This past Saturday, my wife and I made a trip a little trip up in the mountians of NC to check out a litter of Chesapeake Bay Retriever pups. It was my wife who suggested we get a chessie. I am first and foremost a lab man, I love everything about a lab, but she wanted a chessie for her to run in hunt tests. So with her birthday being last Tuesday, I decided this may be good gift. My only stipulation was it had to be a male, I didn’t want any more heat cycles to keep track of, especially since this was going to be “her” dog. So we got to the breeder’s home and we spent some time with all three of the males. I threw a canvas puppy bumper for each one a few times. When I threw it for the last of the three, that dog took off, grabbed the bumper up and came right back to me. We did this one or two more times and he was as perfect as can be each time. I think we both knew which dog we were bringing home. So here is Gator, our 11 week old Chessie.

Yesterday I posted on the passing of Dakota’s Cajun Roux, perhaps the best chocolate lab to ever step to the line in a test or trail. I wanted to follow up and post of few of Roux’s accomplishments:

Hunting Retriever (HR) title earned at 14 months.

Hunting Retriever Championship (HRCH) title earned at 20 months.

Grand Hunting Retriever Championship (GRHRCH) title earned at 2 years.

Upland Hunt er (UH) title earned at 2 years.

Member of the HRC 500 point club at 3 years.

Tomorrow will be a new step for Avery Creek Retrievers as we will be picking up our new chessie pup. This will be the first Chesapeake Bay Retriever I have ever owned. I have been around a number of chessies, but I have always been partial to labs. After returning from a hunt test this past weekend, where a friend was running his chessie, my wife commented on how much she liked them. After talking about it for a few minutes, she said she wanted a chessie for her to run in hunt tests. So a few e-mails and phone calls and I found a good litter on the ground ready to go. We go to pick it up tomorow, and will beging socializing and trianing immedioatley. My goal is to have the pup ready to run a Started HRC test in February. I’m sure there will be plenty of pictures and up dates on the new pup. So stay tuned for the updates on our curly haired lab pup.

GRHRCH UH Dakota’s Cajun Roux MH 2002-2007

The retriever world lost a great one with the passing of Roux. Roux earned Grand Hunting Retriever Champion,  Uplanland Hunter and Master Hunter titles. Perhaps the greatest chococlate dog to ever play. He was one hell of a dog.

Bill and Cleo Watson made this statement:

“Roux crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning. He had been sick for a few weeks and they were trying to find out just what the problem was. The highly recommended Vet Clinic in Mandeville, LA, that works in conjunction with LSU were running all manner of tests and couldn’t decide if it was a tumor or fungal. Ronnie decided to take him to Texas A & M yesterday and they approved of all they had done in Mandeville but wanted to do a cat scan to determine just which one was the problem. It was a very fast growing tumor that had involved his heart and lungs and was inoperable. Ronnie chose to lessen the pain and suffering he was having and which would get worse quickly and let him go where he wouldn’t suffer anymore.

Roux was one hell of a dog and has and will definitely leave his mark on the Chocolate Lab world. We who knew and loved that wonderful dog will miss him. We send our prayers and sympathy to Ronnie and Connie Prudhomme and Bill and Geri Autrey for sharing him with all of us.

Roux left his mark on many pups and they will keep him memory and talents alive for years to come.

Rest In Peace young friend.”

Rest In Peace Roux, your were the best brown dog around.

This story was sent to me by Brad at Southern Adventures. It’s a feel good story about a dog that lost it’s leg in an accident, but did not let that keep it from doing what it is bred to do.

Loss of Leg Doesn’t Stop Huntign Dog

By DAVE KOLPACK – 3 days ago

CASSELTON, N.D. (AP) — Pheasant hunting season brings out the best in Tess, a 5-year-old German wirehaired pointer who became a national champion despite the loss of one leg. “When you let her out of the truck, she’s hunting from the second she jumps off that tailgate. Just like that,” said the dog’s owner, Keith Kemmer, snapping his fingers.

“She never quits. The other dogs, by the end of the day, they’ll come up and lay by the truck. Not her.”

It was Kemmer who accidentally ran over the dog’s right rear leg with his pickup about four years ago. He said he was devastated, not only for the dog’s suffering, but also because she had shown great promise as a pointer.

“I thought about it all night long. Should I put her down?” Kemmer said. “Then I thought maybe I could make a pet out of her. A house pet.”

Tess still qualifies as a house pet. She’s the only one of Kemmer’s three hunting dogs who gets to come inside. But she’s also developed into the prize-winning hunting dog that Kemmer envisioned when he got her.

Tess still had stitches from the amputation when Kemmer let her tag along on a pheasant hunt. His other two dogs, who were still in the puppy stage, had trouble finding a downed pheasant. Kemmer gave Tess a chance.

“Within five minutes, she had it,” Kemmer said. “She hadn’t yet learned how to balance and she couldn’t retrieve. So she just stood on the pheasant.”

That’s when the training began.

Two years ago she registered a perfect score in the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association’s premier event. Only 100 out of about 4,500 dogs qualify for the competition. Tess was one of only 32 dogs to become a versatile champion.

Nate Larson, a dog trainer from Isabel, S.D., said many hunters in the area have heard about the story of Tess.

“You cannot train that into an animal,” Larson said. “Obviously that dog came from stock … that had just plain heart. A lot of dogs in that situation would have quit on you.”

Kemmer jokes about his dog’s celebrity status.

“She’s kind of a showoff. She shows up on test day,” he said, smiling.

