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(EP:27) Young Dogs, Expectations and Openings Days! · Bird Dogs and Big Game

• 0:18
  Tyce: Hey everyone.
• 0:18
  Tyce: Welcome to the bird dog podcast.
• 0:20
  Tyce: My name is Tyse Erickson.
• 0:21
  Tyce: I will be your host today, uh, with this show.
• 0:25
  Tyce: Um, it's good to be on here with you today and hope you can gleam some information from what I share or entertain you, I guess, for a little bit.
• 0:37
  Tyce: So, uh, just, uh, the hunts have started now.
• 0:43
  Tyce: It's been a busy summer, but the hunts are going and we're getting dogs in the field and it's a busy summer.
• 0:48
  Tyce: Beautiful time to be alive.
• 0:51
  Tyce: Um, I love this time of year.
• 0:53
  Tyce: Um, it just seems like the, in Utah here, the seasons go by so fast.
• 0:58
  Tyce: It seems like summer goes behind a blink of an eye and spring.
• 1:02
  Tyce: And I guess that's always.
• 1:04
  Tyce: That is something I do like about Utah is we have some pretty cool, uh, seasons and it allows for change and new growth and all that good stuff.
• 1:17
  Tyce: So, uh, anyways, uh, in this episode, I kind of wanted to talk about, um, you know, with the hunt starting up, how to prepare your dog for the hunts and try to, uh, Help them be successful and you as a handler, not get too, uh, overwhelmed or stressed out with, uh, working your dog and, and, uh, kind of expectations too.
• 1:44
  Tyce: So I want to talk about expectations.
• 1:47
  Tyce: So, um, when I have a dog that's gone through training, kind of no matter what level, when I go into its first hunt, I try to keep my expectations low.
• 2:01
  Tyce: Um, the reason being is if the dog does well, then you're, you're happy if the dog has some issues while it's out on its first hunt, then you're not surprised.
• 2:16
  Tyce: Um, the most common things, and I can kind of talk about these, the most common things I see with dogs that go out on their first hunts is generally it's too big of a jump from training.
• 2:31
  Tyce: to real hunting.
• 2:33
  Tyce: And so whatever you can do as a handler to bridge that gap, to bring that gap together, um, from your training to the real hunt, the more successful your dog is going to be.
• 2:49
  Tyce: So an example, if you work your dog off a boat and, or you Hunt out of a boat and you go out and you work your dog off a boat and you only work the dog, um, with, you know, let's say you don't put a blind up on your boat.
• 3:07
  Tyce: You don't brush in your boat.
• 3:09
  Tyce: Um, things that you would literally do when you Go out for the real hunt.
• 3:17
  Tyce: Um, if you just go and, you know, like I was saying, work the dog off a boat, but not really brushing your boat and set it up just like a real hunt, there's going to be that little gap there.
• 3:30
  Tyce: Right.
• 3:30
  Tyce: And so when your dog is all of a sudden kind of having to look through the brush more or can't see really well.
• 3:37
  Tyce: Um, just have that expectation that that's probably, there could be, the dog could struggle a little bit right there.
• 3:46
  Tyce: So you want to make sure, ideally, that one, you either have a lower expectation, so if the dog does struggle on something, you're not surprised, and then two, um, the dog, if, if you, if you take the dog out and.
• 4:07
  Tyce: Trying to get my brain going here this morning.
• 4:10
  Tyce: You take the dog out and you know, and it, and it's kind of struggles like I was saying that you understand why and that you're just patient with the animal.
• 4:20
  Tyce: So, um, example, I have a dog named Creek.
• 4:26
  Tyce: Uh, she's, she's a little black lab female.
• 4:29
  Tyce: She's been really fun.
• 4:30
  Tyce: I've been filming her whole training process from a puppy all the way up through Um, where she is at currently, and going to do a, a membership, um, site there of people, if they want to self train, they can get on there and watch.
• 4:48
  Tyce: Me, how I trained her all the way from a puppy all the way till, um, her real hunts that she's going on right now.
• 4:56
  Tyce: Uh, I've taken on a dove hunt and that one went exceptionally well.
• 5:01
  Tyce: Um, my expectations were a little higher because, uh, she could see the doves.
• 5:07
  Tyce: Coming in, um, they, it was on land, so there's not water.
• 5:12
  Tyce: It wasn't a lot of debris.
• 5:13
  Tyce: It's in an open field.
• 5:15
  Tyce: And I knew that visually she should be able to obviously see the doves coming into the, uh, there's kind of some cut corn barley that these birds were coming into, and it was a really good first hunt.
