Going to the Dogs

I took up hunting in college, so a little bit later than your traditional sportsman who grew up on it. What I came with, however was a foundation built around fishing and being outdoors so other than specific skills and gear, I was about as prepared as one could hope to be. As a grouse hunter though, there was one glaring omission from my personal items for a successful hunt. Not that it has been impossible to be successful, it just requires more work without proper preparation.
That 'thing' for lack of a better word is a dog. A lot of people will tell you that they hunt for their dog - that success is not driven by their own work, but rather that their dog got to work that day. I like that bit, so it was with a great deal of excitement that my wife and I got into dog ownership this past fall.

To be sure, there has been some challenges. We adopted a 2 year old lab mix with a dubious background. All we KNOW is that she came from Oklahoma. My fears were: will I end up with incapable of hunting? One that sits on the couch and cannot handle a hard day afield? Fortunately most of these questions have been answered positively or look to be easily addressed with proper training. Our little lab mix, whom we decided to name Willow took to us pretty easy. There was a couple moments of leg humping in our first few days, but with the pecking order sorted out, we have taken on each challenge and she has risen meet them.
The success this far is due in large part to the help of a friend who didn't give up hope on our rescue dog and has led us on a path that is nothing short of impressive. Sarah, who runs PawsNMotion dog training not only gave us good advice on dealing with Willow's biggest issue (separation anxiety) but has helped us build a foundation with E-collar training that will be totally useful for being afield. With about two months under our belt, I can trust Willow off leash in the woods, she loves the water and shows no signs of aversion to loud noises. With those building blocks in place, I look forward to the next year working on force fetch and training with shotguns. I do not take these lightly because they are very important to a hunting dog's enjoyment of their time afield and important to my ability to be effective in locating and or retrieving downed birds.

On a slightly related note, I am reminded daily that the problem with training a dog is often not the dog - but rather the person. We are also in the process of training for skijoring but it is a tender subject to train a dog not to pull and then introduce a new component of it's good to pull but only WHEN we're doing this. In this regard, I have a very good dog, that makes me look like a fool when attached to a harness on either end with a line between us.