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May 15, 2013
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I recently attended the Washington State Search and Rescue Conference in Ellensburg, Wash., and sat in on several canine classes – everything from double-blind testing that can stand up to cross-examination in court to the meteorology of scent.
Perhaps my favorite seminar was a canine first-aid class tailored to search and rescue folks, who, like hunters, usually find themselves in the backcountry and unable to easily get to a local vet when something happens, and who are also constrained by the amount of stuff they can carry.
[ Read Full Post ]May 7, 2013
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The popularity of shed hunting has grown greatly over the last several years, and many trainers are developing programs to teach dogs to search out and find antlers. Three years ago, Tom Dokken started developing products to use in training, and then a hunt-test-like program to inject some fun and competition into the scene.
This year, on April 13 and 14, the third NASHDA World Shed Championship took place in Northfield, Minn. The North American Shed Hunting Dog Association runs qualifying events just like a retriever or pointing dog hunt test, with pass/fail standards. “The whole idea is for events to be fun, for people to run their dogs and create good camaraderie,” said Dokken. “Most people are more than happy to share training tips and offer encouragement. In qualifying events, you’re not competing against anyone; you just have to find six antlers in 15 minutes.”
[ Read Full Post ]May 1, 2013
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A dog that suddenly stops carrying out a command could be confused. Or he could be subtly undermining your authority. Here’s how to tell the difference
A rowdy canine, like an obnoxious child, rarely displays its resistance to your authority suddenly. Instead, it’s usually a slow degradation of standards, brought on by the failure of the owner to pay attention to subtle cues and hold his dog accountable.
Yawning, scratching, shaking, sniffing, licking, or rolling over are just a few of the displacement behaviors your dog might use to delay performing a command. It’s likely he will have at least two or three favorites.
[ Read Full Post ]April 22, 2013
by Canine mortality has crossed my mind more often then I would care to acknowledge—I have a 13-year-old English bulldog, and after Kona's cancer scare. Then I saw a post on Facebook about dogs going to heaven and greeting us when we get there. The caption asked: "Do you believe our dogs go to heaven?"
I'm conflicted when I think about this topic; emotion and logic run headlong into each other and it combines with a good bit philosophy, too.
[ Read Full Post ]April 9, 2013
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Like many other companies (such as Eddie Bauer and Ducks Unlimited), D.T. Systems is bringing along a mascot puppy that they will follow through the training process from puppyhood to adult working dog. The e-collar company’s pup is aptly named D.T. and is being trained in monthly segments by Dan Ihrke.
If you remember, Ihrke was part of the two-day dog-training seminar I attended about three years ago, along with George Hickox, and for which we did a giveaway for here on Gun Dogs blog.
[ Read Full Post ]March 29, 2013
by Choosing the most versatile dog breed is THE topic that always comes up when owners with different preferred dog breeds hang out together. And it’s a fairly dangerous one that can devolve into “discussions” equaled only by adult-beverage-fueled “conversations” on politics and religion.
In fact, it’s such a great topic that everyone wants to play the game and try to declare the best dog for all huntingdom. A reader comment on the "Best Dog Breeds for Every Game Animal" spawned a discussion on Llewellin setters. Now Outdoor Life editor Andrew McKean has tapped me to declare an all-around best hunting dog — and put objective testing standards into the declaration — for the June/July issue of the magazine.
Here's the problem: it's impossible.
[ Read Full Post ]March 25, 2013
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A comment on my last post – “The best breeds for every game animal” – caught my attention. It was made by OL user valgards, and he stated:
Ok, two problems. First, you obviously buy into the AKC line that a Llewellin Setter is the same as an English. It's not. It is a breed all its own, and the best quail dog alive....
I’m all for pride of ownership, and the age-old debate as to which dog is the best hunter (however you’d like to couch it), but to separate lines within a breed seems like a bit of a stretch.
[ Read Full Post ]March 18, 2013
by Discussing the best breed of hunting dog for various game is kind of like arguing whether a Chevy or Ford is better. But, we’re going to take a crack at putting some definition to the hunting dogs discussion.
[ Read Full Post ]March 13, 2013
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Man's best friend for tens-of-thousands of years, the domestic dog has filled specific niches as a hunter, guard and beast of burden. Just how long we’ve manipulated the genetic code of dogs and bred them to fill those roles has been debated. However, new DNA evidence from a canine-like animal in central Asia has begun to put the debate to rest.
[ Read Full Post ]March 1, 2013
by The overall health of our gun dogs – including the genetic health, physical fitness and psychological balance – all play a role in their ability to train and hunt. This is something we all know to one degree or another, and it’s something that’s moved to the forefront of my thoughts after Kona’s scare with bone cancer and my involvement with a Paw Print Genetics, a new canine diagnostic and carrier-screening genetic laboratory, here in Spokane, Wash.
If you’ve ever lost a pet due to a disease, a gun dog or any other critter, you know the pain and sense of loss it brings, and the wish continually coming to mind that a cure existed. Put simply, the feeling sucks.
To that end, the AKC Canine Health Foundation oversees the research of many canine health issues; supporting them in several ways is an important step to finding cures for many of the issues that plague gun dogs.
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