• 5:28
  Tyce: Cause she saw the birds coming in.
• 5:29
  Tyce: You could shoot them.
• 5:30
  Tyce: You could send her out there to go pick them up.
• 5:32
  Tyce: Everything went really successful.
• 5:36
  Tyce: Um, doves in general, if you haven't hunted does the new dog, you kind of want to just be aware that they are because they are small and their feathers tend to slough off really easy.
• 5:47
  Tyce: Sometimes dogs struggle to have them in their mouth.
• 5:49
  Tyce: So you got, if your dog has not been force fetched, sometimes dogs will eat doves.
• 5:55
  Tyce: Um, they'll just slip down their throat pretty easy.
• 5:59
  Tyce: If you have a dog that maybe has a harder mouth or a lot of chomping.
• 6:02
  Tyce: So, um, um, With a force fetch dog, you can obviously reinforce the hold and help that dog, uh, you know, just create, keep that good, maintain a good behavior on the retrieve when, when you're dove hunting.
• 6:16
  Tyce: So that went really well.
• 6:18
  Tyce: Then I took her out on the youth of duck hunt here in Utah, which is a couple of weeks ago.
• 6:22
  Tyce: That overall went well, um, I ran into the problem just as I was talking about and, you know, you know, you know what to expect for doing this so long, but also at the same time, um, I just kept my expectations low.
• 6:39
  Tyce: When I went out and trained her off the boat, I didn't brush in the boat.
• 6:43
  Tyce: I didn't set it up and take that time.
• 6:45
  Tyce: Exactly.
• 6:46
  Tyce: That would have definitely helped her out.
• 6:49
  Tyce: Um, visually, we didn't get any birds shot down, kind of right in front of us where she could see there was some heavy brush to the left and to the right.
• 6:58
  Tyce: So she didn't have a big window to Mark the birds, Mark the fall, the birds, ideally.
• 7:04
  Tyce: Um, I would have liked her to be in a spot with the boat that she could see a little bit better.
• 7:09
  Tyce: Um, that being said, that was okay.
• 7:13
  Tyce: Um, I just had realistic expectations that she may not see a bunch of these birds go down.
• 7:19
  Tyce: And if that's the case, I'm going to have to handle her or run blind retrieves with her.
• 7:24
  Tyce: And that's what we did primarily to pick up the birds.
• 7:27
  Tyce: That was fine with me because I had that expectation.
• 7:31
  Tyce: I had that expectation that the water wasn't deep that I'm going to probably get out of the boat.
• 7:36
  Tyce: I'm going to put her on the birds, handle her to them, help her be successful and just have a good time.
• 7:42
  Tyce: Um, remember when you are in the field, you should not be having heavy training sessions.
• 7:51
  Tyce: It should be just more reinforcement of the training that you've done previously to that point.
• 7:57
  Tyce: If you're making things real negative out in the field and you're really hammering through stuff, that's not a good thing.
• 8:05
  Tyce: You want to take your dog out of the field as quick as you can.
• 8:09
  Tyce: Um, get them back in the yard area, get them working, get it, get their mind, do that training elsewhere.
• 8:15
  Tyce: And then when you come back into the field, get that dog.
• 8:20
  Tyce: Reinforce that training that you've been working with that on that dog and and again You don't want to be a lot of heavy training.
• 8:27
  Tyce: We want that dog to be happy have a good attitude be successful kind of the Situations I ran into a little bit on her first duck hunt a little bit of when I was throwing out decoys She got excited and thought it was a bumper.
• 8:42
  Tyce: So she ran out Jumped off the boat once and, and, uh, went out to him and pretty simple.
• 8:48
  Tyce: It's, it's pretty dang common with young dogs, even though we've worked her through decoys and she's seen decoys.
• 8:54
  Tyce: It's a new place we're hunting.
• 8:56
  Tyce: It's exciting.
• 8:57
  Tyce: And it's almost like they visually just got to go check it out.
• 9:01
  Tyce: So another option is just let your dog.
• 9:04
  Tyce: Um, be around in the water or on the land when you're setting up decoys.
• 9:09
  Tyce: So they smell them or see them or see a throne and then, um, they kind of check them out.
• 9:14
  Tyce: Well, that's just a plastic.
• 9:16
  Tyce: And no big deal.
• 9:18
  Tyce: It's not a real bird.
• 9:18
  Tyce: So once she got out, I let her just check them out and got her back in the boat.
• 9:24
  Tyce: Um, and then when we were hunting, not many issues, occasionally when I was handling her, a blind retrieve, she would thought I was handling her to a decoy.
