Originally Posted by hotel4dogs

With the upcoming bad weather, and the fact that I never find time to train this poor dog, I've decided to just throw in the towel on hunt test skills until the spring. Between the cold, snow, agility trials and holidays it's just not realistic to try to accomplish anything until March or later.
So instead we will play at real hunting. I've got the opportunity to go pheasant hunting this coming week, and hopefully a few more times in November.
The guy I am going with this week is going to do all the shooting, and I will just handle Tito. I am SO excited about it! Tito will get to track, flush, and retrieve. My friend is even leaving his awesome lab at home so that Tito will get all the birds this time.
I took the monster boy out this morning and reinforced the command, "bird out there, hunt 'em up" by hiding a bird in the field, then taking him out and having him hunt it up. Did it several times. No control, no pressure, just use your nose and go find the bird. (It was a previously dispatched duck, not a live bird). I felt I should do this since he's not used to that type of freedom. He thought it was awesome, and found each bird very quickly.
There's something breathtaking about watching a golden retriever bounding happily through the tall weeds in search of a bird.
Looking forward to our hunt this week!!