Elvis turns 5 months old

So far this hasn’t felt like summer – more like October than July. I think it’s the haze in the air and the humidity seems to be higher than normal. Maybe it’s just that I’m looking forward to hunting season that begins in a month and a half. Elvis turns 5 months old today and I think he’ll be ready for hunting although I haven’t introduced him to guns yet – but he’s gaining confidence in himself, so won’t be long before I do.

The temperatures haven’t been real high, generally in the 80’s, but still too hot to train the dogs in the heat of the day. I’ve been taking them swimming every time I get a break from work and our 4 acres, and yesterday I took Squirt and Elvis with me to visit my parents.

I did some yard work for my parents and stopped at a little pond on the way home. There were a number of ducks and geese where we stopped and Elvis was a lot more interested in feathers and droppings than retrieving. I had a string tied to the bumper and I think the string bothered him, plus he didn’t have his Sophie to swim with.

It didn’t take long to figure out that it wasn’t going to be a productive training session so I loaded them back into the Jeep and called it a day. This morning, however, it was a different story.

I took Dakota to the gravel pit ponds and gave her a good half hour of swimming. I know that consistency is everything when it comes to training, but Dakota is doing much better with not breaking on the bumper so I reward her with allowing her to break on some retrieves. For her this seems to work – if she does it my way, then she gets rewarded with some retrieves her way. I always end the sessions with retrieving my way.

I took Dakota home and returned with Sophie and Elvis. Elvis always needs some wading refresher training, and the first time out needs to be coaxed. Sophie is like the little pup she used to be, and is the best coach that Elvis could have. Her excitement inspires him but she is still calm and patient enough to tolerate him.

They spent about half-an-hour in the water. For Sophie, I tossed the bumper out as far as I could and for Elvis, about 10-20 feet out. Sometimes Elvis retrieved his own bumper, sometimes he swam out and took Sophie’s and several times after taking his bumper, continued swimming out after Sophie so that he could swim back with her.

Spending half-an-hour swimming is great exercise (for both me and the dogs) especially in hot weather, and is going to help them when hunting season begins.

Lost Dog

The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Pointing Dog Journal.

Pass Along PDJ
June 2009

Lost Dog
by Steve Smith

If you have been running dogs for any length of time, eventually you’re going to lose one. It’s something that pointing dog people share with our counterparts in the hound community. Retriever and flushing dog people, it doesn’t seem to happen as often; their dogs aren’t bred to quest to the degree our pointers and setters and shorthairs and Britts and all the rest are. Pointing dogs are supposed to go out there and find birds, and sometimes, they don’t find their way back.

I have lost dogs on three occasions. I calculate “lost” as anything more than an couple hours. I calculate “really lost” as pinning a picture of the dog and your phone number on the bulletin board at the local diner and laundromat. I’ve never had to go that far, but I’ve been with people who have. Invariably, it’s in an unfamiliar place at the worst possible time – on an out-of-state trip the day before you have to leave, something like that.

Of course, there’s the third level of lost, and that’s just plain gone. At first, we hope someone hasn’t stolen him. Then, after a while, we hope someone has – at least he’d be alive and maybe even, after some time has passed, happy again. After all, no one’s going to pick up a stray bird dog and keep him unless he’s at least thought about being a bird hunter, right?

It seems as though every year or so, we hear a story about a dog that was lost for months, even years, that somehow finds his way back home – just shows up one day. But those are rare, Disney-like occurrences, which is why we hear about them. Most dogs that are recovered are found within a half-day, usually an hour or so. The longer they’re gone, the worse the odds of getting them back.

A dog getting lost in strange country is both good news and bad news: It’s easier to get lost in strange country so the likelihood of his being injured is more remote – he’s more than likely just lost. But the dog may wander because nothing’s going to look familiar and end up a long way off, especially if he hasn’t been thoroughly trash-broken. In familiar country where the dog knows his way around, if he’s lost it’s more likely to mean he’s injured or has been stolen.

