2011 Spring Hunt Test
The Central MI HRC spring hunt test will be on Saturday May 28, 2011 at Omega Farms in Williamston, MI. This test is a combined effort with St. Clair Flats HRC which has their test on Sunday May 29, 2011 at Omega. Both clubs work together to put on a fine hunt test weekend. The premium will be posted soon, or you can check here.
September 1, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I have a young pup that I would like to start retriever training on in the near future and I would like more information on train events and any other information you can provide. I live near Rockford,MI
Thanks
Greg
September 1, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Hi Greg,
Our club, like many others, doesn’t have group training sessions in the fall or winter due to hunting season and then nasty weather. We will start up again in the spring so keep watching this website. We will post future training sessions well in advance of the date.
November 16, 2010 at 8:21 pm
As indicated by Gregg Bassham, I am would like to learn how to train my dog to hunt appropriately and to take hunting tests. Would you please recommend training information (books, videos, etc.)? Also, I will be looking at your website for your future training sessions. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.
November 16, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Hi Henry,
I am training my first dog, a 20 month old black lab male. I am using Rick Stawski’s Fowl Dawg series of three DVDs and Mike Lardy’s Volume 1 notes. I am having good success with this. I also use a Tritronics Pro 500 e-collar.
December 1, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Henry and Greg,
We will be starting up training after our January 8 meeting. I expect we will have our first training day in January. Watch the website for dates.
Best of luck
Jim Thompson / Pres. Central Michigan HRC
January 12, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Concerning a good book to use for Training a Retreiver try “Back to Basics” by Robert Milner. Best training book I have ever read. As long as you not trying to make Field Trial dog. Personally I do not want a Hyper robot “Field Trial” dog. And have read quite a few dog train books. Better than “Water Dog” by Richard Wolters.
I have a Cheaspeake and “Back to Basic” so far has been a great guide for training. The introduction story at the begin of this book really shows you how a hunting dog should be and how field trial dogs are more like robots. You have to decide if you want a hunting dog or robot dog. A field trial dog may take a great icey cold long water,..straight line retreive in late November only a few times until hypothermia symptoms set in. An non-Field Trail dog will do what comes naturally, which is to swim part of the way and get out of the water run along the bank until the dog is close to bird and go back into the cold water for the retreive. Difference is the hunting used his head and did not rely on his Master for direction. Keep in mind I am not talking about a blind retreive here..of course if this were a blind retreive the dog would need to be handled. “Back to Basics” does cover the blind and multiple retreiver training as well and recommends not using electric collars for training. Electric collar are great for professional dog trainer, but not the average hunter or someone tring to train just one dog. Electric collar in the average persons hand probably ruins more otherwise good dogs.
My 2 cents
Thanks,
Greg Bassham
February 1, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Gregg,
I hope to see you at one of the training sessions. I hope you are open to discussions on your post. I can give you several reasons I don’t want my dog running the bank and discuss other assumptions posted. I will leave those kind of blog discussions for other websites.
Wishing it were training weather
Jim