• 9:36
  Tyce: So she kind of went to it and then I just give her a whistle and push her back.
• 9:39
  Tyce: And if the bird was kind of out past the decoys, um, it seems like sometimes When we're running them on land and situations like that, you can push them a little further.
• 9:51
  Tyce: Um, she was a little uncomfortable on driving, um, a long distance on just, you know, swimming water.
• 10:00
  Tyce: Um, while I was out there in the boat, just kind of getting out away from the boat.
• 10:04
  Tyce: Um, that's not uncommon.
• 10:05
  Tyce: Again, ideally, if I'm going to be hunting out of a boat a lot, once the dog reaches that level, I'm going to, you know, if I want things to go that much smoother, You don't want to get that dog out in that boat, train for some longer retrieves, um, set up your decoys the way you want them and things are just going to go a lot smoother.
• 10:27
  Tyce: Um, so I think we kind of have addressed that situation.
• 10:34
  Tyce: So again, train for the hunt.
• 10:35
  Tyce: So when you're training, always train with the end goal in mind.
• 10:40
  Tyce: Um, how do I hunt?
• 10:41
  Tyce: What's the hunt going to look like?
• 10:43
  Tyce: And then you have to.
• 10:45
  Tyce: When your dog has obviously the foundation of all the, the ability to control the dog, then you need to train your dog for those hunting situations that you're going to be putting the dog into.
• 10:57
  Tyce: Um, one thing that we incorporate, um, is, We incorporate talking into our training.
• 11:06
  Tyce: So a lot of people might just go out in their yard, a lot of handlers and, you know, have their dog sit there and then they throw a bumper and they send the dog on its name and that's it.
• 11:20
  Tyce: But that's not realistically how you hunt generally.
• 11:23
  Tyce: You're with a friend or two and there's going to be some talking and obviously calling.
• 11:29
  Tyce: Make sure you call over your dog and use the different calls.
• 11:32
  Tyce: Your pintail whistle and your, you know, your Mallard calls and your Drake calls and goose calls.
• 11:39
  Tyce: Just so that dog again is.
• 11:41
  Tyce: desensitized or comfortable to that calling.
• 11:45
  Tyce: Um, again, when that, if the dog's never heard those calls, all of a sudden you take them out into the marsh and you start calling, that's going to overwhelm the dogs is looking at you.
• 11:55
  Tyce: What the heck is that noise?
• 11:56
  Tyce: What's going on here?
• 11:58
  Tyce: And is, and there's just, we're trying to, Not have too many surprises basically, you know, with the dog.
• 12:06
  Tyce: And if you haven't done the work, then just expect a lot of surprises.
• 12:10
  Tyce: So, um, that's why I'm in business is cause we're trying to basically take away as many of those surprises as we can.
• 12:19
  Tyce: And again, bridge that gap between training and the real hunt and the smaller you can make that.
• 12:26
  Tyce: The better your dog's going to just boom right into training, just start killing it right out of the gate.
• 12:31
  Tyce: Um, and some dogs, even though they're doing really good in training, it may take them two, three, four hunts where like, Oh, Oh, that gap just kind of starts coming together.
• 12:42
  Tyce: I've seen the first hunts that are kind of first or second hunts a little, they're a little rough.
• 12:46
  Tyce: And then their second hunt, they see a few birds come down and then, Oh, then it all starts kind of clicking.
• 12:52
  Tyce: Um, part, Part of having a good dog is obviously having a good handler, and understanding how to set the dog up for success in the field and having those, again, those expectations.
• 13:04
  Tyce: Um, going back though to talking, you know, practice like you're hunting.
• 13:09
  Tyce: So if you're out there working your dog and okay, here comes some off the right side guys, get ready and then, you know, take them, then jump up, throw the bumper, do some shots.
• 13:21
  Tyce: Again, we're talking about training here.
• 13:23
  Tyce: And so the dog isn't.
• 13:26
  Tyce: Um, surprised by that, right?
• 13:28
  Tyce: So, um, what happens a lot of times is when encouraging dogs to break, also not being steady, so not sitting there, and just breaking when the shots go off or when they see the bird come down early.
• 13:42
  Tyce: A lot of that is because people aren't training for that.
• 13:44
  Tyce: And so again, the dog's getting excited.
• 13:47
  Tyce: They feel the energy, they feel, feel the emotion.
• 13:50
  Tyce: Everyone jumps up, boom, boom, boom.
• 13:51
  Tyce: And all of a sudden the dog's out there picking up your bird, where if you had trained for that, you know, try to mimic that excitement and, uh, and help them, you know, be prepared for that.
