THING MISSING from this MARK was Ike lay'n down a good hunt in the AOF and SCENTING the bump with his NOSE! Not to worry as right now it is more important that Ike have SUCCESS and the front half of this mark had plenty of diversions . Enough diversions that he SHOULD HAVE BLOWN UP. So , on the end this time Ike got a bit of a break us'n the white bumper. With a bit more work and especially after he's been thru his FF Program we will return to this mark and he won't get a bump lay'n out in short cover!

This wee end plans have been made to TEST IKE AGAIN! Ike will get his first LIVE FLIERS. A pair of big ole hard fly'n SKY RATS will be BLOWN UP for him. One on Land and one over Water.

Actually a pups FIRST FLIERS are more of a RIGHT OF PASSAGE than a TEST. Hell, after what Mingo has put this lil yellow boy thru it will be more like TAK'N CANDY FROM A BABY!

Thanks Mingo for let'n me help out! And thanks for tak'n the time and effort in put'n up these updates.

Urb

Lucy
posted: July 25, 2006
author: Mingo

Lucy
posted: July 25, 2006
author: Mingo

showing how it's done.

Another look
posted: July 25, 2006
author: Mingo

Tonight's Mark
posted: July 25, 2006
author: Mingo

A good run down a steep bank, across and up a steep bank. Probably about 75 yds although I have a hard time judging distance up and down like that.

Ike is pretty much on line in the pic. Urban is looking to the AOF. He was a little off to the right and after a short look went past and saw the bumper. Retrieve was to hand. Pretty good work.

The stickups
posted: July 25, 2006
author: Mingo

were in the water about a week ago, but now they ain't! I scoped out the pigeon lady today, and will go by and get some in the next few days. Also will get the choke collar. He has been wearing the e-collar and seems to pay it no mind, of course it ain't BIT him yet!

Mingo...is dem STICK UPS .....
posted: July 24, 2006
author: urbanduckman

out in WATER or on dry land? If they are in water toss him some marks out into the stick ups. EVERY youngster needs some work in a STICK UP POND !

All this HARD WORK in the HEAT will PAY OFF BIG TIME when this all comes together on the REAL DEAL DUCK HUNT!

Hope you was serious when you said I could make his first hunt or so? You know when it's just me , you and the dog. The one where I SHOOT ALL THE DUCKS and you LAY YOUR GUN DOWN and HANG ON! lmao

Oh yeah, we need to SHOOT HIM A COUPLE OF LIVE FLIERS this week end? It's time to TEST the lil Yellow Devil Dog out!

You been put'n dat lil ECollar I gave you every day?The time for him to get a acquainted with ELECTRICITY is about a week off!

Have you found him a CHOKE CHAIN COLLAR yet? Time to start us'n dat is also just around the corner.

Bout time for his LIFE TO CHANGE!

Urb

Took a roll
posted: July 24, 2006
author: Mingo

off this steep bank, but still made the retrieve.

Just running
posted: July 24, 2006
author: Mingo

marks. The cooler weather has helped. Running 100yd+ marks on flat open ground and running some shorter in broken ground and water.

More mistakes
posted: July 21, 2006
author: Mingo

Another thing I need to break myself of is trying more advanced marks just to see if Ike can do it. I have laid out a pile of three bumpers and sent Ike to it. The first one he will go to no problem, the second and third he is a little confused on but goes if I give him a little shove. There is a temptation for me to get bored with the marks he is running and try stuff like this, but I am working hard to break myself and stick to the basics right now. The more he does, the more I want to try cause it's just so much FUN.

Ike's Momma
posted: July 21, 2006
author: Mingo

Lucy showing Ike how it's done.

Grinding
posted: July 21, 2006
author: Mingo

along running marks. I notice Ike's performance improving, but at the same time I see that I have to be careful. Some pro's advise to only throw a couple of marks once a week, some advise a couple a day. I had been throwing more than that, but am finally getting it through my head that fewer clean marks are better. I have been running longer marks to around 100 yds on open flat ground for a couple of days and then one day of a couple in pretty easy cover. I have already seen an improvement in his hunting the bumper. Last night went with Urban to a field and pond. We threw one in the grass which he hunted and found and one across the pond to a bare bank which he did fine. Two nights ago and tonight ran long marks on the soccer field. On wednesday I made the mistake of running a couple of 40-50 yd marks before runnng the long one. On the long mark he was pretty gassed and got distracted and quit about halfway back after he caught a whiff of something. Tonight ran ~85 yds first. He was quick to the bumper, but halfway back stopped, and dropped the bumper and hesitated, then came in without the bumper. This bothered me as he had not been doing this. We set up and ran the same mark and he nailed it. I did not see on the first mark, when he stopped. When I talked to the bird boy, he said someone in a yard nearby had been calling their dog, here, here and thats when he dropped it and looked back. That explanation made me feel a little better. Think I will take him to the soccer fields in the morning for some 100 yd marks.

Don't you love it
posted: July 19, 2006
author: Mingo

when somebody repeats what you told them like it's their idea!

Don't you love it
posted: July 19, 2006
author: Mingo

This One Needs To Be......
posted: July 19, 2006
author: urbanduckman

ETCHED INTO STONE!

It seems that running mostly visible marks is improving his hunting for marks he can't see

Did the lil light bulb come on? lmao

I keep thinking
posted: July 18, 2006
author: Mingo

of taking a day off from training with the weather so hot, but Ike lets me know every evening that it is time to hit it! Yesterday hooked up with Urban and went to neaby ponds in a new subdivision. Same spot in some of the pics from earlier posts. Nice big ponds and mowed rolling ground. Set Ike up for a water mark about 50 yds. He was off at the splash and initially a little off line to the right. About 20 yds out he spotted the bumper and brought it back. He still tends to cut a little into the nearest bank on the way back and exited the water about 15 yds from where he went in, but brought it to hand. Second mark was water to land with about 40 yd swim with bumper about 10 yds up on a rising bank. This one he smacked pretty good. He had a good exit from the water and drove up the bank in good fashion to make the retrieve. Two good marks and we were done. Tonight decided to throw some short marks in cover. First was about 35 yds in grass about a foot tall. Just short of the fall was a little wash and he pulled up short in it and put on a short hunt before looking back to me. Mom threw a helper, but did not get his attention first. Still, he heard the bumper hit and went to it. To his great surprise Mom had thrown the bumper in on a covey of quail! I wish I had a picture of the look he gave when those little rockets took off! After giving me a what the hell whas that! look, he picked up the bumper and brought it back. We moved a little and set up a similar mark which he finished with no problems. Then tried one a little harder. The fall was in a little clump of sumacs on a low knoll about 10 yds in diameter. The weeds around it were pretty thick, but it was more open in the middle. At the fall I released him and he went to the edge of the weeds and pulled up. He forced his way in and after a few moments popped back out without the bumper. He went in two more times but did not find the bumper so he got a helper. He went after it and returned with the first bumper. Moved the line just a little and threw it again. Again he pulled up at the weeds and went a little to the right to find a way through. This time, though, he seemed to remember the mark better and moved straight to the fall and retrieved the bumper. We quit on that one. It seems that running mostly visible marks is improving his hunting for marks he can't see. This is good as some days ago it seemed that he was quitting too easily if he couldn't see the bumper and was waiting or the helper to be thrown.