The best thing we can do, of course, is to not lose them in the first place, and these days, if you don’t mind spending a little money, there are two tracking devices that make a lot of sense. I’ve used both, and they’re great. The first one to come out was the Tracker that uses radio telemetry, followed by the Garmin Astro , which uses GPS technology. The second best way to not permanently lose your dog, of course, is to have good ID on him, the simplest being: Reward: Call 121-555-1234 Collect. No dog name; knowing his name makes it easier for someone to steal him because the dog will be more likely to cooperate, especially if he’s also a house dog and well-socialized.

Three seasons ago, on the edge of a huge tract of state land in Michigan, a fellow pulled up to me and my dog as we were unloading from my truck on a two-track; he had a pointer in his van. The dog had the ID collar with Reward and an out of state – it may have been New York – phone number on it. He also had a beeper collar, which the guy couldn’t figure out how to shut off, so I did. The fellow had called the number – no answer, and no answering machine, so it was pretty much useless. He was driving around looking for the owner, obviously an out-of-state hunter who must have been around because the beeper collar still held a charge. I watered the dog, gave the guy my business card, and asked him to let me know how things turned out, but he never did.

The obvious lesson there is if your dog’s collar has a contact number on it, make sure there’s someone to answer the phone or a gadget to take a message. I think the best number to put on the tag is your cellphone number. If you’re like me and your cardi-ologist knows your voice on the phone, you always have it with you in the woods.

The full article “Lost Dog” by Steve Smith appears in the July/August 2009 issue of The Pointing Dog Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue is in the mail!

If you are not a subscriber and would like to read the rest of this article, request an issue right now! If you do so by July 25th, you’ll receive the issue with this article in it! You can request an issue online or by calling 1-800-447-7367. Make sure you tell our circulation representatives that you’d like the July/August 2009 issue.

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your pointing dog friends!

Swimming lessons continue

Friday was just about as non-productive as Thursday was productive. I took the dogs and several bumpers to the pond for some more training – the problem was that bumpers turn Dakota into a maniac.

Elvis required some refresher training in wading before he had built up the confidence to swim. Dakota however made him nervous, which was frustrating and required me to spend much of the time keeping her under control. Elvis also had a little trouble with the bumpers: I had two large bumpers and one small one, and since Elvis can’t really get a grip on the large bumpers, my intent was to let Sophie and Dakota retrieve the large ones and Elvis the small.

Dakota insisted on breaking when I tossed the bumpers and oftentimes took Elvis’ bumper, which either forced him to return without one or try and pick up a large bumper that he couldn’t get his mouth around. Dakota’s antics got Sophie spun up and she wasn’t listening very well herself. As a result, I didn’t work with them too long.

Learning from Friday’s counter-productive training, I changed tactics on Saturday. I thought about it a bit and came to the conclusions that: 1- Dakota goes crazy with bumpers and that influences Sophie; 2- Dakota works well by herself but views working with other dogs a competition not teamwork; 3- Since I can’t seem to find a way of eliminating her behavior, I need to find a way to channel it.

So Saturday, my wife and I took Sophie and Elvis to the pond for water training; she was going to video the session but the camcorder hit the end of tape just seconds after we began. We started Elvis and Sophie out retrieving in the shallow water before moving to deeper water. Elvis retrieved but was tentative and hesitant, so the next time I take him out it will be with a wing on a string.

After taking Sophie and Elvis home, I returned with Dakota. I worked on her breaking and she did much better by herself, even if her interpretation of “sit” is as calm as a bowl of Jello in an earthquake. I turned her training into a game to channel her towards something productive.

I would put her in “sit” and keep her there until after I threw the bumper. All the while her tension was building until I’d finally release her. The game to her was intensely focusing on the moment that I’d release her. She would launch herself out into the water and swim at a frantic pace to the bumper.

I normally disagree with allowing dogs to leap out into the water since it’s dangerous and in my opinion, equivalent to diving headfirst into unknown water. Many dogs have busted their legs or received other injuries from hitting rocks, submerged logs and other debris when they leap into the water. In Dakota’s case, accepting the fact that I can’t keep her from leaping into the water, I have to try and control it in other ways.

