Back in September I made some great friends at the Dave Walker training seminar. Two of them are Ruth and Mike Zangara of Overton, NV. They have a small brittany kennel down there called Medicine Rockz Kennel. Their nice little female Chloe was due to have puppies right after Annie and they whelped a beautiful litter of brittany puppies on October 19th. You can see the puppy pictures here and their pedigrees. Should be some very nice puppies for hunting homes and Mike and Ruth are great to work with. If you are in the Las Vegas area looking for a good hunting dog puppy, give them a call.
Had a great time at the Dave Walker dog training seminar yesterday at the Lee Kay Center in Salt Lake City. I was a little disappointed in the turnout from the local crowd, but the smaller group made for an excellent day for those of us that were there. We were all able to get one-on-one training and advice from Dave while he worked with each of our dogs several times. Here is a picture of Dave working with my Brittany dog Annie. I was able to learn several things that will help me and Annie get to the next level which is steady to wing and shot.
Two highlights for me were first winning the brand new Tri-tronics Pro 500 G2 EXP Training collar in the raffle. I have been wanting a 2-3 dog training collar system for quite a while. The Tri-Tronics collar is as good as it gets and is over a $500 value. This is the model that Dave Walker uses as well. The second highlight for me was the privilege of buying Dave Walker dinner after the long day and to just chat with and get to know him better. Besides being a hall of fame dog trainer he is also a real down-to-earh person and a true gentleman. Thanks to Dave and his friend Charles for taking the time to come down to Utah. I took a lot of notes and got much more than my money’s worth. Thanks to the folks at the Wasatch Front Brittany Club for hosting the event.
I highly recommend Dave Walker’s book “The Bird Dog Training Manual”. The book is a culmination of more than 3 decades of dog training wisdom. I didn’t have my checkbook at the seminar so I ordered the book online from his website. His methods are sound and humane and when you see them put into practice you will be an instant convert. If you ever have a chance to attend one of Dave’s seminars, don’t miss it.
Just mailed my check in for the upcoming Dave Walker dog trainng seminar. I have heard so many good things about Dave and his training methods I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. It’s being hosted by the Wasatch Front Brittany Club and it’s only a couple hours drive to the training grounds. The only hard part for me is deciding which dog to take with me to the seminar. Since Annie has been behaving so well I think I will take her, besides Dave Walker is a brittany guy anyway.
Another thing I am looking forward to is meeting some of the folks from the Utah Bird Dog Fourm who will also be attending the seminar. Since I live in a more rural part of the state it is sometimes hard to connect with fellow bird dog folks. I am hoping to talk to the folks at the Wasatch Brittany Club about the logistics of starting a bird dog club in Central Utah. A few of us have been kicking around the idea of starting a club for some time. The only trouble is we don’t know exactly how to go about it.
One thing we are considering is covering a broader spectrum of hunting dogs instead of specializing in one breed or breed type like pointers or retrievers. The idea is to welcome all hunting dogs and their owners, to get together and discuss training ideas and gear, and to do some fun hunts to prepare for testing or trialing. It seems like the hard-core guys hit the trialing/testing circuit hard during the summer months, but the casual hunters just kennel their dogs until hunting season. Hopefully, a bird dog club could be useful to both hunters and trialers alike.
