Boonsboro Rednecks Having Fun

[WT Kevorkian]

A good morning for the Kevorkian Boys

[fabsroman]

Who has the yellow lab and how did it do in the field? I was thinking about going out this morning, but I had to get some work done. It was tough taking the dog out at 3:00 in the morning and hearing geese calling in the dark. Nitro didn't even want to come back in the house. I might be headed out on Monday morning if all goes well.

Is your brother even in the pic, or was he the one taking the pic?

[WT Kevorkian]

Its Mikes lab, she is awesome! He sent the dog away for 10 weeks of training at $1,000 a week, now the dog retrieves by hand signals only. My brother didn't make it out today, its was just us guys in the picture.

[fabsroman]

Great to hear that the dog is doing well. Do you know what kennel he got her from? Once we get a house I think we will be looking for another dog and I don't know if I want to get it from the same breeder because I am thinking about breeding the two.

I am having issues with Nitro staying put before retrieving, but that is because I haven't been able to spend the time with him and I am not willing to let somebody else train my dog. Kind of like how I don't want somebody else fixing my car or building my bike. If the guys I hunt with could hit the broad side of a barn, I wouldn't have to worry about shooting and I could concentrate on training the dog, but such is life.

By the way, I rode up Sugarloaf last Sunday and happend to see your wife out in the yard with the baby in one of those baby bjorn things. How is it being a dad? Do you get to hunt as often? What about sleep?

[WT Kevorkian]

Being a Dad is great, little guy is doing wonderful and is already sleeping through the night. Heather has stayed home with him but plans on going back to work this coming week. I have hunted as much as I ever have but like I said she has been home, we will see what next year brings.

[johnliester]

Am I the only person in the world to think a thousand a week is just a wee bit too much. Friggin animal will be dead in not too many years. What a waste when one can train a dog oneself. At least I can.

[TreeDoc]

To each his own. Some don't have the time to bring a waterdog to a finished status. I would hope that after that much time and money was spent that dog was completely dialed however robotic he might be.

My boy Jack was competently working hand and whistle commands in his first year, I taught him myself and having a dog with great lineage made it pretty darned easy considering he was my first. He's 7 years old now and knowing what I know about him after our time together these past years, if the Good Lord said I could have it all to do again for Ten Grand, well.....I couldn't write a check fast enough.

[skeet]

10 weeks at a grand a week is ridiculous. I did some field trial shooting and saw dogs like that...who still failed. If they want to hunt right it usually goes pretty easy even for someone who really doesn't know too much about training. I found in the past that training a dog was a two way street. The owner usually learned about as much as the dog. Unless they were dumber than the dog...which happens to be true quite often.

Way back in the mid 80's I had a hunting party out for a total of 7 times. There was one guy that had a beautiful lab he had paid 5 grand for fully trained. Every day on the first retrieve that dog would go wild..running across the field like an idiot. The guy that owned him would wait till he was a bit over a 100 yds out and blast that darn dog in the tail end(with trap loads). Worked like a charm...EVERY time. From that point the darn dog was like a robot. Did every thing they told him to. They were from New Bern NC. Don't remember the dogs real name but they called him and he answered to the name A**hole!

[fabsroman]

Would I pay $10,000 to have Nitro trained, probably not, but not because of the cost. I take pride in doing things myself and learning how to do them. I built my first bike in 20 years over this fall, and I was worried about building it because it cost $8,000, was made out of carbon fiber, had indexed shifting, and I had never installed a fork or bottom bracket before on a bike, but I read a lot of manuals, asked a lot of questions from friends on a cycling chatboard, and ended up doing just fine (i.e., I have put 100 miles on the bike and nothing has fallen off yet).

My one and only problem with Nitro is getting him to stay once the guns go off or when he sees the birds coming right in at us. By turning his blind to face mine, I have mostly solved the problem with him taking off when the birds are coming at us, but he did break once the last time we were out. I have also tried to solve the problem by putting a stake in the ground and putting a short lead on his collar and attaching it to the stake, but that method might end up killing him. I do think he is learning that he needs to stay in the blind until we shoot, and I don't mind him popping out of the blind when we do shoot because I want him to mark the downed birds, but his taking off bugs the hell out of me. If I get out this week, I might just work on the dog and let everybody else shoot. What is kind of crazy is that I can call him off of birds that other people shoot in other fields and he completely listens. I just cannot get him to sit still after the guns go off. During the off season, I'm going to try to catch some pigeons and have my dad shoot them in front of Nitro with me handling him. Hopefully, this will solve the problem and hopefully I won't be too busy this summer to work with the dog.

At the end of the day, if I was told I would get a dog just like Nitro if I spent $10,000, I would. Nitro has heart like you wouldn't believe. I was cleaning the garage last night and went to put his vest away. I found two pretty good tears in it from the last time we went hunting and he went through a barb wire fence. On the same hunt, he tore the heck out of his paws and they were bleeding all over. However, trying to stop him from retrieving a downed bird with his bleeding paws was like trying to stop a locomotive.

At the end of the day, I think any dog can be trained if a person spends enough time with the dog and is willing to be patient with the dog. However, heart and drive cannot be trained into a dog and that is why we look for certain lines (i.e., breeding).

[DelDuck]

Originally posted by johnliester
Am I the only person in the world to think a thousand a week is just a wee bit too much. Friggin animal will be dead in not too many years. What a waste when one can train a dog oneself. At least I can.

Well to you it maybe too much, to me it maybe too much, but in reality it is all in ones perspective. You and I may not have 10 grand to spend on the dog, but to some that have it, it is no big deal, and money well spent. I know if I have that kinda money to spend on training a dog, the check would be written in a second.

[fabsroman]

It is all about priorities and passion. My friends cannot believe how much my bicycles and guns cost, but that is because they are not passionate about either. One friend asked me what is the difference between his $200 bike and my $8,000 bike. Frankly, there is no comparison. His will do just fine for riding on asphalt bike trails, but you would never catch me drafting a truck at 45 mph on that thing. He just cannot understand the difference. Same goes for my guns. When I tell my friends what I spend on them, they think the guns should break the targets themselves.

The next time one of them comes up with some stupid remark like the bike should pedal itself and the gun should aim itself, I am going to ask them if their $50,000+ car drives itself.

I still wouldn't pay somebody to train my dog, because that is somethng I want to do myself. Kind of like why I change my own oil. I could easily pay somebody to do that, but I like doing it myself because I enjoy working on cars. So, if I had $10,000 to spend, it wouldn't be on training my dog. That would go towards a bike, a gun, a new car, a college fund for my kids, or an investment, before it went towards training my dog.

[Lilred]

There's a big difference tween passion, priorities & common sense.

[johnliester]

Lilred, you said it all...........