Mission: Condition
Posted 09/25/2014
Is your favorite companion tuned up and ready for season?  Well, if  he, or she is not by now, chances are you are too late. When we neglect conditioning our gundog before the season opener, the results can make for what should have been a great hunt, turn out to be just a bad memory. Exercise during the off season is just as important to your dog, if not more important, than during season. Lets face it, life is a busy place and there is alot to worry about in the off season, like fishing, and spring turkey. But if you choose to leave ole fido in the kennel until season arrives, then throw him in the dog box, turn him out in the field, and expect the model hunting companion, then I promise you that you are going to be very disappointed. And, shame on you for doing it. Just like us, that dog has waited since last year for this day to come, and if in the months leading up to season you have not taken some time out of your busy schedule to exercise your dog and spend some time on the basics, then you have no one to blame but yourself when you cant talk at the end of opening day and your e collar is dead. Not to mention the fact that your buddies will probably not be calling you next weekend because of your dog busting birds all morning, and then burning out by the afternoon. So, spend some time with your gundog all year long, not just during hunting season. The benefits of a dog that has had the proper amount of exercise during the year will show great rewards during hunting season. Your dog will be more focused and ready to please. Just remember, the instincts are in the breeding, the rest is up to you. Happy hunting.
Related Aritlces
Cadillac Farm by Tom Word
Posted on Wednesday 31st December 1969 06:00:00 PM
My great friend Joe Prince, farmer and every-day-in-season quail hunter of Stony Creek, Virginia, died from a tractor accident I predicted in 1997. His brother, Dr. John S. Prince of Emporia, died of old age at 97 last month, having practiced as an Internist to age 90. They were alike as two peas in a pod, smart, hard working, opinionated. Both had served in WWII, Joe as an enlisted radar operator aboard troop transports to Europe, John as a Navy officer aboard a cruiser.
Continue Reading
Girls, Guns, and Gun Dogs!
Posted on Wednesday 31st December 1969 06:00:00 PM
Growing up in the south one gains an appreciation for late fall/early springtime bobwhite quail hunting behind a brace of pointers about as much as anything can be appreciated. The landscape here is dotted with private plantations, public shooting preserves, and small family farms that hold the elusive Gentleman-Bob...opportunities abound. In fact, I cut my gun dog teeth, as it were, training pointing breeds and stumbling around bottom lands I could access hunting quail. It would be some years before I switched my focus over to retrieving breeds entering the world of professional training and trial competition.
Continue Reading
A Lost Dog
Posted on Wednesday 31st December 1969 06:00:00 PM
It was July 15, 2003 and Billy Culp was fixin’ to turn loose for a workout his first green derby of the season. He was training this year on a new place just east of Lignite and south of Route 5. There were twenty pointing dog trainers working within a forty-mile radius of Billy , two hundred or more in the state, some serious pros, some serious amateurs, some just guys with a dog or two and a pickup truck.
Continue Reading