• 14:02
  Tyce: Then, then you're just, again, going to have more of a steady dog, going to have more success.
• 14:08
  Tyce: Another thing that we, that, um, again, is partly, is comes down to training, um, the dog, um, kind of got a little overwhelmed, but again, I had those expectations and doing this long enough, I knew what to expect is there was a lot of brush, you know, kind of debris and weeds in the water that dogs have to crawl through and stuff like that, and I have worked the dog off the boat, so.
• 14:33
  Tyce: multiple times through the training, but still it's a young dog.
• 14:37
  Tyce: Um, there's a lot of, a lot of things going on.
• 14:41
  Tyce: And so there's a little, I could tell the dog was a little overwhelmed with that.
• 14:46
  Tyce: Um, and then, um, and also we knocked some, um, some birds down into really some thick frag, um, and tried to get the dog in there and get her searching and working around for him.
• 14:59
  Tyce: Uh, that was, That was a little overwhelming because again, we haven't, I haven't thrown a ton of birds and real heavy, heavy, heavy stuff.
• 15:06
  Tyce: So she kind of followed me.
• 15:07
  Tyce: I kind of went in there with her and had her, you know, hunt them up, give her the search command.
• 15:11
  Tyce: And she was getting out there and search around a little bit, but it's, I mean, literally a wall of bushes.
• 15:17
  Tyce: The dogs have to get comfortable poking their noses.
• 15:20
  Tyce: Through that stuff.
• 15:20
  Tyce: So if you have a young dog and you're going to be hunting really thick stuff, man, if you want that dog getting in those birds into those bushes and chasing those birds, just start by throwing a duck or a bird or a bumper into, you know, the edge of some of that really thick stuff.
• 15:37
  Tyce: And they get in there and dig it out and, um, and are successful.
• 15:42
  Tyce: And then they start learning all I can get in there and.
• 15:44
  Tyce: route around and find stuff.
• 15:45
  Tyce: And, and if it's slow out there and you're out hunting, remember, you're always training a dog is always absorbing information.
• 15:52
  Tyce: And so if it's slow, take one of your ducks, throw it into the edge of the weeds, send the dog in there to go pick it up and hunt it out and, and find it.
• 16:00
  Tyce: And, and, uh, do that a handful of times if, if the hunt's slow or when you're wrapping up for the day.
• 16:06
  Tyce: So.
• 16:07
  Tyce: Again, we're just trying to deposit into the dog's brain just a bunch of positive things that can help that dog, um, you know, be successful.
• 16:19
  Tyce: Uh, some fun things, I mean, picking up birds was no issues for her.
• 16:25
  Tyce: She's picked up a lot of birds, so that was good.
• 16:27
  Tyce: Gunfire wasn't an issue.
• 16:29
  Tyce: We only had one gun.
• 16:31
  Tyce: That can be a really, that can be a big thing when it comes to waterfowl.
• 16:37
  Tyce: Hunting is also gunfire.
• 16:40
  Tyce: Um, in training it's hard to duplicate three or four guys unloading three inch rounds inside a boat or really close to the proximity of a dog.
• 16:50
  Tyce: So if you are going to be hunting with multiple buddies, Kind of read your dog.
• 16:54
  Tyce: If you have a dog that tends to be a little softer, a little more sensitive to things, I would be very careful about taking a lot of hunters, especially opening morning, I think opening morning of, of a dog's very first hunt can be detrimental.
• 17:12
  Tyce: I generally tell people, you just got to read your dog, be careful, limit gunfire.
• 17:19
  Tyce: Um, because I mean, If the dogs, especially if they haven't been out in the marsh, they haven't done these things we've been talking about and you can just try to get in the dog's head.
• 17:27
  Tyce: You go out there.
• 17:28
  Tyce: It's just pitch dark.
• 17:30
  Tyce: You know, let's say you've never been out on a boat.
• 17:33
  Tyce: You haven't really been out in the marsh much.
• 17:36
  Tyce: And people, you're throwing out decoys, people got headlamps on and all of a sudden everyone's quiet and all of a sudden gunfire starts going off.
• 17:44
  Tyce: I mean, when it starts going off in the morning, it's still fairly dark.
• 17:49
  Tyce: I mean, you can see the birds, but it's shooting hours in the morning, it's darker.
• 17:53
  Tyce: And so when you start shooting, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, the dogs really can't see the birds well.
• 17:59
  Tyce: There's a lot going on.
• 18:01
  Tyce: And I've seen that back, backfire on people a little bit.