Too Hot!
posted: July 16, 2006
author: Mingo

I swear I think it is almost getting too hot for dog training. Ike spends most of his day in his water dish. It is a 2 gal so he can still just fit. Went to a new spot around 8pm. This is a pond in a pasture. The pond is low so there is a lot of bare bank around it. I was by myself so all the marks were pretty short, but about as far as I could throw. At the throw of all the marks, I popped off a .22 cal blank. First mark was in the water. I threw a new orange bumper and he really seems to have trouble seeing this color. He was a little off line to the right and missed the bumper by about 10 feet and went to the bank. This may have been because I had been throwing land-water-land marks before. He hit the bank and put on a pretty good hunt, then looked back to me and started to the bank. That is when he saw the bumper and made the retrieve. Second mark was with a dirty canvas bumper on the bare banks to the edge of the weeds. That was easy. Third was short with the bumper fall about 15' back in 2'tall weeds. He went right to the fall and after a few seconds hunting, found it and brought it back. Threw one last one into the tall pasture grass which he again had to hunt for a few seconds to find. Along with mostly easy open-ground marks, I think I will throw a few short marks into cover for a week or so, and then very slowly stretch him out on the cover marks. He is pretty good on marks to 70-80 yds if the bumper is in sight. The hot weather is really affecting his drive, although tonight he was pretty active.

Just enough
posted: July 15, 2006
author: Mingo

for dinner. Kept a few small bass and crappie. BumperGirl caught a Snapping Turtle on a jig. Fortunately it came off before Ike got to it. Fishing is fixin' to get tough. Almost ran by your place on the chance you were there. Wish we would have.

NICE.......
posted: July 15, 2006
author: urbanduckman

look'n piece of ground!

Catch any fish? We caught 15. The pond was turn'n over and it was full of SLIME! If'n you did'nt have a rattle in dem Lizards you was in trouble.

Third mark
posted: July 15, 2006
author: Mingo

Not too long, but the bumper is out of sight just beyond the dropoff. BumperGirl gives me the sign when he has the bumper.

Second mark
posted: July 15, 2006
author: Mingo

just a little longer, down in the bowl behind the dam. Bumper visible.

Fishing with Ike
posted: July 15, 2006
author: Mingo

Decided to get up early and go fishing and throw a few for Ike. BumperGirl got up also to go! We were fishing by 6:45. This isn't a fishing story, but I thought the dog work was worth noting. Ike burned up a lot of puppy energy running the bank and chasing fish, swimming etc. I got broken off and lost my slip bobber, so Ike went and got it for me. Anyway, I think it was a good thing that he got all his rambunctiousness(?) out before we threw the marks. It was still cool and he was plenty ready for some fun. Pickd a great spot below the dam with good terrain and threw three fairly short ones, all of which he smacked and brought back. After that it was time for a little breakfast and back home for a nap.

Back to Basics
posted: July 14, 2006
author: Mingo

Hooter, I appreciate the tips, but I didn't know they played soccer in Woodward! I would like to hook up with you and Colt. If we have to, maybe I can drag Urban to Canton and meet you halfway. At the very least we need to get together for teal season.

Last night went with Urban again. Ran some pretty long marks down in a bowl with some water. Added in some birds and dogs barking for flavor. Ike had trouble locating the bumpers and he seemed to be developing the habit of waiting for a helper and not hunting much. After consultation with the UrbanDogTrainerGuru we decided that we needed to back up a little and run some easy basic marks for a while. Tonight ran 3 marks at the school from 30 to 40 yards, all with the bumper in easy view. He had no problem marking the fall, but he also sometimes will hesitate at the bumper before picking it up. He seemed to enjoy it, but really wanted me to chase him to get the bumper so I would turn my back and ignore him and he would bring it in. Probably going to keep this routine of few easy marks for a week or so. I probably, no WAS making the mistake of pushing too fast. Hopefully, no harm done.

Bumpers
posted: July 14, 2006
author: Hooter

Mingo.....right now the main objective is to get Ike as birdy as possible. DONT wear him out.....always put him up wanting more!

We started out with black bumpers on a nice smooth area like a soccer field or football field. Make sure he can get a good mark on the bumper. At this point in his training you want constant success if possible.

Then transition to cover and throw a black bumper into the mix of marks. You don't want them to get too dependent on looking for something white all the time.

Have your bird boy or girl start using a duck call prior to thowing the mark. He will start to associate the sound of a duck call as something good!

Maybe I can bring Colt down one weekend before long and we can hook up with Urbanduckman and have a little puppy training session together!

Hooter

AND
posted: July 13, 2006
author: Mingo

Thanks for the advice. Maybe we can cross paths sometime this summer. I would like to see Colt and watch him work.

I am luck that I have a couple of kids to throw for me, plenty of nearby places to do it, and Urban to keep an eye on things. Oh, and that 8-5 gov't job helps too!

Then should
posted: July 13, 2006
author: Mingo

we maybe work some shorter marks in cover where he has to hunt more, in addition to other water and land marks?

Too many white bumpers...............
posted: July 13, 2006
author: Hooter

can be a bad thing Mingo. The old dog trainer I have been working with out here likes to wing them off of white bumpers ASAP.

That way they learn to put on a hunt and learn to use their nose more. So.....you might want to get some black bumpers and slip in a few marks using black instead of white.

Then you will progress to using the orange bumpers when it's time to start working on blind retrieves.

It sounds like Ike is progressing along very well. You are to be congratulated on working with him daily. My schedule hasn't allowed me to work with Colt like I should and he isn't nearly as far along as Ike seems to be. Keep up the hard work....it will pay off in the long run.

Hooter

Pushing Pup
posted: July 12, 2006
author: Mingo

Stopped by Urban's for a little help tuesday night. Went to a pond that had a lot of bank cover and aquatic weeds. The line was for the dog to enter the water swim through the pond, exit and drive on to the bumper about 20 yds out of the pond. First mark Ike went a little off line to check out a floating styrofoam cup, he quickly left it and pushed on out of the pond. There he had lost the mark and put on a half-hearted hunt before sitting near Urban. Urban threw a helper which he brought back. Repeated the mark with the same result. He was too put off by the obstacle to remember where the bumper was and did not drive out and hunt to find it. To his credit it was a tough swim to get across the pond. Finished up with a few marks on a soccer field which were no problem. Tonight ran a couple of marks about 40 yds across a mowed ditch. Ike had to go down in the broad shallow ditch and up about 15ft above our spot to the fall. These he did no problem. Ran him on a 100yd mark on flat level mowed field. He went to the bumper and took it to the thrower. After being ignored he started back but was distracted by kids nearby (my daughter and some others) and went to them. He is markedly less enthusiastic and easily distracted when it is hot, so this did not surprise me. Waited, gave him some water and a little rest. After the kids practice was over ran another to a different area. After the bumper was thrown I noticed that there was a short piece of the mark where he could not see the bumper. Still he held a good line right to the bumper and brought it back. After another short break took him to a pond to repeat the marks of the night before with less obstacles. First mark was across about 35 yds of water and then about 15 feet up a mown bank with the bumper in sight. To the bumper was no problem. On return he wanted to take the bank around and it took much whistling and calling to get him in the water. About half way across the pond he started swimming in circles. He had the bumper by the very end and I think he was losing his grip on it. Eventually he straightened out and came. Second mark was about 25 feet up the bank. He made a good swim to the opposite bank, but then did not see the bumper. I have a few canvass bumpers that get really dirty and he has trouble seeing these. He got a helper from the BumperBabe and brought it back. Two lessons for me; get some more white plastic bumpers, and train later in the evening or early morning.

