by assateague » Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:30 am
That's my intention, Rick, but I'm stuck in a sort of minor conundrum. I don't want to beat down his natural instincts, since I will be using him for rail and snipe. Also, I want him to do well on his natural ability test for the breeder as promised, so he can continue doing what he's doing, which is getting all the data and feedback he can through normalized NAVHDA testing for his (and the breed's) breeding program. After that, he will be retriever 85%, pointer 15%, or something along those lines. The last two times we've been out walking, we've seen nothing, which gives me a little more confidence off leash. Prior to that, we encountered a deer about 40 yards away, looking at us, but Dutch was on leash. Granted, he showed no inclination to chase, but I honestly have no idea how much that was because he knew he was on leash, and how much was because he was "whoa-ed". Probably almost exclusively the former, I think, although I don't really know.
A big fear of mine (and most likely completely irrational) is that he will search for a cripple, find it, and then stand there and point it, across a 50 yard gut in the marsh. I need to step up my game eventually, but don't want to confuse him (or me) at this point, by trying to do too much.