In any case, Saturday’s training was much more productive and stress-free for all of us.

Elvis learns to swim

Yesterday was a perfect day for swimming – cool breeze, warm water, hot sun, and at 10:30 am we had the gravel pond all to ourselves. I took the day off to watch Elvis while my wife went to work; however since he’s fully recovered from his bout with diarrhea, I took the dogs to play in the water.

We began by just wading. Elvis would venture out as far as he could without swimming and then stop. I didn’t pressure, but encouraged him – I believe that the most important thing in training any puppy or dog is to build their confidence, which in turn makes training much easier for both the trainer and dog.

I moved to an area where reeds grew and Elvis had to swim several feet when he explored a little too far.

After wading for awhile, I needed to give the Labs something to do so I tossed a stick out for them. Dakota retrieved it, and when I saw how eager Elvis was to take the stick from her, felt that I could entice him to swim if they retrieved.

Dogs are far better trainers and role models than people and the retrieving bit worked. From the first throw, Elvis tried to swim out after Sophie and Dakota. I waded out and encouraged him to follow, and he took right off.

I didn’t trust his swimming abilities and didn’t want him to go out too far. I waded out to where the water was waist-deep and then used my hands as a sling under his chest and belly to support and force him to swim in place. When Sophie and Dakota returned from their retrieves, I let go of Elvis and he returned to shore with them.

In all, we played in the water for about an hour. I loaded the dogs up except for Elvis, who refused to return to the Jeep. I found another stick and gave Elvis 2 solo retrieves before picking him up and carrying him back to the Jeep. Back home, Sophie’s dysplasia acted up so we gave her some alfalfa pills that took care of it. The reality that I may be having to face is that her hunting days may be slowly coming to an end.

Backyard tracking

Coffee cans for tracking training 6-30-9

There were a couple of circumstances that led me to begin training the dogs in tracking, here in our back yard. Last Sunday, we took to dogs to the pond in order to let them play in the water and get Elvis a little more comfortable in it.

Being that it was a hot day, the place was inundated with teens, families and dogs all enjoying the water. Too many for us, so we came back home and let Sophie and Dakota play in the ditch as a consolation. Although Elvis wanted to get in the ditch, he doesn’t have the courage.

Water training was out and the dogs are still quarantined due to the neighbor’s dog having contracted Parvo, so I decided to work on teaching the dogs to track in the back yard. I got the idea of training the dogs in this manner from when I was a kid, and dad briefly worked with the police department to try and train Boots, my first dog, to find drugs. Dad didn’t have the patience to train Boots and soon gave up on the idea.

I took 3 coffee cans and placed them in the back yard, then dragged the Pheasant wing through the grass to one of the cans where I placed it under the can. Using a “Walkabout” extendable leash, I let Elvis out of the house, showed him where to start tracking, and then let him track the wing to the can it was hidden under.

Elvis tracks the wing to a can 6-30-9

After finding the wing, I took him back into the house and repeated the process with each can. The fourth time, I placed the cans in a triangular formation with each can 5-10 feet apart so that he would have to pass by the first 2 cans in order to track the wing to the 3rd can. He caught on rather quickly and did well for his first session.

I repeated the process with both Sophie and Dakota. Sophie, who will be 7 this year, didn’t catch on as quickly but she’s a fast learner. As for Dakota, I couldn’t tell if she was tracking or just being her wild self.

As a side note, we gave the dogs a dose of Revolution and Elvis suffered side effects from it for a couple of days. He had diarrhea on Monday and both him and his crate was a mess – he tried to keep his crate clean by pooping through the wire door. My wife had things cleaned up and Elvis bathed by the time I got home from work, and when he still had problems on Tuesday, she gave him a child’s dose of Pepto Bismo that seemed to take care of the problem – he munched down that cherry flavored pill and was back to normal by Wednesday.

Summer Checklist

The following is a “pass along” article from the Retriever Journal.

