It’s Tune-Up time!
By Bill Mays
WON Field Reporter
It’s opening day and your checking your watch as the darkness fades and the unsuspecting ducks are circling over the decoys with one group of ducks actually landing in the decoys. It’s shoot time and you quickly drop 3 ducks on the pond, your dog bolts from the blind and makes 3 pretty good retrieves with a little help on the third downed bird. Now you’ve just knocked down your 6th bird and you notice your dog has lost his fire and is walking back the blind on the retrieve. For the rest of the day the dog is walking back to blind with the birds. How many of you have had an opening day like this, and realized how unfair it was to your dog to not have it in shape.
Most of us don’t work our retrievers on the off-season, and it really shows opening day. Even the best dogs need to stay in shape, not just so they don’t run out of gas in the first 5 or 6 retrieves, but for health reasons. Start thinking about the out of shape, over weight, spoiled retriever lying in the dog run or on the carpet next to your easy chair.
It’s not to late to get the opening day results your looking for. Start your tune-up training season now, and it will look like your retriever never skipped a beat. Your hunting dog is just like any athlete, and they need to stay in shape for the best possible results.
Diet is a big part of the conditioning, and it dictates performance. I had the pleasure of interviewing Veterinarian Dr. Terri Burley of the Airport Pet Clinic in Cameron Park California. Our interview was on the quality dog foods and how to get the maximum performance out of your dog in hot or cold weather, and how protein and fat contents affect hunting dogs.
"The higher the fat content the more the energy, but you can’t build muscle from fat and that’s where the protein comes in to rebuild the muscle that is torn down through exercise, you need a good quality of protein not so much the quantity." Said Dr Burley. I once read that you can get protein from ground up baseball gloves, but it’s not quality. Dr. Burley agreed that a good working dog food is 25% protein and 15% fat. Dog foods over 30% proteins and 20% fat are really "hot" foods.
"If your dog is over weight and older you can cut back the fat content of their food by reducing the amount of food and one supplement you can use is add green beans to replace the quantity of dry food. Green beans are high in fiber and you decrease the calories by cutting back the amount of dry food. When you increase the exercise you increase the metabolisms and this burns off the fat," said Dr. Burley.
"Many older dogs are very thin and don’t need the protein but need a higher fat content. Some of the senior dog foods can waist a thin dog down to nothing, because it cuts back both protein and fat content," said Dr. Burley. So when you start you training for an older thin dog you need to increase the calories for energy and to help maintain a good weight.
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Cameron Park - Veterinarian Terri Burley of the Airport Pet Clinic checks out WON Field Reporter Bill Mays’s lab "Sassy" for the upcoming 2003 duck season. Dr. Burley recommends the diet "Sassy" will need to stay at the peak performance level needed for waterfowl hunting. |
Shawn Dustin - of "Dustin Retrievers" With his yellow lab "Kid" demonstrates the professional techniques used for the perfect retrieve. "Kid" comes on Dustin’s left side, sits, and holds the retrieving dummy until Dustin takes the dummy from his mouth.
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I had an interview with Shawn Dustin of "Dustin Retrievers", who is a professional trainer and works with Labradors and Chesapeakes daily, on what it takes to get a dog in shape for the upcoming season. "I’m a big believer in taking the dog for long walks without a leash and allowing the dog to get the different smells and be curious." said Dustin. "This will bring out the hunt in the dog, but you still want to maintain control. With these walks your also building up the muscles for the drills later on in the training sessions. These walks don’t have to be every day, and you want to pick different fields. You want the dog to be a "scooper," a dog that just scoops up the duck, not a dog that’s only worked in one or two fields and not used to newness of different surrounding. Many dogs that have only been worked in one or two locations will want to smell the decoys, the water and not go straight to the duck. The dog that goes straight to the downed duck is one that’s been worked in different fields."
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How many hours of conditioning would it take for a dog that hasn’t work since last duck season to get back into shape? "You’re only looking at about 1month to get your older dog in shape," said Dustin. "That’s doing your 1 to 2-mile walks 3 to 4 days a week with retrieving drills of only 4 or 5 retrieves after the walks. Put the dog up for a little while and then bring the dog back out for 4 or 5 more retrieves and your training session is done for the day. Younger dogs of course need more training and discipline drills, but training sessions, drills, and walks combined should not be over 1 hour each session."
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"Kid" - charges back to deliver the training dummy to his Professional Trainer Shawn Dustin of "Dustin Retrievers." Dustin starts getting the hunting dogs in for professional tune-ups this time of year. |
I see direct similarities in the training regiment that would get this out of shape, over weight man I see in the mirror in shape too.
"If your doing all your ground work correctly, you don’t need that much water time with an older dog. The younger dogs need a lot of water time after you’ve established control on the land exercises. You have very little control in the water, and if you’re hunting out of a boat, you have to have total control of your dog," said Dustin.
With the hot summer weather upon us and you head for the lake, load up the family and dog and make the training sessions fun for the entire family. Or the next time you and your fishing buddy head for the lake on a fishing trip, take your retriever and throw a couple of retrieving dummies and a Frisbee in the boat. If the fish aren’t biting you can at least get some help with training drills. The best retrieving drills are always done with help from throwers.
I bring a Frisbee to excite my older dog; she gets bored with the training dummies after a couple retrieves. Many dogs that have had hundreds of wild birds shot over them get bored with the dummies real quick. The Frisbee takes a different flight and looks like pheasant taking off or a duck sailing. On ground you can even roll it and make it look like running game. If your older dog still looses interest bring another dog in the picture and watch the games begin.
I hunt the Tule Lake, and the Lower Klamath Basin as well as the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley. You have to have your dogs in the best possible shape when they’re working out of a boat. When I’m hunting Tule Lake or Lower Klamath it’s all out of a boat and deeper water, my dogs have to be good swimmers and in the best of shape. Just getting in and out of a boat takes a lot out of the dogs.
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Bill Mays - WON Field Reporter tunes up his lab Holly for the Tule Lake, Lower Klamath Basin 2003 hunting season. Dogs are primarily hunted from boats in these hunting areas, and dogs need to be in top physical condition.
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Give your #1 hunting partner a chance to do what he loves to do best, please you! Think back how your dog ended the season and build on that. Enjoy what is usually the best hunt day of the season, "opening day." When you hear someone say "What an awesome dog!" on that limit filled opening day you can smile and think of the fun you had this summer and then basque in the joy of hunting with your dog.
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