Report from this weekend's hunting.

On Sunday, we went to Addieville.  I was the only shooter.  Argus did a great job - he found 15 out of 16 birds.  I did not have as good as a batting average for the shooting part.  I like the second picture - the serious Argus, compared to the first with his tongue out.

Some highlights - Argus is really getting hang of hunting up the birds, very fun to see him get birdy.  We had a couple of good "hunt dead" commands - where the bird is down, but we can't find it.  The cover was about 6 feet high at some points - we were in field 3.  I need to work on the command with him so that he knows exactly what I want, but he does hunt the area up to find it and delivers back to hand.

This is from Saturday's duck hunt.   Arthur came along.  We had a beautiful sun rise.  We got one duck - it fell about 100 yards away near land.  Argus did not see it and it was near another hunter, so we waiting to get it.  Argus and I headed over, the other hunter thought it landed near the water, so we looked around there but gave up after a couple of minutes - we did not want to disturb the other hunter too much.  On the way out about an hour later, we tried again, but this time I went more on land - where I thought it was in the first place.  Asked Argus to hunt dead - and he found it - a hen mallard.  I would have never found it.

Duck Hunting this morning

Argus coming back from retrieve this morning.  A beautiful drake mallard.  He needed a little encouragement to get out of the boat, but completed the retrieve just fine.

Opening day yesterday - beautiful day, but birds were not decoying.  We did get one mallard.  Argus did not see it, so had to try a blind.  He lost confidence using the ladder, so had trouble getting retrieve.  We hadn't trained this - entering via the ladder.  Need to work on his confidence here.  We got the duck and did a couple retrieves and got him to use the ladder.  Did some more training at home on dry land.  On to the next hunt.

The following pictures from recent hunting:

1.  In Maine, hunting on the Grand Lake Stream - Argus' first wild bird of the year - a Maine wood duck.

2.  Training at Flerra Meadows in Boxborough.  We did alot of blind water retrieves.

3 and 4.  Hunting Partners after a successful hunt at Addieville.  Nathaniel and Argus did great.

Maine Hunting Trip 2013

We just wrapped up a trip hunting in Maine.  Grand Lake Stream - at Weatherby's.  The weather was very warm - 70 - 75 degrees.  Did not see many grouse or woodcock.  Did get some duck hunting in - here's a picture of wood duck that Argus retrieved.  We also got a mallard.  Both great blind retrieves for him.

Pictures below are:
- Argus relaxing in cabin.
- Argus with wood duck - his first wild retrieve of the year.
- Argus relaxing after the hunt.   A very tired puppy.

Went to train with Buck last night.  We haven't been to see him for months - maybe June.

Talked about the two failures at SH tests.  How he has trouble doing long swims.  He compared Argus to Bang.

Worked on his water blinds.  Argus did not want to go in - sometimes he doesn't like to get wet the first time.

Well, that's all Buck needed to see.  We move to forcing into the water.  Buck also thought I was being too easy on Argus - that he's playing me.  So, we moved the e-collar up to 2 and proceeded to force into the water.

After three times, we moved back to water blind.  Argus did well.  Buck gave us a compliment saying he didn't think we'd make it this far!  High praise coming from Buck.

We were one for two at the hunt tests in Dixmont ME last weekend.

He passed on Saturday, and failed on Sunday.

We learned alot and what we need to practice.
1.  Water blinds - needs more confidence.
2.  Blinds - do not go back to prior fall of a mark
3.  Shore running - still an issue with him

Here are some pictures.