More Marks
posted: July 11, 2006
author: Mingo

Just trying to get out everyday and run Ike more marks. Stopped by Urban's Sun. night and ran a coupe of marks on rolling terrain with some trees and foot high grass for good measure. If your pup is doing really well on bare, flat ground, throw a few in high grass with some slope and some trash laying around. Ike did a decent job going to the area of fall, then proceeded to check out every bit if white paper and trash before he located the bumper.

Monday, I found a dry pond with a bare bottom and high weeds growing around the edges. Sat Ike on the dam and then had BirdBoy throw. The dog has to run downhill, then through about 20' of knee to waist high weeds before hitting the pond bottom and picking up the bumper again. First throw was into the weeds around the pond so pup needed a helper. Ran it again and he had no trouble. Ran a couple other on land and water. I am gradually increasing distance and throwing marks into rougher terrain and more vegetation. Also added .22 blanks last night. First few throws had the thrower fire. I fired one behind the dog as a bumper was thrown. No reaction at all, so I don't think noise will be a problem for him.

For bad news, while Ike was let in the house yesterday he spilled a glass of water over a jigsaw puzzle that the wife and daughter had been working on for a few days, then ate a couple of the pieces. They were pretty mad, but got over it.

Crack Kills
posted: July 10, 2006
author: Mingo

You are probably gonna need some barricades, flashing lights and a lot of crime scene tape on your work site. The stockade fence will help, but if somebody happens to peek through at the wrong time.........

Thanks Hooter
posted: July 10, 2006
author: Mingo

I will keep that in mind. Wasn't sure how that worked. I thought the name was to send them the first time and back was used to send them back. Seems like I had read that though; Ike for marks and back for blinds. Makes sense. Probably won't try that much more for now as my Trainer ;) advises there is not much to be gained from it right now.

DITTO......
posted: July 9, 2006
author: urbanduckman

to what Hooter said !

Oh yeah, thanks for showing up this evening wit da lil Yeller Boy. It was FUN!

I really liked what he showed on the last mark he ran over by the Pavillion.

NICE JOB!

Ya wanna do some more ANYTIME this week just give me a call or feel free to drop by unannounced. Me and Gut will be in the back welding on da new Dog Runs. I will forwarn you prior as you will see some UNBELIEVEABLE BUTT CRACK. Bend'n over weld'n tends to produce dat especially when it's 2 Old Farts! lmao

Urb

Be careful...............................
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Hooter

using back on the second bird of a double Mingo. That will be reserved for sending Ike on blind retrieves in the future. Always use his name on marks and back on blinds. At least that's what I've been trained to do!

:-))

Hooter

pic
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Mingo

pics
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Mingo

pics
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Mingo

Here is the setup
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Mingo

for the land-water-land marks. A few stick up and weeds, and enough cover on the bank that he did not try to take the long way back on the bank as he had before.

I guess
posted: July 9, 2006
author: Mingo

it's a good thing that this site exists for me to put up info on Ike's training. Otherwise I would be boring people to death that really don't care to hear a guy brag on his dog. Last night was a long, productive session. Ran an assortment of marks on land, water and both. Ike handled all well, and showed pretty good persistence hunting bumpers he could not see. The best to me, was he pulled off a short double. I had two throwers so we threw on short about 15 yds to the left and the second bumper about 40 yds. After the first I held him, and immed. had the second thrower get his attention. He was told mark at each throw. He went for the long bumper with no problems and on the way back was eyeing the second. I took the bumper, put him at heel facing the short throw and released him with a back. He quickly moved out and retrieved the second. I was pretty pleased with that. I also set him up with some short land-water-land marks where there was too much bank brush for him to take the land route back. This worked well and forced him to re-enter the water. All in all he did well.

As always
posted: July 8, 2006
author: Mingo

we appreciate your help and guidance in this dog trianing business. I am pleased with the way training is going although I know there is a lot of work left to be done. It is a lot of fun and it sure makes the summer pass quickly.

Last night took Ike to the school to try and stretch him out a little. I was worried because he was in a goofy mood and I wasn't sure he would have the interest to do what I wanted. Set up on flat level mowed ground on about a 75 yd mark. First throw he marked the bumper and drove out fine. Unfortunately I had BumperBabe's mom throwing and I had not briefed her properly. As Ike was moving to the bumper she was walking away from her spot. This sucked Ike offline a little and caused him to hesitate a little short of the bumper. I waved to get her attention and she started back towards Ike waving the helper. Ike then picked up the bumper and started towards her. I got on the whistle hard and he returned to me. Set up the same mark and tried it again. This time he smacked it pretty good and made it back with no problems. Decided to quit then, but was pleased that he had not trouble marking and moving to a bumper at that distance.

Ike .......
posted: July 7, 2006
author: urbanduckman

IS show'n signs of hav'n what it takes to make Mingo a fine Gun Dog by the start of this coming Duck Season! He's right on track!

Thing is a lot of times guys will leave out and you won't see or hear from them. When you do talk to them they report that they are in fact doing what they are supposed to do in the way of Puppy Training. Then, when they do come by for a tune up the dog don't perform anywhere's close to what thier Daddy's have been portraying. It don't take too long to tell this is the case.

Likewise on the other hand IF a guy has been working his dog as he should and put'n in the TIME and WORK this also shows.

Both times Mingo has brought Ike over to the house for some work Ike HAS been right on track. In other words Ike's performances have belied the fact that indeed he and Mingo and of course BumperBabe HAVE been working hard.

This was the case yesterday. I have not only been keeping track of these two via Mingo's posts but also a phone call every few days keeps me up to date. So, when we all hit the big pond yesterday I was curious to see if Ike could handle a bit of a challenge .

The Water Mark that Mingo describes below was a damn good test of just where Ike is at . I could tell that when I got around on the far shoreline straight across from Mingo and Ike that Mingo was a bit on the nervous side. The distance coupled with the steepness of the entry and exit were something new for Ike. I kept several bumpers handy for Helpers just in case Ike ran into a problem.

The verbal Hey Up que got the pup's attention and he has begun to realize that when he hears this he's gonna get someth'n GOOD tossed for him. Something that is increasingly becoming VERY IMPORTANT for him.

The first bump was a smaller canvas bumper as the larger rubber Training bumps are a bit big for his mouth. Thing is they are stained brown and hard to pick up once they hit the ground. Especially out at 50 yards.

Ike got a good mark on the bump as it was at the apex of it's flight up and out and he was off on a good line. He fought a hard cross wind acorss the open water and come out look'n in good shape. Problem was he could no longer see the bump lying in the short cover. So , he sat down to think things over . I could see the wheels turn'n in his head and he finally made a decision. That decision was to return to Mingo.

I let him get off the bank a short distance to make sure he had decided to go back without the bumper and then gave him a verbal Hey Up and tossed another up and over towards the spot the first bump had landed. Ike whirled around in time to catch sight of the bump in mid air and this was all the help he needed to get to the mark , pick it up and take out back across the open water to where Mingo was run'n the shoreline act'n like a big circus clown a blow'n dat Gonia Classic Dog Train'n Whistle.

Since Ike had needed the helper we sat him up to RE RUN the mark. This time I used one of the 8 inch regular training bumpers so as to make it possible for Ike to SEE the thing as it lay on the side of the hill.

