Dogs-n-Dekes

[Chromaflage]

I went out to Sauvie's with my good buddy Boatdog yesterday. We had a great time and even got a few birds. I was reminded about my dog's first bird hunting trip about 4 years ago. I had shot a bird that dropped in the middle of our spread. I sent the pup after it and she brought a decoy back to me. We quickly rememdied that problem.

Now, back to yesterday....we were picking up to head in and we headed out to the spread to start winding 'em up. My dog, Maggie, followed and decided she wanted to help she grabbed a deke, swam to shore then came back out to me in the water. I handed her one that I wound up, she swam to shore, dropped it and came back out for another. She probably packed two dozen dekes to the bank for me. I have never let her do that, nor have I ever trained her to do that. But, I found that it was pretty danged helpful.

Does anyone else let their dogs help with deke packing? I was amazed that she just decided that she needed to help. No idea what possessed her

And thanks to Boatdog - he helped almost as much as Maggie did. :grin: Nice to meet Waterfowlin101 out there too!!!

CrF

[Gettin' Birdy]

Yep...done that with my older lab Maggie. I can send her for retrieve after retrieve on decoys instead of braving the frigid water. Saves me a ton of work and gives her some sort of reward on slow days. The only bummer is that it's a little hard on the paint :smile:

-Gettin' Birdy

[waterfowlin101]

At McCormick this year Lonnie's dog saved a floating widgeon of mine...thanks for that Tank!!

Our dog Katy...who is still kickin' , used to do it a time or two when she was new to the sport...but got bored (or tired) and lost the habit on her own.

I'd imagine it's not a bad deal if you (the owner) can control when this action occurs...I wouldn't want it happening during the hunt though.

Good meeting you too CrF, glad you guys had a good time!!

Jon

[Chromaflage]

I'd imagine it's not a bad deal if you (the owner) can control when this action occurs...I wouldn't want it happening during the hunt though.

She does fine during the hunt - won't bring in a deke. But during set-up I have to get on her a little to keep from dragging them in. A little work and a couple trips, she should know when to hold 'em and when to walk away.

CrF

[cwh]

Yeah, I sent Zach the dog after some dekes that were making a break for it in the Columbia the other day. Water was over the waders, and I couldn't get to it, even with Hunt'nFish's boat pole.

I was nervous about it too, didn't want to start a bad habit, and I know how those mixed messages can make a dog suffer. But he's pretty solid on most birds, so I'm thinking he will be fine. I did have him retrieve a decoy out of the spread the other day when I didn't want him to.

I reminded him that it was only an "on command" thing, and I think we're clear now. He does go out with me if I walk into the dekes and check each one over though, just to make sure none have feathers.

[billc_sbio]

Nope! Generally I've trained my dog/s NOT to pick up dekes.

However, this year my new young gal, Sparky, swam through the dekes on a retrieve out on Aaron and caught a line on her leg. She swam out, about 100 yd.s trailing the deke, and when she caught/grabbed the duck and turned around, the line came untangled off her leg and stayed out there!

After leaving it out there awhile, and having one of my buddies, with higher waders than mine, try to walk out to retrieve it in the suck muck and turn back, I got Sparky and sent her out to "Fetch" the decoy.

She made two trips out, swam around it and came back.

I had her come back to me, took a decoy and commanded her to "fetch it", then took it from her and sent her back out there where she dutifully fetched the deke and brought it back to me.

My thinking on NOT having dogs fetch the decoys is similar to NOT training pointing dogs to "sit". (Where the dog, under duress, may sit on the command "whoa")

It's like throwing/fetching sticks which I never do either for the same reason...under duress of "having" to fetch something, if the dog goes out to retrieve, and it loses sight of the duck or the duck dives on it, chances are good that the dog will grab the nearest decoy and bring it back instead of the duck. :shocked: