Congrats on your new member of the family Frank! Glad to see that you chose the right breed as well! :-) This is my boy Buck with a couple public land roosters from last fall.
A dog has always been in my life even in the military, the best dog was a golden retriever that was stolen and the little english cockers has been my gun dog since 89.
When my oldest son pass away several years ago I got his brother/son an english lab which has eased his pain from loosing his best friend and brother.
Dogs are one of the most mistreated,abused and best friend. Amazing how a dog can bring a person out of depression and help in some mental disorders.
I rescued this one when he was 8 years old. He went to doggie heaven last September at 16 1/2 years old. I've got a lot going on right now, so can't get another yet. Next year I hope.
Matt I’ve had mostly labs. I got this little guy for my wife. He was a Goldendoodle. Smarter than any of my labs I’ve had. Within two weeks he was retrieving, and doing the sit stay come commands. Have a friend that had a standard size poodle that said it was the best bird dog he ever had. I fell in love with this little guy and then he got parvo. He had all his shots too. I won’t tell how much I spent to try and save him but we lost him. It’s been a tough 9 months. I’ve realized that after the kids are grown that pets mean a whole lot more than a pet. We are going to get another one in November. I will spray the entire property with Clorox and water again and shampoo all the carpets. It won’t be allowed outside for quite a while.
Yeah I did Owl. Not many BMC's up north in PA were I'm at. Went to Georgia to get him. The name was kind of funny. My wife thought I should name him Axel to get the name out of my system because I like it and she did not want it for a kid's name. When I saw that his mom's registered name is "Josie Rose" it was too good not to do it.
I love a good dog. Very enjoyable to watch a dog work.
We went 5 years without. Just too much with kids to worry about. But we got my 6 year old daughter a black lab for Christmas. He's fun to have around
I'm currently looking for trainers for shed dogs. He's 6 months now. Anybody know if any shed dog trainers in the Midwest?
I'd do it, I've trained some horses and labs before, but I just don't have the time right now. I want it done right. I think he'd be good at it. He uses his nose really well, and is a lot more nose centered than my last lab who was very visual.
Bake, super easy to train them to find sheds. I started mine out real early, just antlers around the house as chew toys etc. Then I started playing games with him outside and hiding them in the yard. Then I started hiding them in the CRP by our place. He finds them all and retrieves them. He's even found a couple legit ones now around our neighborhood on our morning walks as we have a lot of deer around in town. The problem I have is when I take him out to look for real we have too many pheasants in the places we shed hunt. He wants to hunt birds not horns, and I definitely do NOT want to break him of that habit. If I have him in the woods where there's no or few pheasants he'll find them but the vast majority of our sheds are in the CRP or field edges which are full of pheasants so what do you do? Still fun to take him out looking!
Jeff, after the deer tags are filled we do a LOT of late season pheasant hunting on public lands. I think we shot over 40 roosters during late November-December just the two of us all on public lands around where we live. We love eating pheasant so it's been great! I'm not a big bird hunter but I just love the exercise and watching the dog do his thing.
I think he'd pick it up quick. The problem is I haven't worked a lot with him. He'll retrieve. But that light bulb hasn't clicked on that if he gives it up, he gets to retrieve more.
I have kept him away from antlers, but recently introduced a fresh shed. Oh my! He has not wanted to give that antler up at all. He'll retrieve it, and he'll go get it in the shed where we hide it. But he doesn't want to bring it to you. He wants to bring it 5 feet away, then run away with it when you try to get it. :)
He needs to be force-fetched I think.
The plan has always been to send him off for training for ducks. But I really don't duck hunt much anymore. I think he'd get a lot more use as a shed dog.
So now the plan is sheds first, and then maybe just some basic duck training. Stay, get the duck that splashes down in front. Find the dead ducks in the weeds, etc. I don't need a dog to do 300 yard blind retrieves off of hand signals.
Buddy 2 found this shed on our farm in February 2010. I harvested the buck October 15th that year.
He found numerous sheds through the years, bringing some back on forays he went on alone. I think he picked it up because I gave him some as chew toys, but he also went with me when I hunted for them. Really think it is natural to many of them.
This one is special though. Hope my new pup is half the dog. Robin is finally getting excited again.
Definitely force break him if you know someone who does a good job at it. I really wish I had done that with Buck. He retrieves great but only when he wants to. Force breaking would take him to the next level. I can train them to do a lot but force breaking is one where you can ruin a dog if you do it wrong so I’m scared to try!
Thanks guys. We bonded already, he is following me around. We walked around our plot this morning. I gave him a shed for a chew toy. He is adjusting nicely.
That's a good looking boy you have there Frank. There's not much in this world that beats a walk in the outdoors with your lab at your side. After many years of having and training labs my only advice to you is to start training him right away but do it in very short bursts. They can learn so much at that young age but their attention span is VERY short. Best of luck to you and your new best friend!