Hey Up and the bump in on it's way. I watch Ike's head to make sure he's see'n the bump and sure nuff the lil boy is LOCKED IN. The bump hits the ground and Ike is on his way hitting the water with a bit of a splash and he cuts a fine wake across the water. He is LOCKED in as I watch his head and eyes for any sign of becoming disinterested. IF I see that he gets a HELPER right off the bat.

Only thing that distracted him was when a swallow dives down close to his head causing him to look over and up a bit. A lot of times this is all it takes to cause a little one on such a long mark to BLOW UP . Ike only viewed the swallow for a short glimpse and his attention returned to the bump. He exited the water and took a line up the steep bank to the bump. He had a bit of a problem picking up the bigger bump but he finally got hold of the end and drug in down the bank and into the water. We AIN'T gonna worry bout no cigar type of grip right now.

Ike made a bee line to the far shore and out to Mingo's waiting arms. GOOD DOG IKE!

The two LONG TRIPS across the big pond told me a few things about this pup. Most important of these is that IKE'S LEVEL OF DESIRE and DRIVE IS ON THE RISE! It is easy to read in that when they LOCK IN with thier EYES and HEAD and DRIVE in the water it is proof that the ONLY THING ON THIER MINDS IS THAT BUMPER! A good Gun Dog , especially one that will serve Mingo , NEED A LOT OF DRIVE , DESIRE or BIRDINESS. Whatever you call it THEY GOTS TO HAVE IT.

Each time I see Ike his level of Birdiness has INCREASED! This is a GOOD THING.

The land marks had a bit more structure to them as Mingo describes. The first one Ike ran to the AOF but was upwind of the bump. He KNEW where it was SUPPOSED to be but he was off line about 8 feet. He sat down for a minute or two and looked over the situation. I could see the wheels turn'n in his head as he tried to decide what to do. I fully expected him to give up like he did on the first water mark so I had a HELPER READY.

Thing was that this time Ike decided to actually lay down a bit of a hunt . He drove on a bit long and then circled back towards the bump till he spotted it lying on the ground. While this was accomplished more by sight than scent it did show the start of what is going to be IKE'S HUNT! A dogs HUNT or the way they LAY DOWN THAT HUNT is as speicific to them as our finger prints are to us.

It won't be long till we can add even more sturcture and a good cross wind so that Ike's NOSE becomes an intregal part of the equation. IN this manner Mingo will TEACH IKE to use his NOSE at the proper time and in the proper manner. We want to TEACH IKE TO TRUST WHAT HE SEE'S and to RUN TO THE SPOT where he SAW THE MARK HIT!

In this way Ike will more and more come up very close to the mark and KNOW when to lay down his hunt. Then , to hunt in the poroper manner or such a way so as to limit the time and size of the space he needs to cover in order to locate the mark. This will save a lot of time that's better used SHOOT'N DUCKS than wasted run'n all over the place only us'n his nose to locate the downed duck!

In conclusion, like Zac and Eric before him Mingo HAS been do'n his work with Ike. In fact, Mingo seems to have discovered that Train'n your own Gun Dog is in fact a LOT OF FUN! Not only is it FUN but the bond that is being created between Ike and Mingo will last a lifetime and mean MORE DUCKS IN THE BAG!

Oh yeah, I still think that Ike pays more attention to BumperBabe than the does to Mingo? lmao

Keep it up guys as I can't wait till it's time to go out with ya'll again. I'm already think'n of where we can go to find some more challenging marks.

Oh yeah, before I forget! Let's plan on SHOOT'N IKE A LIVE FLYER in about 2 weeks. Gotta get the ole fish net out and make another run by ONE HUNT LOWE'S STORE and snatch a couple of healthy and HARD FLY'N SKY RATS for dat one!

Urb

Ike gets a lesson
posted: July 6, 2006
author: Mingo

in honoring while Scout makes a retrieve. He didn't like it much!

Good Dog!
posted: July 6, 2006
author: Mingo

Mark!
posted: July 6, 2006
author: Mingo

Dog Training
posted: July 6, 2006
author: Mingo

itself isn't really all that hard. Knowing what to do is the tricky part. It's also not that hard to read your dog except I think I am finding that it is easy to underestimate a pup if you don't have other dogs to compare to. This is where an experienced dog man (person?) comes in. Called up Urban to run a few marks tonight. He promptly set up Ike for a land-water-land mark of about 50 yds. This was as far as any land mark he has ever run and a good 20 yds farther in the water than he had ever done. First one he sucked over towards Urban a little and didn't see the bumper. My canvas bumpers are getting dirty and hard to see. He threw a helper which Ike saw and went for, then he saw the orginal bumper, picked it up and retrieved it. Next ran the same mark with a white plastic bumper. He got a good mark on that one and made the retrieve. I was plenty proud as this was really stretching him out. I was nervous about it but Ike's PaPa put him to the test and he pulled it off. Next did a land mark of around 50 yds with the bumper landing out of sight of the pup. He went to the last spot he had seen it and looked around, then went over to Urban for a hint which was NOT provided. He then went on past the area of fall a little and put on a hunt, found the bumper and retrieved. Threw another around 50. Urban could tell that he lost sight of this one also, but he drove out with good pace spotted it and retrieved. PaPa seemed pleased, and I was proud. I thought that Ike was making good progress over the last week, but he tended to not show his best when Urban was with us. Tonight was a good test and evaluation from the Master. This weekend I am going to work him on flat, clear ground and see if we can stretch out to some marks around 75 yds.

Tonight's work
posted: July 5, 2006
author: Mingo

Started with a ~ 30 yd land mark, slightly uphill with the bumper thrown just slightly over the crest so he would not have sight of it. He ran hard to the crest and stopped short about 15', then spotted the bumper and made the retrieve. Two water marks then about 30 yds. The second one he did not see in flight but caught the splash. Retreived both fine, except on the second he to a short line to the bank instead of straight back to me. Had Claire, the Bumper Babe, hide and throw a land mark. He went to the bumper then spotted the thrower. After going over to say I see you!, he responded to the whistle and retrieved to hand. Then threw on short, ~ 10 yds into tall grass. No problem for him, although it was probably a little short to challenge him. Will try some a little longer to get him to hunt the bumper. Also introduced a little noise with a cap gun. He doesn't seen to notice it when marking. When I fired it with him watching he just wanted to see what it was. I will try it a few more times and if no problems will maybe step the noise up a little and work with .22 blanks. As per Urbans advice, it is marks, marks and more marks. It is getting more challenging for me to set up marks that are new to Ike. I will probably work more on marks where he has to hunt the bumper and try to stretch him on open ground out past 50 yds.

In hindsight
posted: July 4, 2006
author: Mingo

I should have thrown a water mark right to the opposite shore at a wider part of the pond, and then work to some right on the opposite bank. I threw the mark about 15' away from the water and I think that encouraged him to NOT re-enter the water. This spot is just east of the other ponds we have used. I will get with you soon to talk and throw a few marks.

Mingo.......
posted: July 4, 2006
author: urbanduckman

that Land Mark where Ike is on the return and Claire is standing there looks like some damn good ground. For futrue reference you can use that ridgeline for a walking man set of marks. If you get down on the dogs level you will see why this spot holds more than one good mark.

One day throw a mark from the right end back towards the bank a bit leaving it out well in sight. Then the next day move left a bit and toss the bump up ON TOP of the berm. Then on the third day move on left a bit more and drop the bump down into that bit of a hole and just in behind the berm and see how he does on that one. You will probably need a Helper on the first go round.