• 18:04
  Tyce: See, um, just because, again, it's too big of a jump from whatever it's skill level was to what, um, you're encountering at that point.
• 18:14
  Tyce: So again, ideally take your dog out real early morning hours and work on it.
• 18:20
  Tyce: It's still kind of dark.
• 18:21
  Tyce: Do some calling, um, throw some bumpers, do multiple shots.
• 18:25
  Tyce: If you have a buddy or two, you know, take a couple of guns out and unload them.
• 18:29
  Tyce: And that dog's again, is going to be more, more seasoned, um, for what you're trying to do.
• 18:37
  Tyce: If it's a young dog, ideally, um, anyhow, especially if you have a softer dog, something like that, a good thing would be to do an afternoon hunt where you can go out, the dog can see its surroundings, it can see you putting the decoys out, the birds are coming in, it's still light in the day, That's going to be less of a jump, right?
• 18:58
  Tyce: So we want to want to, again, it's just baby stepping these dogs into what we're trying to get them to do.
• 19:05
  Tyce: And then as they understand the game and they're out there playing and they're gaining more confidence, then you can take them out in those early morning hours.
• 19:12
  Tyce: I know exactly what we're doing.
• 19:14
  Tyce: We're jumping on the boat.
• 19:14
  Tyce: We're going to go out hunting.
• 19:15
  Tyce: We're shooting birds.
• 19:16
  Tyce: And that's where it's really fun when For me as a trainer, especially, um, when you put the dogs, you get them as close to that real hunt as possible.
• 19:27
  Tyce: And then those hunts just go pretty dang smooth.
• 19:29
  Tyce: And with those expectations that you, you have, it's really fun.
• 19:34
  Tyce: But again, they're an animal and they have their own brains and.
• 19:37
  Tyce: So just keep your expectations low.
• 19:40
  Tyce: Remember you're always training and, and it's just more fun if your dog does well and it kind of surprises you, then, then you're happy.
• 19:48
  Tyce: But if your dog struggles on some things and your expectations are low with it, then it's like, Hey, no big deal.
• 19:54
  Tyce: This, this is what I know we need to work on.
• 19:58
  Tyce: Um, gunfire is a big deal if you have gun issues.
• 20:04
  Tyce: So again, If your dog, if you've been working at home yourself or your dog's been with a trainer, you know, talk to him about the gunfire.
• 20:13
  Tyce: How much gunfire has this dog had?
• 20:15
  Tyce: And if it's only had, you know, a gun, maybe two shot over it, just remember that.
• 20:22
  Tyce: And I would not take a dog out, you know, with four guns or more on an opening hunt of anything and just start unloading and hope things are okay.
• 20:34
  Tyce: Again, babying him into it.
• 20:36
  Tyce: Go out with one or two after your dog goes home from training or you're training it yourself.
• 20:41
  Tyce: Work that up slowly.
• 20:42
  Tyce: One gun, two gun, three gun, four gun.
• 20:44
  Tyce: You know, or generally I would say if you can unload a gun.
• 20:48
  Tyce: Two people can unload guns.
• 20:49
  Tyce: Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 20:51
  Tyce: And there's zero issue.
• 20:52
  Tyce: Your dog doesn't give a rip.
• 20:54
  Tyce: You probably can double that pretty much and generally be fine.
• 20:58
  Tyce: Three or four.
• 20:59
  Tyce: Um, now if you go from one or two to six or eight guns, which is a lot, you know, and there's three rounds going off and you know, that's, 18 to 20 rounds.
• 21:10
  Tyce: That's good.
• 21:11
  Tyce: That's a lot of gunfire.
• 21:12
  Tyce: And again, it kind of depends on your soundings.
• 21:14
  Tyce: If you're in a boat and it's reverberating off the boat, you're in tight quarters or, you know, layout blinds and the dog's in a position where things are just really loud, just Just again, take that in consideration.
• 21:27
  Tyce: Remember how you hunt and go out and practice in the areas that you're going to be hunting with your dog or in the, as close to that setup as possible.
• 21:36
  Tyce: And you're going to have an awesome time.
• 21:38
  Tyce: So, um, It's so fun training dogs.
• 21:42
  Tyce: It's so fun seeing them be successful and have a good attitude about it.
• 21:47
  Tyce: So just enjoy the journey.
• 21:48
  Tyce: If, if, if you take your dog out and you've been working him and he's struggling on stuff, that's all right.
• 21:53
  Tyce: Go back that, you know, he's still got this season.
• 21:56
  Tyce: You got next season and just work the dog.
