ISO Waterfowl Hunting Dogs

[CDN008]

Anyone on this forum have a duck dog or have duck dog training experience in the Ottawa/Kingston area that would want to meet up sometime? I have a new pup and would love to sit and chat about training and general experiences and everything raising a duck dog.

[Dakota Creek]

Check out the Eastern Ontario Retriever Club, Ottawa Valley Golden Retriever Club or the newly formed Lanark Hunting Retriever Club. Although their focus is hunt tests or field trials, when you are starting off with a new pup, basics are basics when it comes to obedience and retrieving skills. Many of these”trial” dogs are hunted and worked harder than the average duck dog. The added advantage in reaching out to a club is a wealth of training experience / knowledge, possibly training partners and others who have all the training equipment at a time you are trying to gather together yours.

Club contact details can be found here - http://www.nrcc-canada.com/hunt-test...-ht-sched.html - on the test schedule. Both Eastern Ontario have test weekends schedule in August on this list.

[CDN008]

Thanks for the info, I will check them out.

[walkinandsittin]

Thanks for the info, I will check them out.

I have a 5 year old black lab who hunts with me. I've trained him to be a good family dog, come when called and all that. I fussed over how to train him for hunting over a few years and never managed to do it for a bunch of lazy terrible reasons. Eventually, a buddy of mine pushed me to just take my dog duck hunting (I already knew the dog isn't gun shy from various half-starts.)

It turns out that my dog's instincts are really good and he absolutely goes crazy for duck hunting, he retrieves really well, hunts down runners in the muck, pays attention to command, he's amazing!

I'm sure that proper official training works well, but I have also learned that you can train a good dog to hunt on your own as well. Don't give up if you can't organize yourself to connect with those other groups.