Cove Mountain Kennels

 

     If you are looking for a yellow lab puppy, I just heard about a breeding that should be dynamite. Wasatch Labradors in American Fork, UT just announced a litter that should be born in July. I have a dog that is out Yellowstone Kennel’s Nitro, a maternal grandfather to the litter and have been really pleased with the dogs drive, desire for birds, and natural marking ability. Also, I have heard really good things about the sire, FC-AFC Pin Oak’s Texas Rex. There seems to be a basket full of field champions as you look at the pedigrees for these puppies.
     I’ve never met Gordon or Nancy Miner, but the breeding looks really good on these puppies. Also, I really like what they have to say about socializing puppies. It’s important to start with good breeding that brings together the best traits in a breed, but even more critically, puppies need to be socialized properly over the first critical two months of life.   So, if you are looking for a lab pup this summer, you may want to check out Wasatch Labradors at http://www.wasatchlabradors.com

 

     This weekend Julie and I attended Evan Graham’s Transition seminar hosted by the Northern Utah Retriever Club at the Lee Kay Center, just west of SLC, UT. Evan is the author of the Smartwork series of retriever training materials (Rush Creek Press). The training was excellent. I am a die-hard upland game hunter, not a field-trialer, which this seminar was geared toward, nevertheless, it was excellent, because I learned about how retrievers tick, what kinds of drills you can use to help them learn to mark falls and handle into blind retrieves, and just what you can expect at the highest levels from a dog. I have a lot of respect for field trialers. In order to win, they have to demand the utmost from their dogs. Therefore, they train and drill accordingly.
     A couple of the key principles I took away from the seminar were the following: You cannot expect a dog to be more exact than you are (Rex Carr), therefore you should set high exacting demands on yourself for training and expect them from your dog; accept nothing less.
     A solid basic foundation is critical for higher success.
     Your dog must find lots of yes’s (positives/successes) in the field and few no’s (corrections/failures). Set the dog up for regular success and build his confidence. Make him believe that he will succeed every time he charges off the line and he will; you build his expectations for success.

     I really enjoyed Evan. He was very personable and a great teacher. I liked his methods, because they were well reasoned and stepwise, moving from one phase to the next to build a winning dog step by step.

     I felt like I got a whole year’s worth of training experience in one weekend. I was really impressed with the level of dogs of all of the participants there. We have some great trainers here in Utah. It got me jazzed up to take my training to a higher level.

 

A little neighbor girl got a new puppy the other day. She is so cute with the pup. Kids and puppies just go together. She came over to find out all about puppies and how to take care of him. I hope the excitement lasts. She sure does love this little puppy.

 

You’ve got to wonder sometimes what a dog is thinking. I believe Allie was day dreaming about sunny winter days flushing chukars. Man, I want to go hunting!

 

You couldn’t have asked for a better day Saturday at the shooting preserve. The weather was mild with a slight breeze, just right for working flushing dogs. We were working working three different retrievers, Blade, Allie and Sophie. The heavy cover along the Sevier River at Rooster Valley Pheasants made for excellent training on pheasants in natural situations. The birds held pretty well and flushed strong for the retrievers. Since it is the end of the season on the shooting preserve, each dog got lots of work on birds. Lots of birds make for a good bird dog.

 

I have consistently been impressed with Dogtra electronic training collars. I just had an opportunity to test Dogtra’s newest upland collar, the 2500 T&B and really liked it. It is a training collar and beeper/locator collar all in one. The awesome thing about this collar is that the training collar and the beeper are built into one single small unit, rather than two separate units like most upland training collars.

Dogtra e-collars have consistently been of excellent quality, have great features, and best of all, come in small packages (both the transmitter and the receiver), so it is comfortable on the dog’s neck and in your hand. It has three beeper modes: running/pointing, where the collar emits a sound at regular intervals then emits a faster signal when the dog is on point; point only, where it only sounds when the dog is on point, and the Locate button, which emits a sound when the button on the transmitter is activated. I also liked the rheostat dial with the digital readout.

What I was most impressed with the collar was the small size of the unit. It will make a comfortable, durable training tool. It will be really nice to run the dog with this locator collar in the thick CRP grass looking for ringnecks this next fall. Check it out at the Dogtra website.

(Photo from Dogtra.com)

 

 We had Oakley (black lab) out last weekend trying to polish him up on both flushing and retrieving. It is getting near the end of the pheasant season on the shooting preserves here in Utah. The birds all worked great for the dog, they held fairly well and flushed strong and wild. It was a great workout for Oakley, plus it was a great time for Jake (owner) and his brothers.

 

Three times now over the last thirty days I have had people call me saying they have found my dog. While it hasn’t been my dog, they have been dogs I have trained. In each case, I sent the dog home and thankfully forgot to take off my collar, which has my nameplate. Somehow the dogs have gotten out and been running around the city and have been picked up by people in the area. Each time they had a cell phone and called right away. I have been able to call the owner and put them in touch with the person that found the dog and the dogs have been returned quickly. If those dogs hadn’t had a nameplate and weren’t  microchipped, I hate to think of the heartache it might have caused.

The first thing we do when we get a new dog is to take photos of the dog, put a good sturdy collar with a metal buckle (not a fastex-type) on the dog with a name tag and get the dog microchipped (avid – home again). That way, if anything were to happen and a dog got out and was picked up it can be returned quickly.

Since most folks now carry cell phones you have a good chance of getting a call right away if someone finds the dog. I suggest putting your name (not the dog’s), your home phone and cell phone on the tag. Some folks I know also put the phrase “Needs Medication!” or “Needs Meds” on the tag with the idea that the finder will feel a greater sense of urgency to get the dog back, or if they were considering stealing the dog they wouldn’t want something that’s going to fall over with seizures at any moment.

If you don’t have a nametag on the dog and don’t have a microchip implanted, here’s a to-do list for you:

1.) Get your nameplate on the dog: Get online and order a metal tag. They cost about $3 including shipping; some of the best money you will ever spend. Many of the hunting/training dog suppliers will provide a free name plate if you purchase a collar from them. Collars with nameplates range from $4 to $24 depending on how fancy you want. GunDogSupply.com
2.) Take new photos of the dog: Take them from different angles and photograph anything unique about the dog.
3.) Get the dog microchipped: Make an appointment with the vet or animal shelter and get the dog microchipped. If you have microchipped the dog, but have not yet sent in the paperwork, send it in. Often clinics make you fill out the paperwork there and they send it in so they insure that it gets done. Otherwise the dog registration comes back to them and they don’t often have a record of who the owner is. Make sure the paperwork has been sent in.

Jump on it and get it done today, you won’t regret it.