During Homers first couple months I did not make his retrieves very difficult. Once he turned 6 months old the “Marked” retrieves were made much more difficult. I was now starting to expect him to mark in areas I normally hunt. Here in the Southwest Deserts upland hunting is for quail, in steep brushy canyons. Homer was now starting to make retrieves in brush, as well as up and down canyon areas. His marking ability was outstanding in this type of terrain.
My 1st season dove hunting is done in agricultural areas mainly in cut alfalfa. I made numerous trips to this type of area bird dog training Homer. Homer had a much harder time making good marks in the fields. The lack of visual reference took some getting used to. I was a little harder on him in the open fields. If he blew past the mark he got scolded severely and told MARK. I would pick up the dummy and not let him have his reward “the retrieve”. It took a good 75-100 retrieves in the open fields before Homer developed his depth perception in an open field.
At about 5 months old Homer was introduced to water. He was a little reluctant at first, but like most Lab’s he took to water very well. It just took a little coaxing and a couple short tosses into the water to, “get his feet wet”. Homer absolutely loves the water now.
By training Homer in these areas, he really did great when hunting season opened. I would have been very disappointed if I hadn’t trained him in these types of areas. A hunting dogs training will prepare him for the conditions he will encounter in “The Field” so that is where most of the training should be done.
Joe Dynarski