Pass Along RJ
June 09

Summer Checklist
by Jason Smith

It’s been a strange spring so far — some of us would actually welcome a little global warming here in Michigan! But the heat of summer will come, and with plenty of light after work and everything nice and green and the water just waiting…well, now’s the time our dogs turn into rambunctious fools, wanting to be on the go-go-go all the time.

But that heat of summer can be the most dangerous time for a dog — especially one who doesn’t know when to quit (but of course, your retriever isn’t like that, right?). So here are a few reminders to make sure that the summer is enjoyable and safe:

Try to train and play as much as you can around water; but remember that a dog can overheat working too hard in the water, too.
Dogs don’t sweat, and they don’t just drink because they’re thirsty — their tongue is their cooling mechanism, so make sure that cool, clean water is always available. Make sure your buddy is current on his heartworm and tick medications — it’s that time of year!

Heat stroke and heat exhaustion is nothing to fool around with. No matter how much fun you’re having — or your retriever is having — know when to call it quits and cut the game or training session short. Focus on the mornings and evenings for your outings, and leave the dog passed out on the living room floor in front of the air conditioner during the hot part of the day. You will have to do the dog’s thinking for him!

Summer is the season for joggers and bikers, and you may be awfully tempted to shave those winter pounds your pooch put on; but if you’re taking your dog, remember that he doesn’t have cushioned running shoes like you. Let him run alongside in the grass. And not very far, either (see above).

A breezy summer drive is nice, but don’t let Fido hang his head out the window. A bug in the eye at 55 miles per hour — not good.

Basically, just play it smart and safe with your retriever this summer. This also entails one other thing: Keep your eye on him or her. We receive a lot of sad stories here from people who have lost their best friends to a speeding car — or lost them, period. No matter how much you trust your dog to “stick around the yard,” it only takes once. Now might be the time to get a chain-link fence up.

If you haven’t already, check out Retriever Journal on both Twitter and Facebook! So sign up and become a fan, and invite your social networking pals to become fans and followers, too! And maybe drop a hint that, if they haven’t already, they should request their own no-obligation issue!

Elvis’ first water training

I’ve been wanting to both introduce Elvis to water and give the Labs some swim time for awhile, and yesterday things finally worked out. There are several circumstances that have been pushing me to get the dogs in the water now:

First- with this being the wettest June in decades, Snake River has been at flood stage for awhile and there’s no way I’d send my Labs out in it. The undertow, amount of driftwood coming down, sheer force and swiftness of the water isn’t worth it, so any swimming will have to be in calmer water.

Second – Should the temperatures become hot, there’s the danger of algae poisoning. It usually occurs in late summer to early fall, but the “algae bloom” can occur any time and it’s deadly to dogs. I stop water training around the middle of July as a precaution.

And third – now with Oso having contracted Parvo, I’m not willing to let the dogs train in the pasture, especially with a new puppy on the way. I don’t plan on training them in the pasture for the rest of the summer; when we burn the field this fall, it should pretty much take care of any Parvo that may be in it.

There’s a gravel pit nearby that borders a city park, and collects water every summer making it a favorite swimming hole for kids. My first trip was with Sophie and Dakota, not necessarily for training but to give Sophie some much-needed exercise and burn off some of Dakota’s energy. If Dakota hasn’t burnt off her excess energy, she works herself into a frenzie when I train Elvis. I still worked with them on breaking and honoring and both have improved in both areas, but Dakota has a long ways to go.

They retrieved bumpers for about half-an-hour so I called it good and took them home, returning with Elvis. This time I brought my body camera – I’m still having problems properly fitting the camera, so the video isn’t as good as what I’d hoped for.

He wasn’t intimidated by the water although he’s not yet ready to swim. He retrieved the bumper in shallow water for about 20 minutes before losing interest and exploring the weeds and shoreline. I’m not going to push him to swim – he’ll do that when he’s ready. As with any puppy, I believe that the most important thing is to build their confidence; do that and they’ll let you know when they’re ready to move ahead with their training.