Kemmer said she’s even better out in the field, where she should be this weekend during North Dakota’s pheasant hunting opener. Her best skill is finding birds and pointing, he said.

“A lot of dogs point at like a hot scent or where birds were,” Kemmer said. “When she points, 999 times out of 1,000 there’s a bird there. And 995 times it’s going to be a rooster.”

Although she labors at times while walking, Tess has few problems running, swimming and jumping. The only obstacles that give her pause are slippery grass and heavy snow.

“She can jump better than she let’s me think she can,” Kemmer said, smiling. “At the end of the day I still pick her up to put her in the pickup. I guess she has me well-trained.”

One of the more common problems a gun dog owner/trainer will deal with is a gun shy dog. Gun shyness is a man made problem, that can be fixed, but it takes time. The good news is gun shyness can be avoided if the proper steps are taken to introduce a pup to gunfire.

By the time you bring your new puppy home, hopefully it will have been introduced to gunfire by the breeder. If not though, all is not lost, you just need to take some measures to be sure the initial introduction is positive. I like to expose the pup to a variety of noises, from the wash machine and dryer, to the television or radio. Get the dog accustomed to having noise around it. I will bang food pans together at feeding time and at play time, lots of clapping and noise. Anything to help them get use to sudden noises will help.

One key factor to remember is NEVER take a pup out and fire a gun over it to see how it reacts. NEVER take a pup to a gun range as an introduction. Although some may have done this and been successful, it has been learned that this is not a good idea. The types of exposures are likely to do some serious damage as far as being gun shy goes. You also want the dog to view the gun in a positive manner. Bring a gun out at playtime and let the pup be around it. You don’t have to shoot it at this point, just let the pup see you handling it, let the pup smell it and get comfortable around it. Throw some puppy marks with the gun in your hand.

A little prep time will go a long way in moving through the introduction of gun shots. I always start with a cheap dollar store cap gun. I take the pup out and throw marks, while the mark is in the air and the pup is excited pop a cap off. I’ll do this for a couple of days to a week or more depending on how the pup acts. If it pays no attention to the cap gun, them we can step it up a bit. The second stage is using a .22 blank pistol. I will set it up so the bird boy is 20-30 yards away with the pistol. I’ll have the bird boy give a “Hup-Hup-Hup” then toss the mark and fire the blank pistol. By this time the pup should be jumping out of its skin to get to the mark. We will do this for a couple of sessions and you will see the dog begin to relate the gun shot to getting to pick up a mark.

The next step is to use the blank pistol over the dog. Same type set up, have a bird boy give a “Hup-Hup-Hup” and then toss a bumper. The difference is you will be holding the blank pistol next to the dog and firing while the mark is in the air. Hopefully, at this point the pup is so locked in on the mark; it pays no attention to the shot. If you notice pup getting startled at this phase, go back to having the bird boy use the pistol.

Once you can shoot the blank pistol over the dog, then you can move to the shotgun. Start out the same as before with having the bird boy toss a bumper and fire a popper round or light load off with the shotgun. Next, like before, have the bird boy throw the bumper and you shoot the shotgun next to the dog.

If you take your time and don’t get in a hurry, this process will prevent you from having a gun shy dog in the blind or on the line.

Took a few dogs up to Big Elkin Creek HRC this past weekend, and had a good solid showing. My choclate pup earned her SHR title Sunday afternoon, while one of my client’s dogs passed it’s first ever test and looked darn good doing it. Watched a ton of good dog work, and visited with soem friends I see on the wekeends at hunt tests. I actually have a lady and her husband I have become friends with throguh hunt tests, and I got to watch her title her Standard Poodle “Dunbar” on Saturday. Check out HRC for information on Hunt Tests.

Here is a picture of me and Hershey after her title pass.

Ever been trying to drive to to a new hunting spot or find the hunt test headquarters on a Saturday morning and the mapquest directions you printed just aren’t getting you there? This has happened to me on several occassions, but I think I have found the cure. Last weekend I got a Garmin StreetPilot C330 Navigational System. Essentially it is a high tech GPS for the truck with road maps loaded in it. This little deal is cool, it has listings for restaurants, hotel/motel and places of interest. It has been very reliable in my playing with it over the past week. I am truly impressed with this little “woman in a box”. If you travel much, this may be somehting you should look into. I found it for just over $200 on sale at a big name electronic store. You can read more at www.garmin.com

Typically reauthorized by Congress every five years, the Farm Bill is the single largest source of federal funding for private lands conservation in the U.S.

Over the years, the bill’s menu of conservation programs has provided critical habitat for ducks, pheasants and other game and nongame wildlife species. Hunters in particular fully understand that these voluntary conservation programs have provided betters days afield since their inception.

But with tight budgets, high commodity prices and an increased push for biofuels, many of these conservation programs, including the popular Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), face an uncertain future.

You can read more about the support of the Farm Bill at both www.ducks.org (Ducks Unlimited) and www.deltawaterfowl.org (Delta Waterfowl). Every hunter should tkae a few minutes to let their elected officials know tha tthye support conservation in the Farm Bill.

The NCWRC released the results of the tundra swan permit hunt drawing today. If you applied you can HERE to see if you were drawn. Luckily I was drawn for the third year in a row. Here are a couple photos of past swan hunts. The top pic is me with my first swan two years ago.  A really nice representative species. It had a 73″ wing span. Below is Hershey at 7 months old chasing down a cripple from hunt that I helped guide last year. The last pic is me, my wife and a good friend (moose, from moose droppings) . It was my wife’s first swan, and the first swans Hershey had ever seen.