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In a sign of economic prosperity, companion animals are on the rise in a country known for making meals out of them. China, whose citizens are famous for their love of status and virility symbols, has gone crazy for one of the largest dogs known: Tibetan mastiffs.

In fact, one named Obama commands $30,000 for a stud fee. In the last few months it's been reported in Chinese newspapers that the black-and-tan guard dogs have sold for as much as $600,000!

According to an article in USA Today, the upper limits for a Tibetan mastiff puppy in the U.S. tops out around $5,000. My question to you is: how much would you pay for a puppy? what about a started dog? or finished dog? Is there a limit?

There's an old axiom that says buying a dog is cheapest part of owning one. Yearly vet bills, monthly flea-and-tick treatments and food cost the average dog owner hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. And that's for healthy ones. Blow an ACL, get a breed that has genetic dispositions to heart, skin or respiratory problems and you'll be spending lots of time and many greenbacks at the vet's office. If you run hunt tests or show a dog, you'll spend thousands of dollars in travel, hotel rooms, entrance fees and food to put titles on the pooch.

I've heard (and read on internet chat boards, a guaranteed source of misinformation) of big-name stud dogs in the U.S. selling for more than $100,000 but have never been able to verify that as fact. It's not uncommon, however, for good, well-trained hunting dogs to fetch $15,000 to $20,000 (and quite easily, I might add). It's all about supply and demand, what the market will pay, how much disposable income a person has and what they plan on doing with the dog. For many, owning the best-performing dog in the country is a status symbol; even if they have nothing to do with the training and showing of the dog.

That idea of status and disposable income is what gave rise to companion animals in the first place. As countries economically develop, their citizens prosper and have money to spend on things that aren't necessary. It's one thing to feed and care for a dog that protects a flock of sheep or hunts game, both of which provide an ends to a mean, but it's quite another to provide the service to a canine that does nothing except sit on laps and is used as an ornament. That of course is a definition of disposable income; it's unnecessary but the person wants it anyway and can afford to do so. It shows the world that they have enough money to care not only for their family, but also enough to do the same for an animal that is of little use.

This has been true throughout the world, but perhaps most notably in England and the U.S. in the last 200 years. Many of today's dogs that fit within the various kennel clubs' "companion" and "toy" groups were bred into existence during this time. And it's true in China today, with the exception that the Tibetan mastiff isn't an ornamental, yappy lap dog, but a big (reaching 180 pounds!) guard dog with an impressive historical pedigree.

An ancient breed used on Tibetan steppe to guard yak, sheep and Buddhist monasteries, the mastiffs were once used in Genghis Khan's conquering army. These animals, like many canine breeds around the world, served a purpose to the people that cared for them. They're aloof guard dogs that have the power and tenacity to protect the family and their goods. It makes sense that the Chinese would pick such a large dog, which requires ample room to exercise and to be housed in (both key indicators of prosperity), and one with a definitively masculine stature, profile and duty.

While Chinese symbols and the animal world interact in very foreign ways to U.S. thinking, by no means should you discount Americans as immune to this syndrome. For proof all you have to do is look at a dog that is the subject of bans and exile the world over, one responsible for numerous attacks and that is used as a status symbol to project masculinity and a propensity for violence: the American Pit Bull.

Love 'em or hate 'em, pit bulls, you have to admit, are used by many to convey a sense of danger and toughness. They excel as catch dogs during hunts for wild hogs (something I wish I had been able to do when I lived in Texas). With the right owners, people that know how to handle dogs, give the animal plenty of exercise and instill obedience, pit bulls can be great pets, even in family situations. But for those that use it as a status symbol and encourage aggressive behavior (something that, depending how it's carried out, could predispose the animal to reacting in an aggressive manner while simultaneously lowering humans in the dog's "pack heirarchy" mentality), disaster awaits.

But I digress. Perhaps we'll talk about breed bans, mandatory spay-neuter laws and other nefarious canine topics at a later date. For now, how much would you pay for a puppy? It could be a started, intermediate or finished hunting dog or even a lap dog. What's the limit and under what circumstances would you pay more or less for a dog?

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Returning home the other night, I found two boxes in the living room my wife had set aside. I was a bit confused. I hadn't ordered anything and wasn't expecting anything either. The return address said "Browning" on it and I immediately started to get really excited. Christmas had come early!

Inside the two boxes I found a plethora of Browning gear. No, there wasn't a shiny, engraved Cynergy or Citori that I had used on this year's South Dakota pheasant hunt, but what was inside was almost as good: a complete set of Browning's newest waterfowling clothing to test and review.

