Boru's First Hunt!!

Well, fall is here and the time is right for hunting in the creeks.

I have not been the best hunting dog trainer/owner/blogger in recent months. I have excuses, but I won't bore you with them. Luckily I'm blessed with having a very smart 5-month-old puppy who has all the energy of a puppy with at least some of the restraint of a 5-year-old dog.

After a few gun breaking sessions, which he did wonderfully with, and some field retrieves with a pheasant wing duct-taped to a bumper, it was time to take Boru out on the water for some wood duck action this morning.

A nice windy morning with early clouds made for a perfect day on the water. We kicked some woodies out first thing, but it was too dark to shoot. Boru quickly settled into his favorite past-time: chewing and eating sticks, while we hoped for some more ducks to buzz by.

After the nearby shooting died, the clouds cleared, and the turkeys flew back and forth over Sugar Run, one of my hired guns (my dad) decided to take a walk and see if he could kick up some ducks and stir up the action, while my other hired gun (my grandfather) stayed in our duck blind.

How Early is Too Early to Train?

There has been a lot of debate about how early is too early to train your hunting dog. I'm getting my puppy soon, and I'm thinking that I want to start with some basic commands immediately. But are there certain things that are worth waiting for?

I'm basically thinking that commands that work well for both a family dog and a hunting dog should be the first ones taught: sit, stay, heal, come, etc.

Famed gun dog training author, Richard Wolters, believes that you should start as early as 7 weeks (Boru will be 7 weeks old next week!), while many other authorities think you should wait until the dog is a year old.