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Photo from 3/09 training

It’s been almost a month since Roxie has been field training. I was a little concerned if she would remember all her training and she DID! We practiced with her and then we practiced with ME. Brad brought out the shotgun and trap shooter and I got to practice a little bit of shooting. I told him I wasn’t very good and that I had good days and bad. He didn’t believe me when I hit the first shot dead center! The next two weren’t so good but the 4th again was dead center. Just like dog training, we ended on a good note :).

Then we headed back into the field with Roxie and a pheasant. Brad asked me if I wanted to shoot and after the pratice I just had I said YES! He was shocked that I actually said yes! So off we went to find the bird. He had control of Roxie, I had the gun. Roxie found the bird in no time and kept creeping up on it until it flushed and flew away. She chased it but it got a way (this is good). Come to find out the e-collar wasn’t working so when Brad tried to correct her for chasing, nothing happened. We went back to the truck, fixed the collar, got another bird and went out again. This time, she found the bird, pointed it and stayed there and let me go out front to find it. I kicked around until it flushed, I aimed, pulled the trigger and nothing… damn safety! I quickly turned off the safety and aimed and shot again. I don’t know if I hit it as it was already going down when I shot and we didn’t go after it. We just simulated a downed bird and I gave her a bird from my pocket as her reward.

Overall, it was a great training day for both me and Roxie. Hunt test season is over until fall so I have all summer to continue to work on her steadiness and hope that she is ready by then. One of the local Weim clubs is having a field trial this fall and I may consider running her in it for fun. I don’t know much about them so we will see. I need to get my butt out to the shooting center and practice. I also need to get into that darned 10 hr hunter safety course. Yuck!

Thats all for now!