When completed all three marks will have begun to teach him to look in front of , up on top and in behind a slope!

Next time we get together I will show you Walking Man or Poor Man's Marking Drill. Remind me to show you the W drill also.

Toss Water Marks out onto a spot in the water that is well off of any bank. Then once he picks up the bump get down on the whistle and try and get him started towards you. If he gets sucked into any bank on the way in you hold up an arm and begin walking away from him calling him as hard as you can. He SHOULD and WILL at some point begin to follow you more. Don't worry too much about his running the bank right now as we will SHORE BREAK him later on in Swim By. Then you will have the TOOLS to CORRECT him at distance.

Another thing you might keep in mind is right now run him right off the edge of the water and don't back up off the edge of the water. We will work in LONGER ENTRIES and ANGLED ENTRIES later on!

Right now all we're after is to see him WILLING and EAGER to GO after the mark. To TAKE THE WATER with a degree of DESIRE and DRIVE!

YEP, your right! You don't HUNT WITH UGLY DOGS and you DO TRAIN WITH THE BEST LOOK'N BIRD THROWER in town!

Urb

I knew it
posted: July 3, 2006
author: Mingo

was around here somewhere!

Good dog
posted: July 3, 2006
author: Mingo

and maybe the cutest bird-thrower in the business!

Thanks Urban
posted: July 3, 2006
author: Mingo

as alway, Ike and I are relying on you to help us through this!. Good session tonight. Ran a water mark first with Claire throwing. The wind was a pretty good crosswind. He held a straight line to the splash, but by the time he got there the bumper was about 20 feet to his left, as seen in the pic. He circled a few times and started to head to the opposite shore, so I had Claire throw a helper. He reacted to the splash, and brought it back in fine fashion. Then threw a mark about 50 yds downslope. He did fine on that one. He is running harder to the marks than he ever has. Tried one across the pond which he went to, and then sat. I mouthed it a little but dropped it before taking the long way around, not re-entering the water. This is something I am not going to try again until we figure out how to do it. That was probably enough but I did not want to quit on a bad note and he was pretty hyped up wanting the bumper. Threw one along the same shore about 15 feet out. He took a pretty good line to it, only running the bank for about 10 feet and exited the water at about the same point. Ran one more about 20 feet from the shore with a pretty good down slope. He hit it with now problem. Maybe a few too many, but he was really enthusiatic tonight.

Mingo......
posted: July 3, 2006
author: urbanduckman

we have talked a lot about this but I thought I would post up a bit see'n as how your diary is get'n quite a few hits each day. Looks like there's a lot of guys out there with new pups!

The last time we trained together I mentioned to you get his attention at the instant he gets his mouth on the bumper and CONTINUE with the whistle and any and all physical and vocal actions you can use to KEEP HIS ATTENTION! WATCH HIS EYES and HEAD MOVEMENTS as a lot of times you que that he is gonna drop the bump will come from his eyes and head movements! This will also come back to serve you and him better in the long run. He WILL get used to keeping his attention on YOU and the task at hand .

He is developing or maturing at an accelerated pace or at least as compared to a baby human! This fact coupled with you efforts to be CONSISTANT in what you do to get and hold his attention during Training Mode WILL add up to a very positive and responsive pup and adult dog!

From what I have seen and derived from your latest post(s) it is apparent to me that Ike is at a point where the most important items in his Puppy Training Program is MARKS, MARKS and MORE MARKS!

Not just any old mark but well designed and properly run marks. Keep in mind to handle Ike in the right way at the line. This includes making sure that the wind is AT YOUR BACK in order to keep his nose out of the equation. It also includes making sure you don't overly restrict him. Simply drape one forearm across his chest and the INSTANT he indicates he is READY to GO simply drop the arm away from his chest while calling his name. Once he is on his way then your OUT of the whole thing as the dog is now the responsibility of the Bird Thrower.

Make sure your Bird Thrower tosses the bump out with a nice high wide arc and after he/she has clearly gotten Ike's attention with a verbal que prior to actually tossing the bumper.

Make sure the Bird Thrower keeps a HELPER BUMP in thier free hand and is ready to toss a HELPER at the correct moment if in fact Ike loses his concentration along the way. DON'T throw the helper too soon. Instruct your Bird Thrower to hold onto the Helper as long as Ike is actually put'n down a hunt for the Mark. Only toss the bump when and if he clearly indicates that he has quit the mark and is returning to you. Help too early and too often will tend to produce a pup that EXPECTS HELP and lessens his ability to TRUST WHAT HE SEES and to RUN TO THE Area Of The Fall.

Oh yeah, make sure that your backdrop behind the mark is clear and open . This means that the background is devoid of items that will keep the pup from seeing the mark in the air. A well tossed mark with the proper arc and distance with nothing in the background to disrupt the bump from CUTTING THE HORIZON will go a long ways in helping the pup to be SUCCESSFUL!

Right now slowly but surely STRETCH the DISTANCES OUT on both the Land and the Water Marks. Also, look to add stick ups in the Water Marks. This is nothing mroe than an area with a few dead limbs sticking up outta the water. Initially , Ike WILL be drawn to the stick ups and he will need a HELPER tossed at the right moment BUT he will quickly learn to RECOGNIZE them for what they are and to IGNORE them.

We have also discussed utilizing a check cord on Ike. Use your own JUDGEMENT on when and if to do this. Keeping in mind that we are still looking to have him GO TO THE MARK and locate it. Picking it up in his mouth is also a GOOD THING but it is NOT all that big of a deal if he drops the bump or diverts away from you on the return with it.

IF in fact you make the move to using a check cord just don't forget not to overdo it when using the cord to bring him into to you. CLOSE to you is O.K.!

The complete and clean return will be addressed later on in his Formal Obedience and the Taught Retrieve ( FF ).

Lastly, the more Marks he gets from now till the time he enters his Force Fetch Training will serve to make him a much more complete and tractable Gun Dog. This is especially true when it comes time to Transistion him to the Real Deal Duck Hunt! Distnaces, Weather conditions , cover, footing, etc. will not have the negative results they would have if Ike had not been so well prepared beforehand. He will come out of the truck KNOWING that he is about to do something that is SPECIAL. he will also exhibit an attitude of NO BIG DEAL, BEEN THERE , DONE THAT !

The running of proper Puppy Marks is often overlooked by a lot of folks in the overall Training of a young Gun Dog Prospect!

The reasons for this many and varied. Thing is THIS DOG WILL NEVER BE ANY SMARTER THEN HE IS RIGHT NOW!

I can also say that IMO you are doing a damn good job with this pup and it WILL PAY OFF! He has a good start and is showing signs of carrying on a long line of hard working GUN DOGS!

Urb

Limit marks thrown from your side and try to utilize a Bird Thrower when possible.

Pretty good
posted: July 2, 2006
author: Mingo

sessions the last few days. He seems to do better with water retrieves. He shows that he knows what is going on, marks well and enters the water with no hesitation. On land he still will occasionally drop the bumper and return without it. Seems I get his attention just when he drops it. Did a short land-water-land mark tonight. He entered the water and went a little off line to shorten the distance. After picking up the bumper, the little rat came back by land!. I'll need to be careful about setting up the marks where he won't do this. Other than a little more light OB work and adding distance to his marks, and introducing gun fire, I'm not sure what else I need to do with him until he is old enough for FF.