• 22:00
  Tyce: Um, practice those things at home, get them ready, build that confidence back up and then put them back in the game.
• 22:07
  Tyce: And if they do good, then, you know, then go to that next step.
• 22:13
  Tyce: Uh, trying to think if there's anything else that I've, we should touch on that we didn't talk about for opening day.
• 22:21
  Tyce: Um, I think that's pretty much off the top of my head overall right now.
• 22:26
  Tyce: Uh, get out there again, have fun with your dog.
• 22:30
  Tyce: Um, it's a great time of year here in Utah, just being out hunting.
• 22:35
  Tyce: And I've gone out, uh, grouse hunting already this year.
• 22:39
  Tyce: I've been out dove hunting.
• 22:40
  Tyce: I've been out duck hunting.
• 22:42
  Tyce: That's about all I've done so far.
• 22:44
  Tyce: Um, I would say numbers from where I've been hunting and my spots seem to be about similar as last year when it comes to grouse, the doves, um, are migratory birds, so they're, You know, it seems like Utah, our morning doves, at least in central Utah here, they just, I don't know, they just, they need to open the hunt like two weeks earlier.
• 23:08
  Tyce: It seems like we always get those cold snaps and it gets a little colder and all those birds, you know, tend to head south when they get just a little bit of temperature, um, change.
• 23:20
  Tyce: But, so the dove hunt's always a little hit or miss, but we had a really good hunt here on some Eurasian collared doves, which seemed to be a little more hardy.
• 23:28
  Tyce: They'll feed on some kind of the spilled corn that's around and there's no, no season, no limit on them.
• 23:34
  Tyce: Um, they're great for training dogs.
• 23:36
  Tyce: If you see a bunch of those coming into a field and then, uh, the youth duck hunt was pretty good overall.
• 23:42
  Tyce: We took my boy out.
• 23:43
  Tyce: He, uh, crew, he's been on the podcast before.
• 23:47
  Tyce: Um, we ended up.
• 23:49
  Tyce: First time this has happened to me ever, but some reason, my alarm when I woke up said it was snoozing and we got out there about 40 minutes after light.
• 23:58
  Tyce: So we kind of missed the, the first, um, exciting part of the hunt, which is kind of a bummer, which was a big bummer for me because That's kind of a big deal, but, um, usually that first half hour is pretty, uh, off the charts, but we, we got, I had gone out and pre scouted, um, a day before, kind of found out where the birds were, and, um, and got the boat in there, got set up, probably an hour after shooting hours had started, but we were able to still, um, knock down a limit of birds.
• 24:31
  Tyce: Uh, we shot all, all bigger birds.
• 24:33
  Tyce: I think we've got two redheads, gadwalls, um, what else did we get?
• 24:40
  Tyce: Uh, Wid.
• 24:43
  Tyce: I think that's pretty much what our bag was.
• 24:46
  Tyce: Um, a ring, neck or scalp.
• 24:48
  Tyce: One of those two.
• 24:49
  Tyce: Those ones are the, I have hard time identify identifying those two.
• 24:53
  Tyce: I get'em all kind of the blue bill to s scop and the ring neck kind of, um, mixed together.
• 24:57
  Tyce: But anyways, we've got some big birds, not a ton of till where I was hunting.
• 25:02
  Tyce: Usually here there's a lot of till, um, where I've hunted, but I didn't see a, a ton.
• 25:07
  Tyce: I mean, they were around, but.
• 25:09
  Tyce: Nothing crazy like I've kind of seen in the past, so, um, Overall, wasn't bad.
• 25:15
  Tyce: Got some shot at some geese.
• 25:17
  Tyce: Those, weren't able to capitalize on those.
• 25:19
  Tyce: It was fun.
• 25:20
  Tyce: We had, he's a pretty good little shot.
• 25:22
  Tyce: We had some that were right there that should've, I mean, should've just been raining down out of the sky.
• 25:29
  Tyce: That didn't happen.
• 25:30
  Tyce: But then he had some that I was, hey man, that was a good shot.
• 25:33
  Tyce: Pretty surprised, um, that he was able to connect on them, so.
• 25:38
  Tyce: Hopefully everyone has a great, uh, opening day for the, for the duck hunt and opening days, um, for your upland dogs.
• 25:47
  Tyce: A lot of your upland dog, um, uh, bird, upland birds are open.
• 25:52
  Tyce: Chuckers, um, opening up in a lot of places are forest grouses open.
• 25:57
  Tyce: Um, doves again are open.
• 26:00
  Tyce: Um, You know, pheasants and quail usually open up here the first week in November.
