Blind Ambitions

As the days heat up and mid 80 to 90 degree days are the norm, it is difficult to think about the cold wet days of duck season. However it is now that I turn my focus on to scouting for the upcoming season. First off, those warm days make a great excuse to get the canoe out and hit the river for a day trip. Heck I might even invite the wife along and pack a shore lunch. All the while I am looking for where any resident birds are hanging out, and checking for any new clearings that may have been made over the spring and things like that. The resident geese will be loafing on their favorite spots so you can pinpoint some late morning hunting spots by finding them. I always carry my GPS with me while on the water to mark spots where I see activity or little potholes I find. I carry an older model Garmin GPS12 because I have had it so long I am comfortable with it. There are many different models available, and some have the topo maps built in, you can find more at www.garmin.com .  Topo maps are great as well to look at the surrounding land features. I like Google Earth, but many of the places I hunt are pretty rural and they don’t offer good images, so I stick with my old USGS topos for the most part. Places like terraserver and mytopo.com are good places to find topos on line. You cna customize and print the maps using the programs for a fee. I also take a long an ultralight and a spinning reel for the smallmouth hot spots I may run across. It makes for a great day and helps me be more prepared for next year.

A USGS Topo map may be the greatest scouting tool available:

The Garmin GPS12, it is a dinosaur when compared to todays handlehld GPS units, but is still works great and I just can’t part with mine.

Check out your favorite waterfowl area and you should see this year’s offspring. From what I’m seeing it looks like a good hatch in many areas.

Mallard Ducklings

For geese this could be good because anyone that has a flock of geese on their property the opportunity to hunt them could be a door knock away. At this stage they are cute and photogenic but Geese have a way of wearing out their welcome rather quickly.

If you’re like me you may need to brush up on your duck identification and here is a great site for that. Ducks Unlimited has a great ID page and in many cases includes the sounds as well so check it out and maybe you’ll learn a few things.

Well today is very exciting, in a few hours, I’ll be west bound headin’ for Stuttgart, Arkansas. I’ll be spending three days with some of the best retriever trianers around. A few months ago Avery and Mack’s Prairie Wings advertised that they would be offering some three day retriever camp events in the spring and they would be free to those who were chosen. To be considered you had to write a letter explaining why you and your dog should be chosen. Luckily, I was selected for the third and final event of the spring; and Hershey and I will be in the young dog group. There will be 12 dog/handler teams on hand for the weekend. I am sure I’ll have tons of new pictures and info to post after the weekend. Be sure to check out www.averyoutdoors.com and www.mackspw.com

Taking a break from the dog talk for a moment; I wanted to share a bit of information I came across yesterday. Ducks Unlimited Canada has released their Late Spring Habitat Conditions Report. It is a very encouraging spring so far, with plenty of water for mating pairs to raise young and plenty of food sources. This is a good early sign that the duck numbers may be strong next year. You can view the report as a PDF file http://www.ducks.ca/resource/general/wetland/pdf/07mayhab.pdf 

Continuing with the theme of buying a puppy to turn into a duck dog… 

Another thing to look for whan buying a dog is to check for a couple of health clearances. Many breeds of purebred dogs are prone to different genetic and orthapedic diseases. The Orthapedic Foundation for Animals, or OFA (www.ofa.org) is one organization that does a great job helping with this. In labs, it is a good idea to be sure the sire and dam of a puppy you want to buy have had their hips and elbows X-rayed and rated by OFA. Hip and elbow dysplasia are two common orthapedic ailments found in labs. Below is a picture of an X-Ray submitted for a prelimary OFA rating, this X-ray rated “Good”

 Another thing to look for is a clearance from the Canine Eye Registry Foundation. CERF (http://www.vmdb.org/cerf.html) does testing on a dog’s eyes to look for any genetic problems that can be passed on to a litter of pups.

This is not to say that dogs without these health clearances are not good breedbale dogs that will throw good healthy puppies, but it is a way to gain some piece of mind about the health of the puppy you want to bring home.

Check out the OFA and CERF website for more information.

I stopped by the local lake and got some great waterfowl shots this past weekend I hope you enjoy.

“I’m Spitting Mad”

Looking at a dog’s pedigree can be a very confusing thing. Very well bred waterdogs will have a family tree that looks more like alphabet soup than dog names. There will be initials and acronyms on both sides of the already crazy 3 to 4 word names. However once you learn the basics it’s not all that bad. Let’s start by explaining titles; dog’s that run Hunt Tests and Field Trials can earn titles. You can find out what all these titles are by going to http://working-retriever.com/library/rettitle.html . For the most part, if you find a puppy that has a lot of titles in it’s pedigree that should tell you that the dog has the genes to be good. However, some of the best duck hutning retrievers in the world have never run a hunt test and never earned a title. Something I learned several years back was to not judge a pup soley by the titles in the pedigree. Look at the names on the pedigree, do most of the names have something to do with hunting? If so that can be a key that the dog has the genes to hunt, but don’t get too hung up on titles and only concern yourself with how many on the paper. Having  GRHRC and HRC dogs in the lineage is definatley a plus when scanning a pedigree, but with some research there are great pups out there without the family titles. Print the link with the titles above and refer to it when looking at pedigrees, it will help it all make a little more sense. Next time we’ll look at OFA, CERF and Health Guarantees from breeders and what you should expect.

 There are few things in this world as cute as puppies, and a furry little; droopy eyed lab pup is one of the cutest. So you make the decision to get a puppy, what do you do next? For many folks they check their local classifieds ads for someone selling lab pups. Although there have been many great duck dogs that came form newspaper advertisements, with the internet and the global network we have today it is much easier to find well bred puppies from responsible breeders. A few things to look for are registration. Is the pup registered with AKC, UKC or another registry organization? Do the parents have health clearances such as OFA (hips/elbows) and CERF (eyes)? We will discuss OFA and CERF in detail later. What type of health guarantee is the breeder going to give you? These are all important questions to ask, and responsible breeders will gladly provide you with all of this information. This seems like a lot of information to go through just to buy a puppy, but it is worth it in the long run. This puppy is going to be with you and your family for, hopefully, a long lifetime; you want to make sure you are buying a puppy that has the make up to be a good, healthy dog

 Next time we will look at Pedigrees, what they mean and what to look for.

Photos by Billy Mosley 2006

Wood Ducks are the back bone of duck season here in the south it seems. Many of days afield are saved by the early flights of wood ducks that for most part stay in the area and raise their young. With the Wood Ducks we are not so dependent on a migratory schedule like we are for a lot of the other species. The wood duck is about the prettiest duck you’ll ever see.

It’s a bit late for putting up nesting boxes for this year but maybe a good project to tackle with a young’un this summer. Constructing and erecting nesting boxes is a great way to expose your young hunter to the importance of conservation and habitat improvement to continue the success of the wood duck. Here are some plans from DU.