Duck Fix
posted: July 1, 2006
author: Mingo

Had to go to Vinita for a workshop. Just happened to be near Crook's Kennels in Pensacola. They were nice enough to let me watch a little dog work. They took ten dogs and worked them with live pigeons on a land to water to land mark. It was very interesting to watch the dogs work. They were from 7 months to 2 years of age, all with different levels of training and ability. Chuck Sr. was very good about explaining what he was doing with every dog and why he did it. I learned a lot in 2 hours, and came away feeling pretty good about how things are going with Ike. On the way back I took a detour by G&H and picked up a few decoys. That's about as good as it gets without actually duck hunting!

Slow and steady
posted: June 27, 2006
author: Mingo

Past few days have been a pigeon a day with 4-6 marks. Ike is stretched out to about 50 yds or so. He marks the bumper fine, shows good enthusiasm to the bumper, and is needing less coaxing to retrieve. He still wants to stop a little short and/or wide from time to time. He will sit on command, using combination of voice and whistle, if he is withing about 3 feet of me, or on the lead, IF I have his attention. In the next few weeks we will work on stretching his marks a little more, swimming and sit/come.

Hey Hooter
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Mingo

Good to hear from you. I'm sure you know, it's a lot of ups and downs with mostly ups. I'm pretty sure Urban will keep me from messing up too much though!

That's a fine looking pup...........
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Hooter

you got there Mingo! And it looks like you have him started in the right direction. I can't wait to shoot a few ducks and watch him retrieve them! Keep up the great work.

Hooter

Fishing with Ike
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Mingo

is really fun, because he thinks it is his job to retrieve fish, also. All I want to say is be careful fishing topwaters around a pup retriever. They tend to get really excited when a bass blows up on a popper. Then you have the thrill of reeling it in while trying to keep your pup off it.

Also, learned another lesson. Don't throw marks for your dog into the setting sun. Threw a land-water-land mark of only about 20 feet. Straight into the sun, right onto a bank the same gray-brown color of the bumper. Ike hit the water, got about half way and then stopped to look for the bumper. He stuck his head under water a few times, then I threw a helper bumper. He heard it, but didn't see it either. So I called him back and we walked over to the other side. Throwing with the sun at my back, he went to the first bumper, re-entered the water, then dropped it before returning. Second throw, was only a few feet from the first , so he switched, and retrieved the bumper I had thrown first. He later retrieved the second bumper after I threw a dirt clod at it. Moved to another pond (scene of the topwater adventure), and threw two land marks which he retrived to hand, no problem.

Sunday was pigeon in the morning and had the wife throw a few for us in the evening. First one he had to take back to the wife (he likes that she talks nice to him) even though she ignored him and turned her back. I had to jump up and down, whistle, call and roll on the ground to get him to come. Second bumper was a little better, but still hard to get him in. He wanted to stop a little short and wide. End on lesson.

and back
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Mingo

Saturday morning the24th
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Mingo

Up and off to the Lake. Threw (by myself) a couple of bumpers into the lake. No problem with these. Then threw a couple on the bank, one into some weeds and grass, both about 20 yds. The first one was no problem, second went into the weeds and while I could still see it, Ike pulled up short about 10 feet and looked around, looked back at me, then looked around some more. Finally, after a few seconds (seemed longer) he pushed on out a few more feet, spotted the bumper and brought it back. Good dog! Ended on the good work, plus it was getting hot.

Swimming Practice
posted: June 26, 2006
author: Mingo

Last Thursday
posted: June 25, 2006
author: Mingo

stopped by and grabbed Urban for a littl help dog training. We went to a pond near by and set Ike swimming back and forth across the narrow end of the pond. He readily swam across to Urban, but it took a little coaxing to get him to swim back across to me. The technique of turning away from the dog and acting like you are leaving, while at the same time calling here and using the whistle, works well. We swam him across at increasing distances about 3-4 times, then I wanted to work him on some marks before he got too tired. Urban threw some short water marks for Ike from the other side of the pond. One the first one (I think, I've slept since then) he lost the bumper when he was in the water so Urban threw a helper. With some whistle and calling he brought it back. The next repeat of the same mark, he did with no problems. I think he did two correctly and also cleaned up the leftover bumper when I threw a rock over two it so he would see it. We tried a few marks on land, also and on the first he wanted to take the bumper to the thrower. He tends to want to do this, but Urban ingnored him. I called him to me just as he dropped the bumper and back he came without it. This is something we are working on. He shows pretty good enthusiasm tracking the bumper and going to it. He sometimes plays with the bumper too much,drops it, and returns withour it, or takes the bumper to the thrower.

Friday evening he did two marks, of about 20 yds, perfectly with me throwing. A little later I took him to a nearby school with and had my son throw for me. The first about 25 yds he retrieved to me. The second at about 30 yds he brought about halfway back then stopped to play with the bumper, and eventually left it to return to me. We backed up and did one short, about 15 yds. He did that one fine, and we quit. It takes a lot of animation, whistle and calling from me to get him to bring it straight back to me, and he sometimes drops it just at the time I whistle and returns without it. I am also throwing a live pigeon for him once or twice a day. I have been doing this for about a week and it does seem to increase his desire to go to the bumper. He has good days and bad days as far as bringing it back, but I am hoping this well be easily corrected later with the collar.

One more pic
posted: June 21, 2006
author: Mingo

And, Urban that Pigeon Rodeo was the most fun I have had in some time! I didn't know you were such a thrill junkie!

It's mine
posted: June 21, 2006
author: Mingo

and you can't have it.

Please
posted: June 21, 2006
author: Mingo

bring me the @#$%#@ bird!

The Wife gives me training tips
posted: June 21, 2006
author: Mingo

She says I was doing it wrong!

The Pigeon Gulag
posted: June 21, 2006
author: Mingo

Indeed it was an eventful weekend for Ike, and for me. I was nearly on the verge of bragging on the pup, as he had been doing pretty well with retrieving a bumper. Watching him refuse to retreive after a through soaking showed that puppy play in the backyard and real retreiver work were two different things. The next morning I didn't work him at all except to throw a pigeon for him. He immediately chased and bit the bird, but did not make an effort to birng it to me. No problem. Put the bird up and try again later. That afternoon, same result. He also followed me to the cage and really wanted me to give him back his' bird. I tried him on a bumper, but he still had the bird on his mind. He dropped the bumper on the way back and went back to where he had caught the pigeon, found a feather and laid down to chew on it. End of session. Yesterday morning, throw the pigeon once, take it from him and that's it. He scuffed up the bird pretty good this time. Gotta make sure I don't give him any time to chew.

Yesterday evening he was really energetic. I wanted to work him before I threw the bird, because it seems he doesn't want to do anything after, except chase the bird again. Took him to my kid's conditioning camp and walked him on a lead, worked in sit a few times, he did fine. Got home. He heads for the pigeons. Got one out and threw it he breaks for it, pins it and bites. I am acting crazy trying to get him to come to me when he stands up and the birds bolts back between his legs into a small brush pile. Ike heads into the brush and ferrets the bird out. Good dog. He won't bring to hand so I take the bird and put it up. He is really wired now, so I wait a few minutes and take the bumper to a part of the yard away from where he had caught the pigeon. He did two good, short retrieves to hand with the bumper. I waited a few minutes, walked him at heel a short distance, and did SIT, STAY and HERE once. He did fine. I told him he was the best puppy ever and certaily a future derby winner,then let the kids have him for the rest of the evening.