• 26:05
  Tyce: I haven't checked the exact date, but that's usually the, uh, in November.
• 26:08
  Tyce: So only about a month from there when everything is going to be opening up and we're going to be having a good time.
• 26:15
  Tyce: Um, one last thought.
• 26:17
  Tyce: Let's talk about upland dogs.
• 26:19
  Tyce: Okay.
• 26:19
  Tyce: No, I've been kind of talking more about waterfowl dogs.
• 26:22
  Tyce: Um, Upland dogs, I would say in general, you tend to have less issues compared to waterfowl hunting.
• 26:32
  Tyce: The biggest issues Generally, you're going to see with an upland dog are these two things for opening day hunts or first time hunts.
• 26:42
  Tyce: I would say perseverance and gunfire are going to be your top two main things that you're going to have to be patient, patient with or aware of.
• 26:52
  Tyce: Um, perseverance is going to be just driving out there and hunting as long as you want to hunt.
• 26:58
  Tyce: You know, we go out there for a half day, two, three, four hours, and you take a young dog out there.
• 27:05
  Tyce: And that young dog, lots of times they don't have the patience that, um, to get out there and stay hunting and stay driving and sticking with it.
• 27:15
  Tyce: So if your dog comes in and starts, you know, hanging out around you, acting bored with things, That is, again, it depends on your dog.
• 27:24
  Tyce: If you have an upland dog that's, you know, has a lot of energy, maybe a, you know, a short hair or something like that, that just has that motor go, go, go.
• 27:32
  Tyce: You're going to see less of it generally, but maybe if you're hunting a retriever of some sort, just a flusher and.
• 27:39
  Tyce: You know, maybe doesn't have quite have that perseverance motor just naturally built into them Then you're going to maybe see that dog if you're not getting on birds consistently, they're going to start getting bored of things the analogy I like to give is his dogs are kind of like little kids and When you take them fishing when they're young for the first time if if that little kid is catching a fish every 5, 10, 15 minutes.
• 28:05
  Tyce: He's going to want to stick out there a little longer, but if maybe 20 minutes starts going by, they're going to start getting bored.
• 28:12
  Tyce: Let's go home.
• 28:13
  Tyce: Let's I'm done.
• 28:14
  Tyce: We're not catching anything.
• 28:16
  Tyce: And they just lack that patience or that perseverance to stick out there.
• 28:20
  Tyce: But as they continue to go fishing and every once in a while, also, and they catch a fish after a half an hour, or they catch a fish after an hour before long is, is that.
• 28:30
  Tyce: Little kid matures and he really enjoys fishing.
• 28:34
  Tyce: You know, they'll sit out there for a half day or a full day, just.
• 28:37
  Tyce: You know, not even getting a bite.
• 28:39
  Tyce: So, or maybe in hopes of getting a bite every once in a while, dogs are kind of that same way.
• 28:45
  Tyce: Get them out there.
• 28:46
  Tyce: You get them hunting.
• 28:47
  Tyce: If all said in an hour later, boom, there's a bird.
• 28:50
  Tyce: Okay.
• 28:50
  Tyce: The dog's going to, it's going to kind of put that fire back in the dog.
• 28:53
  Tyce: They're going to hunt a little longer and then find another one.
• 28:57
  Tyce: Boom again.
• 28:58
  Tyce: And you're going to be, and they're just going to incrementally as they mature and build that self confidence.
• 29:05
  Tyce: They're going to learn to persevere longer and harder.
• 29:08
  Tyce: Something to take consideration is cover.
• 29:11
  Tyce: Cover affects things, right?
• 29:13
  Tyce: If you're crawling through heavy cover, the dog's going to get tired faster and mentally, mentally and physically just burned out more.
• 29:22
  Tyce: And so that perseverance is going to, um, lack of perseverance is going to show itself quicker where if a dog has Um, if they're in really good shape, um, they're going to be able to push through that brush longer.
• 29:36
  Tyce: So depending how well you've conditioned your dog, how good a shape they're in, that's going to be a factor to that.
• 29:43
  Tyce: Also, um, heat's going to be a factor too.
• 29:46
  Tyce: If it's really hot, just like us, if you get hot and it's going to burn you out faster, you're going to get tired, you know, the dog's not going to smell as well because of scenting conditions aren't as good when it's hot.
• 30:01
  Tyce: So early season stuff can be a little more challenging because you're dealing with heat, scenting conditions, young dogs, you know.
• 30:08
  Tyce: Um, learn to persevere, stuff like that.
• 30:11
  Tyce: So just have that.
• 30:12
  Tyce: Try to always encourage to keep the dog in front of you.