Duck Jambalaya

I gave our oldest daughter some duck that I had rubbed with Cajun seasoning and froze, and last week she turned it into Jambalaya. She took a box of Jambalaya rice mix, added the duck which she cooked and diced, some shrimp and sausage.

She reported that it tasted great fresh off the stove and not so great re-heated, which may be the reason she didn’t give me any as promised… or her cousin, who’s stomach is a bottomless pit, finished it off. Oh well, only 4 months to duck season.

Parvo scare

When your doorbell rings at 4:30 in the morning, it’s usually not good. This morning it was a neighbor’s daughter who woke us up to tell us that their puppy, Oso, had been sick for the past couple of days and couldn’t keep any water or food down. The little guy had reached the point where he nearly couldn’t walk.

We immediately suspected Parvo, but there was nothing we could do that early; my wife told the girl that she’d take Oso to the vet when they opened. She then called the emergency number and the vet recommended wrapping Oso in blankets when she brought him in, to help prevent contamination.

When the time came to take Oso to the vet, he couldn’t be found anywhere. My wife and the neighbors searched without luck, and were fearing that Oso had gone off to die. The most likely place was a hay field behind the neighbor’s house, which they tried to search. Everyone pretty much lost all hope when the farmer began mowing his hay.

But then Oso came stumbling out of our pasture. My wife and the neighbor’s girl took him into the vet, who confirmed that he had Parvo. They left Oso and he was put on IV plus whatever medications are given to treat Parvo.

I’m considering one of the Parvo sanitizing products but our vet recommended mixing bleach (the non-bleaching or color safe variety of course) with water and spraying down any bedding, material, etc. that could have been contaminated. The material is then to be air-dried in the sun. It was also recommended that we clean the floors with the bleach solution.

Elvis should be okay because he’s had all his shots, and our puppy-to-be will have had her first set of shots by the time we pick her up. Nonetheless, we needed to sanitize the Jeep, garage, and floor where Ricky – the neighbor’s other dog – came into our house. As a precaution, we’ll be removing our shoes before coming into the house, and have Clorox wipes on hand to wipe down anything that could have come into contact with Oso.

Since the Parvo virus can remain for up to a year, our new puppy will need to be quarantined in the house and back yard until after she gets her second set of shots. Without knowing how Oso contracted Parvo, anything could be a carrier and I’ll probably need to do some of my training in the back yard rather than the pasture.

Signs of progress

After a month of rain, this is the wettest June in a decade and the weeds in our pasture are literally waist-high. It’s great for working on marking and blind retrieves, and I’ve found that not only Sophie and Dakota, but little Elvis can mark quite well.

Last night I worked each of the dogs separately, beginning with Elvis who still hasn’t graduated from the wing-on-a-string. Last week when I worked with them in the back yard, he retrieved about 1 out of every 4 bumpers; the other times, he plopped down on the bumper and began chewing it.

The duck wing that I had been using with Elvis was pretty well mangled so I replaced it with a Pheasant wing. There were only certain areas in the pasture with weeds short enough for me to train the little guy. Last week, he plowed into a stand of weeds that didn’t give, and threw him backwards.

He’s got a great nose on him and was able to mark the bumper very well. When he couldn’t find it, I tugged on the string which rustled the weeds and he pounced like a cat. Our training also included a little tracking. I would throw the bumper into the weeds and then pull it a few feet from where it landed. Half the time Elvis tracked in the wrong direction, whereupon I would tug on the string to get his attention. For the times he was able to track, I found that he could track the bumper about 6 feet.

After working with Elvis, I spent some time with Sophie and she did well on both single and doubles. It was fun to watch her work, with only the tip of her tail visible above the weeds.

Then came Dakota’s turn and by now she had worked herself into a frenzy. I never even considered using two bumpers with her, and considered it a big challenge with just one bumper. I worked primarily on keeping her from breaking and that was pretty much a full-time job.

Just after we began, Dakota’s collar caught some weeds and she nearly did a summersault, losing her collar in the process. The rest of her training consisted of tossing the bumper and while she was retrieving it, beating the weeds in search of her collar. I still haven’t found it which now makes about four collars that she’s lost.