A good friend of mine is a young father of 3 and a police officer here in central Virginia. He works two jobs to try and make ends meet and has limited time for himself. He would like to find a started lab. Obviously he cannot afford to pay a lot but he can provide a wonderful home and a loving family. If anyone knows of a young(er) lab needing a good home, please PM me.
Young police officer and father needs a lab.
- Thread starter irish1
- Start date
Timwald144
New member
Wishing
I wish i could help your friend out. But I would like if you could tell him That I said thanks so much for putting it all out there on the line each and everyday to make this place a better place for all of us. Thanks so much to him and everyone one on this forum who has once helped this great nation
I wish i could help your friend out. But I would like if you could tell him That I said thanks so much for putting it all out there on the line each and everyday to make this place a better place for all of us. Thanks so much to him and everyone one on this forum who has once helped this great nation
henhenROOSTER!!!
New member
@irish1 - I think the world of your buddy as described - sounds like an incredible man!!! :thumbsup: But owning a dog period (much less a decent hunting dog) might not be such a good option for him.
Far more than the money, a well-trained dog (even for just good basic house manners) much less the hunting end of things - requires a huge time commitment. To do it right is really just like having one more child to raise! Any thing less is unfair to the dog (not to mention others) & a man usually only winds up with broken dreams and an unruly mutt. I have several close friends in similar situations who I tell the very same thing (and most of them are not even looking for a hunting dog, just a pet). I'm no pro trainer, but a minister on my 4th self-trained bird dog now (all labs & good ones for both waterfowl & upland). I have only ONE JOB & can barely find enough time with the one dog I currently have...
"Started" doesn't mean a thing unless it is kept-up-with & built-upon. I have had several friends in my lifetime in your buddies exact position - they bought a dog started by a trainer but had absolutely no time to follow up themselves. Every single one of them wound up with a huge disappointment at best & a few with a total unruly nightmare on their hands. Don't mean to go bursting your friends bubble, just trying to save him a headache if he's already on the short end of the stick timewise...
Having said all of that, LABS do hands-down/bar-none make the best house-dogs/family-pets in the world, especially when children are involved!!! That is IF someone else in the house can help pick up the slack whenever dad's not around...
How much time annually does your friend really have to actually hunt anyway??? Sounds like your buddy might best be served right now by a hunting buddy or two with a dog (kinda like having a good friend with a boat under the same scenario). :grin: Heck, if I lived closer I would be totally honored to take a man like that out hunting on his rare day off whenever he had time that didn't already need to be spent with the wife, kids or something else as equally important!
Please take all of this with a grain of salt from a man who currently owns a boat that NEVER gets used any more & an excellent hunting lab that is currently getting by on lots of backyard training, but not a single hunting trip afield yet this season! He is one hell of a home companion though (I think my wife might be more in love with him than me) & I do keep him raring-to-go just in case (but if he didn't already have several years with hundreds of birds locked under his belt, I would be in deep trouble with losing a lot of valuable/imperative training ground this yr - with a son currently with cancer, elderly-parents to intensively take care of in my spare time & getting way-behind-the-8-ball now on catch-up work due to the two)! :cheers:
Far more than the money, a well-trained dog (even for just good basic house manners) much less the hunting end of things - requires a huge time commitment. To do it right is really just like having one more child to raise! Any thing less is unfair to the dog (not to mention others) & a man usually only winds up with broken dreams and an unruly mutt. I have several close friends in similar situations who I tell the very same thing (and most of them are not even looking for a hunting dog, just a pet). I'm no pro trainer, but a minister on my 4th self-trained bird dog now (all labs & good ones for both waterfowl & upland). I have only ONE JOB & can barely find enough time with the one dog I currently have...
"Started" doesn't mean a thing unless it is kept-up-with & built-upon. I have had several friends in my lifetime in your buddies exact position - they bought a dog started by a trainer but had absolutely no time to follow up themselves. Every single one of them wound up with a huge disappointment at best & a few with a total unruly nightmare on their hands. Don't mean to go bursting your friends bubble, just trying to save him a headache if he's already on the short end of the stick timewise...
Having said all of that, LABS do hands-down/bar-none make the best house-dogs/family-pets in the world, especially when children are involved!!! That is IF someone else in the house can help pick up the slack whenever dad's not around...
How much time annually does your friend really have to actually hunt anyway??? Sounds like your buddy might best be served right now by a hunting buddy or two with a dog (kinda like having a good friend with a boat under the same scenario). :grin: Heck, if I lived closer I would be totally honored to take a man like that out hunting on his rare day off whenever he had time that didn't already need to be spent with the wife, kids or something else as equally important!
Please take all of this with a grain of salt from a man who currently owns a boat that NEVER gets used any more & an excellent hunting lab that is currently getting by on lots of backyard training, but not a single hunting trip afield yet this season! He is one hell of a home companion though (I think my wife might be more in love with him than me) & I do keep him raring-to-go just in case (but if he didn't already have several years with hundreds of birds locked under his belt, I would be in deep trouble with losing a lot of valuable/imperative training ground this yr - with a son currently with cancer, elderly-parents to intensively take care of in my spare time & getting way-behind-the-8-ball now on catch-up work due to the two)! :cheers:
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Thank your friend for me as well. This is not something to take lightly. I have had three dogs. The first was a rescue I got when I had two kids five and three. I took it back to the rescue after two days because even though it was a really nice dog it was obvious it was not going to work. I felt terrible and had one bawling kid but it had to be done.
The second dog I got as a rescue with my kids being twelve, ten, eight, and six. The second dog was very tolerant of my children and had an excellent tolerance for a spaniel. He passed away last year. I did not get to hunt him as much as I liked as I worked a job that required travel and with the kids being involved in activities it took time away from him.
The third dog is a Vizsla puppy we got last year. My kids are now seventeen, fifteen, thirteen, and eleven. The puppy would not have worked very well with younger kids as it is a very active dog and would have probably mowed them over. This dog I have probably had hunting (if you can call it that) fifteen to twenty times this year. I plan on hunting it every weekend until the season is over. I feel it is only fair to the dog and I have fair public hunting ten to fifteen minutes from my house. Plus I am working on getting my kids interested in dogs and hunting so the time does not detract from my family too much now.
Most people don't realize that you don't own the dog or whatever other possessions you have. They own you. There is only so much time in a day and ones life. Trying to raise four kids I can tell you the time commitment to the dog is equal or greater than what the kids demand. If your friend gets the dog which kid will give up the time to the dog?
The second dog I got as a rescue with my kids being twelve, ten, eight, and six. The second dog was very tolerant of my children and had an excellent tolerance for a spaniel. He passed away last year. I did not get to hunt him as much as I liked as I worked a job that required travel and with the kids being involved in activities it took time away from him.
The third dog is a Vizsla puppy we got last year. My kids are now seventeen, fifteen, thirteen, and eleven. The puppy would not have worked very well with younger kids as it is a very active dog and would have probably mowed them over. This dog I have probably had hunting (if you can call it that) fifteen to twenty times this year. I plan on hunting it every weekend until the season is over. I feel it is only fair to the dog and I have fair public hunting ten to fifteen minutes from my house. Plus I am working on getting my kids interested in dogs and hunting so the time does not detract from my family too much now.
Most people don't realize that you don't own the dog or whatever other possessions you have. They own you. There is only so much time in a day and ones life. Trying to raise four kids I can tell you the time commitment to the dog is equal or greater than what the kids demand. If your friend gets the dog which kid will give up the time to the dog?