Hank trainable??

I think Hank might do just fine as a duck retriever. All he needs is a lot of training. He is stubborn but eventually he will do what you ask so I think if there was a senior hunting dog he would get competitive and do what he's supposed to and that's to sit tight, wait until it's his turn to retrieve the downed bird. Maybe I'm completely bias but I think he can do it. I think he can flush birds too. I'd really like to work with both of my dogs. I hope Khan is biddable and birdie. I'd really hate to loose my interest in hunting because I get frustrated with the training.

Hunting is a lot of work and costly. I can't wait to get into it and meet nice, down to earth people. I'd love to own hunting grounds and a training facility. I mean, seriously, I'd really like to have Khan and Hank work with as many birds as possible and I think using homing pegions is really the way to go. I'll have to find a way to train them. I'm not too sure how much work it would actually be to own hunting grounds and manage a training facility but maybe I'll meet others who will want to do the same thing and we could have a partnership.

I'd love to train dogs and prep them for responsible hunters. I want to breed the best conformation and hunting dogs and train them for work. I really want to develop and train English Labradors for upland bird hunting. I want them to point and flush, track and retrieve waterfowl and upland birds. I am really not that fond of the narrower labs. I've come across pointing labs and British labs and I don't like the look of either. I want the English Labs to do well in upland bird hunting and I believe they will do it just fine. Hmm.. ok, sure they will be fine but they are really not designed for upland hunting. They are duck dogs and that's what they are really good at. GSPs and GWPs or DDs are for all around game.

Hank is an English and I swear I've seen him point. It's really more of a pause and a creep which I think all dogs do. I just need to harness and develop it. Or, I could just let him live out the rest of his life playing with me and Khan.

One thing to remember in training, if the dog is not paying attention, I should be grateful for his focus. I should search for the right things that he's doing and work with that. Hank is a really good at quickly learning what I ask. He also quickly forgets. He really relies a lot on reaction so repetition is key.

I never thought he would stay in a sit position when I throw the ball but I tried it and after a few times he totally stayed and knew what I wanted him to do. Of course he will only do it if I clearly ask which is actually very smart of him. He will stay now until I say it's ok to go get the ball. He is totally trainable.

The next game I want to play with him is called the wagon wheel. It is to show him how to take left, right, back and forward direction from me in order for him to find the item to fetch. I'd like to get an English whistle too so that I can use it to communicate at a long distance. :) The challenge of the game is how far I can control him. The whistle will be a great tool.

He needs to be force fetch but I don't think I want to go through that. He drops the ball at me instead of giving it to my hand. There are times I'd like him to drop the ball and times I want him to fetch to hand. I guess I should get a bird like wobbly toy for the fetch to hand command and keep the tennis ball dropped to the ground for the chuck-it. He will know the difference. He's a smart dog.

He is also fully capable of using his nose. He's not trained to track and relies about 80% on his eyes but I know he can track and does do it to find his toy in the deep snow. I think with a lot of work he will be ready in a year or two. :) Less than a year for ducks but maybe we can hunt when he's 8. :) Ha ha.. even if we don't make it hunting, the training will be a lot of fun!