15 Minutes...

Labs

Labs

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30+ flushes in 15 minutes, 4 shots, 1 limit. It was crazy even by ND standards. Each dog got a retrieve...
 

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If you were alone, bet that tribe of dogs weren't quite ready to quit. Did they give you a strange look when you told them to load-up?
 
Those kind of hunts are so amazing, but then you hop back in the truck and wonder what are you going to do all day. it always feels a little bittersweet when you get a quick limit. Nice looking pack you got there!!!
 
2 years ago I got a late season SD limit in about 15 minutes. After bird number 2, knowing I still had all day to hunt (and wanting to hunt the entire day), I sat down in the field, called my wife, took a few "action pictures" of the dog re-retrieving the bird. Then got back up, and not more than 10 yards away a rooster got up and instinct kicked in and down went bird #3, just yards from where we'd been hanging out and not being quiet by any means. That was a bittersweet end to the day. It was now 10:15am and I was done for the day, on day 2 of a 4 day trip. I did get successful scouting in the rest of the day and tried to remind myself that it would be a good rest day for the dog.
 
Labs said:
30+ flushes in 15 minutes, 1 limit. It was crazy even by ND standards. Each dog got a retrieve...
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Wow. Fun! We all deserve one of those once in a while. I somewhat commonly get a limit in 15-30 minutes, but it usually comes after a big goose egg for the previous hour or two. 😆
 
ehudgens said:
Those kind of hunts are so amazing, but then you hop back in the truck and wonder what are you going to do all day. it always feels a little bittersweet when you get a quick limit. Nice looking pack you got there!!!
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Thanks. Left to right is Rowdy Girl's Dakota Black Heart (Jetta), Warrior Princess' Born To Boogie (Boogie), and Northern Prairie's X Marks The Spot (Harley). Collectively they are known as The Wrecking Crew.
 
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Labs said:
Thanks. Left to right is Rowdy Girl's Dakota Black Heart (Jetta), Warrior Princess' Born To Boogie (Boogie), and North Prairie's X Marks The Spot (Harley). Collectively they are known as The Wrecking Crew.
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I always have had labs.
 
Last Tuesday when it was snowing, my wife and I decided to go out driving around and see if we could get on a bird or two. We saw a rooster dart into some cat tails roadside. We pulled over, unloaded the dog and started walking a long strip of cat tails. 10 minutes later we had 6 birds in the bag. A day we both will talk about for a long time.
 
Back in the mid 80’s I hunted in Iowa quite a bit. Could leave my house at 530 and be at some private I had permission at by 8 am. Usually would make one day trips. On one occasion shot a double five minutes in and a single ten steps after putting the birds in the vest. Three years ago shot three on a staggered flush after missing the first one. That included a quick reload of the 16 ga O/U in the middle of the flush. I was pretty impressed with myself. :)
 
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"Each dog got a retrieve..." - This is all that matters...!
 
Nugent said:
I dont see how you get each of them a bird.Thats hard to do.Usually one dog will get most.
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Not overly hard to do in this instance due to where each dog was at the shot, because I could clearly see them and the falls, and because they are trained to honor the other dog's retrieve.

In waterfowl hunting where we often hunt multiple dogs at the same time, a basic part of retriever training is that the command to perform a marked retrieve is the dog's name. They don't hear their name, they stay at heel or in their blind. This is crucial for safety, particularly when field hunting. No matter how excited they get the dog has to constantly be in control and paying attention to the handler, and must respond instantly to any command. Because there might be two or more retrievers under the control of different handlers out in the spread retrieving downed birds at the same time, part of this aspect is honor training. This has a slightly different meaning than it does in the pointer world. With retrievers this means when when one nabs a bird, the others leave that dog be to complete the retrieve.

When hunting upland where all the labs are hunting at the same time, the task is different but the training translates. In this case, the majority of the time the closest dog gets the retrieve, and once one has the bird, everyone else leaves him/her alone to complete the retrieve.

The only one of the Crew who tries to get away with poaching another dog's bird is Harley. Being a good natured but dominant stud, he figures everything in the world belongs to him or exists for his amusement. All it takes is a page or nick on his ecollar to remind him it's not his bird if he tries to get away with taking it from the one that has it.