My lessons: every day is different, AND be patient!

GET'N IKE BIRDY!
posted: June 20, 2006
author: urbanduckman

Got tired of watin'n on Mingo to post up our week end adventures with Ike's Puppy Training. So , my aplologies to Mingo and Ike for steal'n thier THUNDER! I simply felt that Ike reaching a milestone was worth the heat I'm gonna take for this.

Mingo called late Friday evening and expressed a desire to go out early in the a.m. and SWIM IKE! Not simple get him wet BUT WORK and CHALLENGE him a bit. Even though it was raining cats and dogs the GIG WAS ON no matter what the weahter. We knew one thing for sure and that it was gonna be MUDDY AS HELL and a bit cooler than normal. These were BOTH GOOD THINGS!

Mingo as usual pulled up right on time and before we hit the water we just had to make a bit of a detour by The Diner down on Main Street as just like a good Duck Hunt ain't a true Duck Hunt unless there is some Huevos and Cakes downed the hatch Retriever Training is NOT true Training uless the same undertaking is successfully carried out.

With liberal portions of the fruits of Juan's labor down the hatch it was time to head for some good PUPPY SWIMMING WATER! It's funny but even in the quickly spreadin urbanized area we live in that is as close as the next big develpement they are scraping off. Seems like nowdays having access to WATER is a BIG DEAL and adds to the value and saleability of a bunch of new homes. EVEN IF THEY ARE ONLY THREE FEET FROM EACH OTHER!

A perfect example of this is the pond we headed for. It is at the edge of a large new developement that has all the streets paved in. This allowed us to drive right up to the edge of the pond without engaging the 4 Wheel Drive.

Again, Lucy would help us with the young pup and in short order we were headed down the steep embankment that forms the outer limits of this piece of water. The mud generated by the heavy rains clung to the bottoms of our knee high rubbers as the four of us slogged down to the shoreline of the water hole.

This pond is in the form of a big L and from the top of the L to the turn it's about 75 yards long. Across the pond is about 49 yards. Just right for a young pup to get some distance to his swim as distances added and beging physically exerted was what we were after. Ike needs to learn right off the bat that distance is not something to shy away from. This lesson will come back to serve him well later on in his Training Program and out on the big water and big sloughs that Mingo likes to shoot!

I took Lucy and got on one side while Mingo took Ike with him and got across from us on the opposite bank. It was no chore to get Ike's attention when called and he hit the water with a resounding splash. He stayed on top and he cut the water like a Pro. This pup's gonna have a BIG ENTRY just like his Granny!

He came out and immed. I sent Lucy across back towards Mingo and sure nuff Ike took the bait. As soon as he got out on the far side I called him back while moving down the shoreline in order to increase the total distance he would have to cover.

By the fourth trip the drill was visibly having the desired affect on Ike. That is, he was coming out of the water and thru the encircling deep mud that marked the shoreline a bit SLOWER. His water entry had also backed off and though he was tiring he was still GAME for what we were doing.

Ike made about a half dozen trips total across and back. I would estimate that all told he continually swam a total of about 250 yards.

With Ike well winded I took a small canvas bumper while Mingo handled Ike and tossed out a short Water Mark right out in front of the pup. The bumper hit with a big splash and Ike was OFF into the water after it.

He reached the floating bumper quickly but he really could not figure out how to BITE IT. He swam around the bumper several times and finally decided to head back to Daddy. While Mingo had started out to help Ike it was best to let Ike figure things out for himself. That is, figure out when to quit if that was what was going to happen.

We for sure did not want in any way to HELP him out! It don't take a young pup long to pick up on the fact that he can get HELP and that is A BAD THING!

To Ike's credit and hopefully a sign of how he will be when he's older he did not quit too quickly as he stayed with the floating bumper as we reamined silent. Mingo made sure that he did not PRAISE the dog or show him any SYMPATHY as he was look'n like a shivering half drowned rat by this time.

We climbed out of the hole and back up on top where we decided to test Ike out on pick'n up the small canvas bumper that Mingo had with him for that purpose. We chose to set Ike up for a short Puppy Land Mark as with these dogs you will see a difference in how they perform between water and land work!

Mingo handled Ike while I walked out a few yards and gave Ike a verbal Hey UP que. I tossed the mark up and out the instant Ike looked my way and his ears went up. The bump hit the ground and Ike was OUT OF THE CHUTE and ON HIS WAY with NO PROBLEMS. At least no problems until he reached the mark!

Once at the mark he put his nose on it but just did not make the connection with picking it up in his mouth. He ended up sitting down and putting his foot on the bump.

While this visibly disappointed Mingo it was NO BIG DEAL or at least YET! Ike had shown a DESIRE and a bit of DRIVE when the mark was thrown. He had shown a real interest in GOIONG TO THE MARK! Our job now was to teach the pup to BITE the thing and PICK IT UP IN HIS MOUTH! Normally, this takes place while playing with toys , balls and such around the house and Ike had been get'n a good dose of this from Mingo BUT it the connection was just not being made.

We had a way to hopefully cure this and that would come in the from of a LIVE PIGEON. IT WAS TIME! We needed to know if Ike had what it took . We needed to know if Ike was BIRDIE enough to make a Gun Dog. IF a Gun Dog Prospect ain't BIRDIE and you can't turn dat ole PREY DRIVE ON in the pup IT AIN'T GONNA MAKE IT! We were both NERVOUS as hell to undertake this thing BUT IT WAS IKE'S TIME!

We drove by the house and I got the old six foot Fishi'n Net and we were off to a spot where I figured we could net us a couple of pigeons. That spot was ONE HUNG LOWE'S CORNER GROCERY right in the middle of town. This is a small converted gas station that has one of those covers that when you gassed up you parked and stood under. While One Hung Lowe had removed the gas pumps long ago he had left the awning.

The end of the awning was now open in the end as the trim boards had rotted off. Hey, ONE HUNG LOWE'S is kind of run down but if yo want FRESH SKOAL for a full buck less that what everybody else is selling it for a the newest issue of Play Boy along with your Six Pack of Silver Bullets this is the place to go.

The joint was still closed so we pulled the rear of the truck up to a point where stanging up on the rear bumper would put me head high to the opening on the end of the awning. JACK POT! No , not a JACK POT on the LOTTERY but PIGEON JACK POT!

Inside of the cubby hole underneath the top of the awning was a Momma Pigeon still tending a pair of fully feathered out young Squabs. JUST RIGHT for IKE to BITE!

Now I don't know what all dem folks go'n to church was think'n as they sat at the Red Light and looked over to see tow slightly portly Old Farts Fish'n for PIGEONS but at least NO ONE CALLED THE COPS! Course you see a lot of strange sights in a town that has a large MENTAL INSTITUTION a few blocks down the street.

With our precious cargo sutffed down into the pockets of Mingo's shorts we made for an ecnlosed Tennis Court to give Ike his TEST! Along the way the pigeons were squirming to get out of Mingo's shorts. Bout run off the road laugh'n as each time one would get to mov'n around it wold look like MINGO WAS PLEASUR'N HIMSELF. Hell, it looked like he was actually ENJOY'N hav'n a pigeon in each pocket. Damn near pulled off the road so's I could transfer'em over to MY POCKETS!

In short order we reached out destination and we took Ike inside a fenced in area that fully circled four Tennis Courts. This area is PERFECT for what we needed. It was flat and level with nothing to get in the way of a wing clipped pigeon running for it's life. It could not get away from Ike IF HE WOULD EVEN CHASE the bird.

