Non Kipawa Report

[GregL]

We took an extended weekend to go pick our Duke (black lab) from a friend in Northern Ontario.  With all this crazy crap going on I could not go anywhere to give him the training he needs and being
so important right now to get the basics in. He just turned 2. A buddy of mine agreed to do some water work with him for me because we have no training water that I could access down here
in southern Ontario.

So it was not a hard choice go to Kip or bring Duke home HAHA!

We did a 1/2 day  Thursday after picking up Duke, checking in the hotel etc... and most of Friday. Then trained at my buddies farm the rest of the weekend.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a very small lake that seemed to have an ok population of walleye.

I think we did pretty good on this lake for the first time, I am sure it gets a lot of pressure. I don't think it was 5 miles long and less than 2 miles wide. We did find a couple very good lucking spots with HUGE clouds of bait and hooks under them in 25' of water but they would not bite.

We got 6 between Thursday evening and Friday.. with smallmouth and hammer handles mixed in.. The walleye were super healthy and a decent size ranging from 15 to 22 inches.

Was good to have Duke back in the boat with us again!

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for your report Greg. Was the training you had your buddy do for Duke "field trial training"? I conducted some field trial training back in 1988 with my yellow labrador Jessie. It's hard work but very rewarding. Nothing like having a well trained dog! Jessie responded to both verbal and whistle commands. Watching field trials was really motivating to train Jessie.

Jay

[GregL]

Yup!!! Our first dog Suzie, my chocolate lab was awesome.

We started in HRC Hunt Tests and she was fully titled Then I changed training groups and switch to field trials because that's what they ran and got tired of going to tests by myself LOL!

After a few years of Field Trial Training and testing. Suzy really started doing well. Our last competitive year she made it to the 3rd or 4th series every trial we ran! She ended up winning the last trail she ran. I was so proud of her! The 4th was a huge water test with the shortest retired mark at about 250 yrds!

She beat several professionally trained dogs, that's when I really got hooked!!!

I feel like Duke is going to be a special trial dog! He is a great marker and LOVES big water!

My buddy helped out in finishing of his swim by training.. I was proofing it on a big training pond and think he took well to the lessons! Here is one location we proofed it on.. Duke and I stood on a that little point and tossed a training bumper across that long spit out in open water (5' feet from land). When he picked up the bumper I tooted the whistle he spun around and treaded water watching me, waiting for his "cast". I stuck out my right arm and said "OVER"...

He swam that entire spit 5' from shore all the way to the far dyke!! Never looked back once! SOO COOL!!!! My Suzy was a great dog but was not exposed to water like this until she was about 5 so she never really liked big swims which definitely was not her fault!

I've done all Dukes basics except swim by, my buddy did that for me. I just did not have any of this kind of water to train on with all this stupid covid crap going on..

It is a lot of work! I train 3 nights a week with a 1 to 1.5 hr drive north each way to accomplish this, plus most weekends I'm driving to the Iron Bridge area to train for the weekend on water.

Duck season is going to be fun with him this year!!

Thanks for your report Greg. Was the training you had your buddy do for Duke "field trial training"? I conducted some field trial training back in 1988 with my yellow labrador Jessie. It's hard work but very rewarding. Nothing like having a well trained dog! Jessie responded to both verbal and whistle commands. Watching field trials was really motivating to train Jessie.

Jay

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for the informational response Greg. Sounds like you and Duke will do quite well.

Jay

[Hodgey1]

Glad you got away Greg, where was the lake and what was it name?

[GregL]

Glad you got away Greg, where was the lake and what was it name?

It was a small lake in the Algoma Region. It was actually very quite Tina and I were like "Well maybe the fishing isn't that good, Friday night on a long weekend and there hardly any boats out."

My buddy told me it was because most of the cottages are owned by people in the US.  That's all I can say HAHAHA!