I would guess this season, Harley has 50% of the retrieves, Jetta, 30%, and Boogie 20%...
 
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Labs said:
Not overly hard to do in this instance due to where each dog was at the shot, because I could clearly see them and the falls, and because they are trained to honor the other dog's retrieve.

In waterfowl hunting where we often hunt multiple dogs at the same time, a basic part of retriever training is that the command to perform a marked retrieve is the dog's name. They don't hear their name, they stay at heel or in their blind. This is crucial for safety, particularly when field hunting. No matter how excited they get the dog has to constantly be in control and paying attention to the handler, and must respond instantly to any command. Because there might be two or more retrievers under the control of different handlers out in the spread retrieving downed birds at the same time, part of this aspect is honor training. This has a slightly different meaning than it does in the pointer world. With retrievers this means when when one nabs a bird, the others leave that dog be to complete the retrieve.

When hunting upland where all the labs are hunting at the same time, the task is different but the training translates. In this case, the majority of the time the closest dog gets the retrieve, and once one has the bird, everyone else leaves him/her alone to complete the retrieve.

The only one of the Crew who tries to get away with poaching another dog's bird is Harley. Being a good natured but dominant stud, he figures everything in the world belongs to him or exists for his amusement. All it takes is a page or nick on his ecollar to remind him it's not his bird if he tries to get away with taking it from the one that has it.

I would guess this season, Harley has 50% of the retrieves, Jetta, 30%, and Boogie 20%...
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Great explanation Labs. I guess i never thought about retreive honoring but it makes sense. Always great to learn new things about bird dogs and it put another task for my future training.
 
Labs said:
Not overly hard to do in this instance due to where each dog was at the shot, because I could clearly see them and the falls, and because they are trained to honor the other dog's retrieve.

In waterfowl hunting where we often hunt multiple dogs at the same time, a basic part of retriever training is that the command to perform a marked retrieve is the dog's name. They don't hear their name, they stay at heel or in their blind. This is crucial for safety, particularly when field hunting. No matter how excited they get the dog has to constantly be in control and paying attention to the handler, and must respond instantly to any command. Because there might be two or more retrievers under the control of different handlers out in the spread retrieving downed birds at the same time, part of this aspect is honor training. This has a slightly different meaning than it does in the pointer world. With retrievers this means when when one nabs a bird, the others leave that dog be to complete the retrieve.

When hunting upland where all the labs are hunting at the same time, the task is different but the training translates. In this case, the majority of the time the closest dog gets the retrieve, and once one has the bird, everyone else leaves him/her alone to complete the retrieve.

The only one of the Crew who tries to get away with poaching another dog's bird is Harley. Being a good natured but dominant stud, he figures everything in the world belongs to him or exists for his amusement. All it takes is a page or nick on his ecollar to remind him it's not his bird if he tries to get away with taking it from the one that has it.

I would guess this season, Harley has 50% of the retrieves, Jetta, 30%, and Boogie 20%...
Click to expand...
I wish I could hunt with 3 dogs! I have a lab, and shes an excellent hunter.I can always tell when shes on a rooster.
 
It's pretty cool & as a trainer satisfying to see two or three labs that have been given the "mark" prep command cocked & locked, waiting to hear their name called.

Towards the end of the program I follow, I train my labs to find & retrieve arrows, article search, and shed search. Here is a pic of combining stump shooting within steadiness/honor training, and arrow retrieving. Both Josie (yellow) and Sunny (black) are holding steady, watching for the fall (in this case the arrow impact). The second pic was taken the moment I sent Sunny for the retrieve. Josie is cocked and locked but as she didn't hear her name called, is true to her training and remains steady at heel. The final pic is Sunny bringing the arrow back to me...

BTW, this is why most retriever guys who hunt multiple labs avoid call names that are remotely similar. If Josie's call name was say, Honey, and I call Sunny, she could well mishear the command and understandably think she heard her command to go...
 

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A few years ago I had six dogs to hunt. I used to split them up and hunt three at a time, two pointers and a flusher in each group. A couple of times I had to make the decision not to shoot the third rooster so I could hunt the other three so they would get a chance to hunt. Not so much the last couple years
 
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