Again, Mingo halded Ike while I tossed the Pigeon out onto the ground in front of Ike with a Hey UP ! The pigeon fluttered to the ground while futilly beating his wings. Ike sat there for a bit and took it all in. But, we could tell that the running and flapping pigeon seemed to click something on . Just hoped it was Ike's PREY DRIVE that was get'n clicked on. That instinctive thing deep inside his getetic makeup that forms the base for everything that was to come. DID IKE HAVE IT OR NOT!

While Mingo was about to BUST A GUT to HELP the young Gun Dog Prospect to GO after the bird he held it in and remained still and quiet. Then, IT CLICKED IN! Ike took off after the bird. He began to CHASE IT and we could tell that he was increasingly being DRIVEN by something to keep after the bird. The pigeon made it up against the fence and stuck to it. Ike ran up and placed a foot on top of the bird and dropped his head and nose down in order to more closely inspect the bird. COME ON IKE BITE THE DAMN THING! IT'S GOOD!

The pigeon wiggled loose and escaped the enslosure by squeezing thru a turned up spot at the bottom of the chain link fence. He disappeared into a thick line of evergreen trees. Mingo took Ike out and around and entered the tree line with Ike. The entagled brush made it impossible for Mingo to go to far with Ike but Ike showed a bit of Gun Dog savvy as he quickly began to search around in the thick brush for the bird. He visibly winded the scent and while I watche him thru the tress brances and wire Ike again pinned the bird to the ground and dropped his head and nose down. I reported to Mingo that Ike had indeed located the pigeon BUT we still had NOT GOTTEN A BITE!

For whatever reason Ike decided to BITE THE BIRD. His first one was a bit tenative but we could tell that Ike's first taste of a bird and feathers in his mouth was GOOD as he quickly dropped his whole muzzle down and PICKED UP THE BIRD using his whole mouth.

The pigeon managed to squirm loose one more time and this time Ike KNEW WHAT TO DO. That was to POUNCE on the bird and PICK IT UP IN HIS MOUTH. The INSTANT he did so MINGO called him put while lavishing praise on the young pup. He removed the pigeon from Ike's mouth while keeping up the praise. We could both tell from Ike's reactions and attitude that he had found something that was HE LIKED. Something he LIKED A LOT even though he did not know WHY!

Mingo brought the bird and Ike back into the fence and we again tossed the pigeon out for Ike. This time the pigeon only made it a short disatance before Ike was on him like STINK ON POOP and BIT HELL outta damn ole SKY RAT! He fairly pranced back towards Mingo bowing his lil neck a bit in order to faciliate getting the birds body up off of the ground. JUST LIKE HIS MOMMA!

Both Mingo and Granpa were proud as punch. It looked like Ike had indeed passed this test and was well on his way to having the makn's of a Gun Dog! While we all had realized the needed degree of SUCCESS there would be no time for celebration passed what took place there in the middle of the Tennis Courts. It was time to start BUILDING on this success.

In order to do so Mingo would have to take the pigeons home with him and arraange for a way to HOUSE and MAINTAIN the unlucky pair of pigeons we had secured for this. In addition, Mingo would need to on a daily basis drop a pigeon out on the ground for Ike to CHASE! He would also need to house the pigeons close enough to Ike's dog run so that the pup could SEE , HEAR and SMELL those pigeons WITHOUT being able to get hold of them.

Mingo had a small rabbit cage and he would use this to house the birds in. He ended up hanging the cage up off the ground via wire. So , there it was. The rabbit cage used to house Sky Rats right next to Ike's run. Situated in just the right spot so it would serve to TEASE the young pup all day long. The hope was that each time Ike came out of his run he would make a BEE LINE to the area underneath the Pigeon cage and TRY LIKE HELL to REACH THEM. Then when he finally got one released for it he would be ready to TEAR THE SKY RAT'S ASS OFF!

Mingo called the next evening and reported that indeed all of this had come to fruition. Ike was sitting for hours on end at the edge of his run looking longingly up at the cage suspended from the tree branch. When Mingo would turn him out Ike would make that BEE LINE to the cage where he would be frrstrated by his inablility to get to the Sky Rats!

Then when Mingo would take one out and drop it on the ground Ike would indeed have his way with the bird. he was BIT'N THE HELL OUTTA DEM PIGEONS and was bringing them to Mingo!

An old Retriever Trainer once told me that to a Retriever there is NOTHING more SATISFYING and REWARDING to a young pup than to have a Live Bird in it's mouth. WHY? It seems that there is no real answer or at least one that humans can undersand. Some have offered that it is indeed genetically IN THE DOG while some have offered that the warm body and BEATING HEART of a live bird have something to do with all of this.

WHATEVER it is it IS one of THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS needed by a pup IF it's gonna MAKE IT to the desired goal. It looks like IKE has GOT IT!

Congrats to Mingo and Ike! MORE , LOTS MORE TO COME guys as your just get'n started.

Dad takes a swim
posted: June 15, 2006
author: Mingo

I learned with my kids that if you take a kid fishing, you should leave your fishing pole at home because you will not get to use it. The same should be said about dog training. Joking aside, every time you take your pup out of the yard is an opportunity for good training, so if you have things you have to do, you need to consider taking pup. Case in point, I was trying to wade fish some shallow brush. Of course, Ike wanted to go too, so he would swim in circles around me or crawl up on the log I was trying to fish. After I let him play with a fish or two, I put up the rod and threw a bumper for him a few times. He seems to handle retrieving in water a little better than on land, and I think this is because, while he likes the water, he is not going to play chase or lay down and chew in the water. He wants to get back on land, and that is where I am, so it helps to get him coming back to me, especially if I stand in the water about ankle deep.

Anyway, here's the good part. I took Ike to the back of a cove where it was calm to throw the bumper a few more times. The water here started off shallow but gets deep pretty fast. I threw out about 15 feet and Ike went after it. The problem is the bumper if a little bit big and hard for him to get in his mouth. As he is swimming for it he is bumping it with his nose and front feet, so he just keeps on going until he is about 30-40 feet out. He finally gets it and turns to come back, but now he is swimming up instead of forward and not moving toward shore, and not dropping the bumper. I calmly watch him for about 3 seconds, then, then jettison the wallet and keys, doing my best David Hasselhoff (Baywatch guy) and hit the water like an angry bull hippo. I have no idea what the right thing to do in that situation, but I gave his butt a shove in the right direction and helped him swim back. He never dropped the bumper and I threw a few more for him, since I was already soaking wet, and he did just fine.

So, we both learned something.

Ike
posted: June 15, 2006
author: Mingo

I have been duck hunting a long time, but never really appreciated what a good retriever can do until seeing some good dog work the past few seasons. I had asked Urban about a pup season before last, and noticed that while he talks a lot, he REALLY talks alot when talking about dogs. I was fortunate enough to see Daisy and Lucy work, so when Lucy produced a litter, I wanted one. Ike was whelped April 1st, and we brought him home last Friday. He is smart, cute, hard-headed, eager and 100% puppy. I have trained a few English Setters a long time ago, but had forgotten what it was like to have a puppy. It is amazing how like a kid he is, how fast he can learn and how quickly he will try to get away with things he knows he is not to do. After settling in, we are working on walking on the lead, sit, stay and the basics like NO and quiet.

He is taking to water well and loves the duck wing. Looks like it will be a busy summer.