Gettin' started!

**Milesmom** · 05-18-2011, 05:25 AM

I am pretty excited. I recently "got voted in" as a member of the buckeye retriever club. A lady that I now travel to agility trials with has hooked me up with someone who has a little Sunday morning training group out there. Turns out, I knew him, but like so often happens with dog people, I didn't know his name. When he told me he had Gus, the Golden who insists on sitting in his chair at obedience trials, I knew exactly who he is! LOL!!

We are heading out there for the first time this Sunday. Miles is going to be so stoked!

**GulfCoast** · 05-18-2011, 04:17 PM

Have fun! You will have a garage full of strange new equipment and a freezer full of training ducks before you know it!

**windycanyon** · 05-19-2011, 02:19 AM

Yea!!! Glad you got yourself hooked up w/ this group. I bet you're going to have a ball!

**Milesmom** · 05-19-2011, 05:19 AM

I can't wait till my husband pulls a package out of the freezer and asks "what's this?" and I tell him it is Miles' duck! LOL He's getting used to equipment though.

**GulfCoast** · 05-19-2011, 11:03 AM

Wrap your training ducks in a couple sheets of newspaper, like a burrito, and then put them in a plastic WalMart bag, and tie the bag. That way, you always have a "dry" duck to train with, and no one confuses it with leftover pot roast!

**Milesmom** · 05-20-2011, 05:20 AM

So the newspaper helps dry them? That's what I do with my running shoes, stuff then with newspapers to dry them out. LOL

**GulfCoast** · 05-20-2011, 10:23 AM

It keeps them from getting freezer burn/iced up, which gives you more "sessions" per duck. I dry mine with a box fan before I "wrap them." Its a pita sometimes, but you won't make a successful duck dog/ht dog/ft dog without using birds on a pretty regular basis. I use the "on their last trip" ducks for water work, and keep the better ones on land.

**Milesmom** · 05-21-2011, 05:42 AM

See,these are the little tips you wouldn't find in a training book. Yeah, I expect to have to train with real ducks. You need to train for what you expect in a trial if you expect to succeed at a trial.

Thanks for all the advice. I think this will be fun!

**Amber The Duck Dawg** · 05-21-2011, 08:35 PM

I Have a milk crate on the top of my van and hang the ducks in it by putting the head in the holes upside down and then putting the duck in the crate. (duck bill pointing toward ducks chest). The drive home will dry the ducks and fluff the feathers. You can dry about 10-12 ducks in one milk crate this way. Then you can just bag and freeze them. Also it helps to hang them as soon as the dog brings them back if they are wet. Depending on vehicle you can hang them from various parts of it, like bumpers, or place them ontop of the tires. Note people give you very strange looks if you forget to take the ducks off the bumpers before driving home.
Pigeons are great to train with and you can make a "clipped wing flyer" by using the blue masking tape and wrapping it around ONE wing upside down then a couple of times right way. doing this prevents the tape from pulling out the feathers when you unwrap them. Do not get pigeons wet if you want to reuse them.
Take the AKC judging seminar if you get the chance, it will explain and answer a bunch of questions. AKC hunt tests are way way less formal than Obedience, and less formal than Agility even. I have never been to a test where the dogs ran in catalogue order, especially in Junior and Senior. Also the dogs in the test aren't all going to get the same test, because a lot of things change durring a test. The wind may change direction, The throwers and gunners may be replaced. Ducks thrown in water the first time ride high in the water and are easy to see, ducks thrown in the water for the 2,3,4th times sink lower and lower in the water. Scent drag back becomes stronger as more dogs run.

**GulfCoast** · 05-21-2011, 08:51 PM

Usually there are pros running dogs in multiple stakes, so the dogs of the pros running elsewhere can get skipped while they are at another stake. Around here, AKC tests tend to run in as close to catalog order as possible, other than pros at another stake. Now that there are only 2 field reps, that may get "looser." In HRC, its just whatever order folks sign up with the marshal to run. HRC is even more "relaxed" than AKC.