While I'll try it out during the next couple of months of Big Sky winter, I can already tell a couple of items will be staples in not only my duck hunting attire, but also my dog training. For those of you that enjoy the Buckmark lifestyle, here's a look at some of their newest clothing:

Maxus Gore-Tex Jacket

The crown jewel in Browning's new line of waterfowling gear, the Maxus is a technical jacket that features the latest in design and technology. It's a shell that can be used alone for early season hunting or paired and layered with the 700-Fill Power Down Jacket for mid- and late-season hunts (the picture at the top of the blog is the Maxus in the field; you can see the gloves and hat, too).

Featuring Comfort Mapping construction, which uses three-layer Gore-Tex soft shell fabric in the upper body and Gore-Tex Paclite in the lower body and under the arms to maximize comfort, body temperature and mobility, all while maintaining water- and wind-proof breathability, the Maxus is a technological wonder.

A ton are of pockets for all your gear were created in this thing, including both upper and lower handwarmer pockets, a call pocket on the left chest with zippered closing, two lower bellow pockets for shells and an inside zippered security pocket. A detachable hood, bottom drawcord and license tab round out some of the features.

Although I haven't taken it into the field yet, there are a couple of other features that I can already tell will be beneficial. The adjustable rubber cuffs snug down around your wrists (even if you're small like me) to help keep water from running down your sleeve. I like the length of this thing, too. It's a versatile length that will protect you if you're in a layout blind but is lightweight and fits well enough to be comfortable if you're doing a bunch of walking while jump shooting. The sleeves aren't baggy, but do offer enough room for layering without binding up when shouldering a gun and taking the shot. It's a pretty sweet jacket.

Price: $388; available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind

700 Fill Power Down Jacket

I first saw this jacket back in September when at a fish camp on the Columbia River in Washington state and vowed to get my own. One of the guys from the outdoor cookware company Camp Chef was wearing the olive green version and I asked him about it. He loved it and wore it as a chill-protecting outer layer.

It's lightweight at 1 pound, 4 ounces and features Browning's 700-fill power down; a lightweight but insulating goose down. The fabic isn't tough or waterproof so you wouldn't want to wear this in inclement weather or rugged terrain, but it excels as a stand alone item in dry weather or to just knock the chill off when hanging around the campfire. Where it really shines, and what it was designed for, is as an insulating layer. The easily compressed down and slick jacket surface creates a warmth layer that doesn't bind nor carry the bulk of traditional down layering.

While newly available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind, if you're like me and don't normally wear camo out in public, there are several other colors to choose from.

Price: $148; available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind, Break-Up and Treestand, Tan and Olive.

Warm Front Shirt

It might sound a little weird to think of a lightweight, tricot-lined shirt as just as exciting as a new coat, but I do. I like layering shirts...it might have something to do with growing up in the Pacific Northwest during the grunge epidemic.

This shirt is pretty cool though (I've been wearing it since I opened the box), with two-coat style handwarmer pockets low on the sides, two chest pockets (one with magnetic closure, the other with a zipper closure) and two handwarmer pockets set up high. Lots of pockets with little bulk; excellent for layering during hunting or wearing alone when training. I can tell you now that I'll be wearing this shirt a lot this spring when training; the magnetic chest pocket is perfect for holding a lanyarded-whistle out of the way.

Price: $86; available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind

Warm Front Wader Pant

Every good shirt needs a pair of pants to with it and the Warm Front Wader Pants are a lightweight breathable under-wader pant with fleece lining. They're not a heavy pant, so if you're going to be duck hunting in extreme cold, you'd want to layer up with some type of base layer. With a polyester outer shell printed in Mossy Oak Duck Blind, they're stylish enough to wear to the local diner for breakfast without feeling like you're sporting an old pair of long johns.

The Warm Front Wader Pants feature four pockets (two front and two zippered back), elasticized waist and belt loops, zippered legs to expand over the top of boots or tighten down for a more snug fit for under the waders. Elastic stirrups ensure that the pants stay in place when putting waders on.

Price: $64; available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind

Gore-Tex X-Trafit Gloves

Gloves are my albatross. My hands get cold easily. It's a curse in the duck blind and on the slopes. The nice thing about both sports is that you usually have time to shove your hands into pockets or use handwarmers to help combat the problem. I'll be using these gloves this winter (like during snowball fights with my toddler, Tucker, as soon as I finish typing this) to see how they work for hands susceptible to the cold. The X-Trafit gloves are made of Gore-Tex so you know they're waterproof. There doesn't seem to be much insulation in them so I'm a little concerned that they won't keep my girly hands warm over a prolonged period. We'll see.

