Jake is really starting to mellow out a bit and lose his puppy energy levels and silliness. He enjoys going on ATV rides up into the mountains where he can burn off his excess energy. He stays with me quite well and will turn to the sound of his name or a whistle blast when I think he is getting off track. I recently read that force-fetch training can sometimes help bold up a dog that is a little gun-shy or bird-shy. So we will begin our force-fetch training in the next few weeks. This year I hope to start raising pigeons, quail, chukar and pheasant to help in my dog training endeavors. It will be a while before we can get out on wild birds again (fall hunting season).
The other day we chased a stray pheasant out of our chicken barn. The handsome rooster made the poor choice of flying into the airspace over Jakes kennel. Jake made one leap from the top of his dog house and snatched the rooster right out of the air. I was glad to see that he still had a strong drive for birds. As a reward I let him chew on the pheasant for a while. I am starting to wonder if the bad experience he had happened at the pheasant farm where we train at. He seems to do fairly well anywhere but the farm. The last time we went out at the farm he ran back to the ATV and lay underneath it at the first sound of gun fire.
This past week my brother-in-law Phil got to bring home his two littermate yellow lab puppies. I think he will have his work cut out for him. There is much debate about whether or not it is a good idea to raise two puppies instead of one. Many argue that the two pups can help entertain each other and keep each other out of trouble. Others will say that two puppies equals no puppy at all – a recipe for trouble in dog training. While the pros often have many dogs in thier kennels and claim it makes training easier. They say that If one pup is off his game, short-tie him and move on to the next puppy. I will keep in contact with Phil and see how this arrangement works out.
Phil did a lot of working creating a safe environment in his fenced-in backyard for the pups to learn and grow in. He built this custom puppy chalet with a dog door and room for two. He sent me a picture of him climbing inside the doghouse with the pups on their first night at home. The dog house really is quite large. He also fenced off a puppy-proof separate play area for the pups to stay in where they will be safe while Phil is at work during the day.
One of the most important things when learning to train a gun dog is to find a friend or group of friends you can train with. Since I am new to dog training I welcome any chance to learn from someone with more experience than myself. Today we went into the foothills with my friend Chris who has two very well-behaved yellow labs named Ally and Zeek. It was good for Jake to interact with them and watch how they behaved. Instead of being his normal crazy self he anctually calmed down and stayed close to the ATV’s.
Jake was glad to have an outing where he could just get out and run. We let the dogs run as soon as we got outside of town and boy did they run. We were on four wheelers and pushed them pretty hard to keep them working. I did get nervous when we jumped 50-60 mule deer that were just headed to water. Luckily, the dogs didn’t give chase and they just stayed close by. Poor Abby was left home because she still has a week left in lock-down until her heat cycle has passed. We had two labs, three shorthairs and a french brittany on this outing.
My neighbor ended up getting this male roan pup from the Taylormade litter that I had the pick of the litter on. This little male shorthair named “Ridge” may turn out to be a heck of a gun dog for my neighbor. The female that I had picked got stepped on by its mother and broke a bone in its leg so I opted to get my deposit back even though the pup healed and only had a slight limp. They found her a good companion home with an older gentleman. I hope to give it another try and get a dog from Taylormade Kennels sometime in the future because I think they have a great breeding program. I like how they are mixing show and field champions in their pedigrees. Meanwhile, I still get to watch this pup “a littermate” grow and develop since he just lives up the street.
Abby is entering her 2nd week of lock-down and seems to be feeling much better about life. She has gotten her appetite back and is eating well again. She is still spending most of her time in my shop with a few carefully supervised outings each day. She likes to go with us to feed the chickens and gather eggs. The chickens don’t like it much but Abby thinks it is great fun to bark and threaten the chickens. I tie her to a post a few feet away from the chicken coop while I tend to the chickens with my kids.
When we put her back inside the shop she comes right to the window and begins to plead with us to let her out. She really doesn’t like being inside all day. She would much prefer the outdoor kennel and the fresh air, but I can’t risk any visits from fence climbing mongrels. Even though our rural Utah town has a leash law, it seems that only a few of us are abiding by the rules. Most of the dogs in town roam free all day and night. In the spring I hope to fence in a large portion of my back property for the dogs to have a little more elbow room.
My Sister Jana sent me this picture of her husband Phil holding there new yellow lab puppy. I guess they decided to buy two little male puppies from this litter of yellow labs. Phil has been hard at work building a kennel in their backyard and a dog mansion. My sister and her husband live in Spring, Texas in the Houston area. They briefly had a golden retriever until they discovered that Jana was allergic to dogs. This time they are hoping that keeping the dogs in the backyard will not bother Jans’s allergies.
This past month or so I have been reading another great book by Bill Tarrant. This one is titled “Hey Pup, Fetch it Up!: The Complete Retriever Training Manual” and it is a real gem. There are many great lessons in training dogs and in understanding the relationship between dog and man. His personal preference for retrievers oozes forth in this gun dog training masterpiece. I’m only halfway through the book and I am already convinced that my next dog is gonna have to be a labrador retriever. Now I just have to convince my wife that I need one more hunting dog.
Yesterday I thought it was a little odd that Abby barely touched her food. This morning I discovered the reason why she wasn’t feeling like herself. She was spotting and her kennel mate “Jake” was paying unusually close attention to her. Turns out that she was going into heat for the first time. She is 10 months old and I was hoping she would give me a few more months to get Jakes kennel finished. This morning I moved Abby into my workshop until she gets through this first cycle.
After a bit of reading and research it looks like I will be keeping Abby in lock-down for a few weeks. I hope to breed Abby when she is 2-3 years old after I have time to get the proper health checks and screenings. In my reading I learned a lot about the heat cycle of dogs and when is the right time for breeding. Ten months old is definitely too young to have a litter of puppies. Poor Jake is a bit lonely out in the kennel all by himself. For not getting along very well, the two of them sure are showing some separation anxiety.
Kia is a german shorthaired pointer owned by our next door neighbors. She is great with my kids and approaches them cautiously and then sits patiently by their side awaiting the reward. My son Max loves Kia and calls her puppy. Actually every dog is named puppy in Max’s world. His world consists of “Shoes” which means outside, “Choo-Choo” his favorite toy, “Vroom-Vroom” is anything with wheels and “Puppy” is anything with fur. Out of my 5 children Max loves dogs the most. He is absolutley fearless and thinks every dog wants to lick his face even though he has been tumbled many times.