It’s been over three years since my last post and it’s difficult to know where to begin. But I’m excited to get back into the swing of things. Q is curled up by my side, still tired from our morning session where he ran cold blinds including one at 175 yards!

Tragically, I lost my precious Prinz in July of 2024 due to a nasal tumor that invaded into his brain. It broke my heart, and I still miss him. I love him for being such a great canine partner with so many “firsts” for both of us we learned together.

I am retired now and my little farm is thriving. I am enjoying these late summer days harvesting fresh produce and preparing sumptuous meals, entertaining friends and relaxing in nature, planning projects and new business ventures, working the sheep, finding new trails to hike and spending lots of time with Q. With the hunt test season coming to a close, our goal will be to get out this hunting season and then hopefully be ready to start running senior tests again next year.

I like to get out to a field with Q a few times a week. I’ve found that my dogs need varied locations so they can learn to generalize the behavior across different terrain and atmosphere. Today I set up a long blind up over a hillock in between two shorter ones with lots of suction to the shorter blinds, since the dog has to run past them to get to the longer one. It took about 10 handles but he took every cast and got it right. I could see the little light bulb going on when he realized he was to push back further, not veer towards to two shorter blinds, and then, he went into high gear and the speed with which he raced up the hill and back to the blind was really something to see. It was a nice moment of teamwork. HUGE rewards when he got back to me with that bumper.

The session before was marks with a long blind in between, so we are varying this concept.

This is advanced work. When out hunting there aren’t too many situations where I would really need him to leave the bird he wanted and go to the one I asked, but it CAN happen. The most common use is a cripple you want him to get first, but there could also be log jams to avoid, hornet nests, rattle snakes. So while advanced, it’s still quite important and makes your hunt that much more enjoyable and safe to put in this time with the training……….plus, it’s fun!

I encourage you to embrace every moment with your dogs. They are not with us long enough.