There are a couple of features that I do like about them though: the articulated fingers and hook-and-loop wrist adjustment create a nice fit while the flared wrist material fits over the snugged-down rubber cuffs of the Maxus jacket, helping to keep water and snow out (even if you happend to plunge a little deeper into the water than intended when picking up or laying out floating decoys). The Sensi-Flex Technology in the trigger finger is a nice touch that gives a little better feel when pulling the trigger.

Price: $74; available in Mossy Oak Duck Blind

Camo Cap with 3D Buckmark

The perfect stocking stuffer if you have a Buckmark-loving crazy in your household. It's available in a gazillion styles, colors and patterns. For the duck hunter, however, the only one you need is Mossy Oak Duck Blind.

Price: $15

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Great trainers don't just run drills or take their dogs into a field and let them chase birds. Great trainers start each session with a goal and specific task to accomplish. They set up drills and scenarios that help teach the dog bits and pieces of a larger concept. By micro-focusing on areas that might prove problematic to the dog, they can anticipate trouble and administer well-timed corrections, praise or avoid the issue altogether.

If you're not anticipating how your dog is going to behave to a situation, you're not really training; you're just reacting. If your dog makes a mistake because you didn't anticipate the problem, you're effectively teaching him to do it wrong. To train after reaching that point requires that you correct the dog to teach him that's not what you wanted.

Sometimes negative reinforcement is the way to go and what is required, but to wholly rely on it is not only lazy, it's unfair to your dog.

With a balance of positive and negative reinforcement properly administered, you can teach your dog how to react to very complex scenarios. And, as George Hickox and Dan Irhke both pointed out in the DT Systems Seminar I attended, by having a balance of positive and negative reinforcement and using them judiciously, you lend more credence to each.

Think of it like this: You have a scale from -10 to +10. In the middle is 0. In that middle ground of 0, the dog is just chillin'. No praise or punishment is adminstered. Moving along the scale on the positive side, the praise factor goes up for the dog. Moving along the negative side, the correction factor increases.

If your dog begins a drill at 0 and then does something right, you praise him and he moves up to say +2 (depending upon what praise you administered and how that particular dog reacts to that type of reinforcement). Let's say he does something wrong and you correct him to -2 (again depending upon the correction and how the individual dog reacts to it). That dog has moved four places on the scale. If you used just positive or only negative reinforcement in your training, then the most that dog would have moved is two spaces. By using an equal balance of positive and negative reinforcement, you make each correction or praise that much more important to the dog. It also allows you to use less pressure or praise to reward/punish the dog; saving greater encouragement or discouragement for more complex/demanding scenarios.

Using a reinforcer (positive or negative) requires good timing to be meaningful to the dog. Hickox has a pretty cool system that allows that timing to be stretched out, effectively creating a larger window of time for you to reinforce the dog's behavior. I'll talk about that in another blog because, to be honest, I want to reconvene with him to make sure I get it right. However, traditionally speaking, you have to administer that reinforcer in 1-3 seconds for the dog to comprehend what you're correcting or praising him for.

If you're just running drills or turning your dog loose and aren't tuned in to their behavior to the point that you can anticipate what they're going to do, before they do it, you're going to have a hard time discouraging or encouraging their behaviors (which is what training is all about). It goes further than just singular actions or behaviors (such as correcting a retriever for running the bank or a bird dog for bumping quail), anticipating what a dog's next move allows you to train more effectively and keep from compounding the problem.

While not a perfect example, if you look at the picture above, you'll see Kona pushing through the water headed for the bank. He's right of the blind (which is indicated by the orange stake on the bank to his left; it might be easier to see if you enlarge the photo). I'm about to give him sit whistle and left-back cast. I could wait until he hit the bank to do it or wait to see what he'd do when he did hit the bank. The problem, besides losing control, is that those weeds are pretty high and if he gets into them before I hit the whistle and he reacted, he could be deep into them and when he did sit, he wouldn't be able to see me. A come-in whistle would bring him out, but who knows what could happen between that sit and the come-in (especially if he were a young dog); maybe he gets distracted, maybe he winds the blind, maybe he finds another bird or any other number of possibilities. At that point I'd be losing control of the situation and hacking my way through it; teaching him who-knows-what.

A much better course, in my example and any other training session, is to anticipate trouble and know how to deal with it. You can do that with positive or negative reinforcement, attrition or by avoiding the issue altogether (which is usually your best bet, but not always).