• 30:15
  Tyce: I don't like dogs ever walking behind me and thinking they can get into that realm of, Oh, I'll just, I'll just let him walk in front of me and, you know, be a bootlicker.
• 30:24
  Tyce: You don't want to stop.
• 30:26
  Tyce: No, get the dog in front of you and encourage those habits that you want.
• 30:29
  Tyce: Okay, hunt them up, you know, and get them going in front of you.
• 30:32
  Tyce: Um, these days, depending where you're at, what state you're in, Bird numbers can be an issue, you know, and if you take that dog out and, you know, in training, he's been getting on birds and being consistent and then all of a sudden you take him out and you're like hunt him up and there's, you know, one bird in five miles and you're hoping to find it.
• 30:54
  Tyce: The dogs seem to be like, what the heck are we doing out here?
• 30:56
  Tyce: So, you know, preserves or bird farms, whatever you want to call them, where they put out birds for you and you know, you're going to encounter some birds is a great place to start dogs and get them out and get them hunting.
• 31:08
  Tyce: Cause those ones you're just, you know, you're going to find success and that's going to help that dog again with perseverance.
• 31:14
  Tyce: And so when you do go out and go hunt wild birds and you got to hunt a little longer, dig a little deeper, you know, it's going to help that dog persevere.
• 31:23
  Tyce: Uh, longer.
• 31:24
  Tyce: So, um, so yeah, be aware of that.
• 31:29
  Tyce: And then gunfire is a big thing.
• 31:31
  Tyce: Most of the time with upwind dogs.
• 31:34
  Tyce: It's just having too many guns going off that kind of throws dogs off or a bird, someone else's dog or another bird, you know, or someone else's dog or bird just randomly flushes and the dog doesn't really see the bird and doesn't kind of see the picture.
• 31:51
  Tyce: And then all of a sudden, and you've got a big group of guys and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know, a bunch of shots are going off and causes the dog to be a little overwhelmed with the gunfire.
• 32:04
  Tyce: That can be an issue.
• 32:05
  Tyce: Um, so again, take that into consideration.
• 32:09
  Tyce: Um, a good drill you can do when you're out hunting, if you, if you're an upland guy is take a bird or a bumper, ideally a dead bird that maybe you've put in the freezer in the past, walk out there, um, with a buddy or two out into a field.
• 32:24
  Tyce: And when the dog just, you know, give the dog the hunt command, is he searching around, just randomly throw that bird into the air.
• 32:32
  Tyce: When the dog maybe is hunting to the right and it starts and it's just about ready to quarterback to the left, give that bird a nice high throw with an arc and do some, and as soon as it goes in the air, boom, boom, boom, shoot some shots.
• 32:44
  Tyce: And so when the dog turns and looks, it's going to hear those shots and see that bird go down and go, go retrieve your bird for you.
• 32:52
  Tyce: That's going to prep that dog for.
• 32:54
  Tyce: Again, that situation, if a bird just gets bumped down the line and it comes up and people boom, boom, boom, start shooting, that dog's going to look for that bird and, and, uh, you know, send that and the dog's going to be comfortable with that situation.
• 33:08
  Tyce: Um, because sometimes in training, when you're training them, or maybe with someone else's training them, dog is typically they're pointing or flushing that bird right into the air.
• 33:16
  Tyce: And so it's right You know in front of the dog and so the dog gets used to that So when all of a sudden there's not a bird in front of it and all of a sudden gunfire starts going off You know down the line.
• 33:27
  Tyce: Um The dog that sometimes can throw a dog off.
• 33:31
  Tyce: So that's a good drill to do is just randomly Take the dog out hunting, throw a bird into the air when the dog's, you know, not, you don't want to throw it ideally right over the dog, but when it's hunting out to the right or left, throw it up, shoot some shots, the dog sees, marks the fall of the bird, goes and picks it up, and um, and so again, when you go out hunting and a bird just randomly flushes up, someone maybe steps on it and flushes it in the air.
• 33:56
  Tyce: and it gets shot everything is good and dandy and it's all smooth so again upland dogs you're probably going to see less issues because that generally the birds are coming up in front of the dog um but those ones are going to be your main issues when it comes to um A dog not hunting, I guess, well would be the gunfire issues, too many guns, too fast, um, and then perseverance.
• 34:24
  Tyce: And then obviously the other stuff, the mechanics of controlling the dog, like obedience and the retrieve come to your yard work.
• 34:31
  Tyce: You know, you're trained to retrieve or your, or your good obedience is going to affect, So I'm kind of talking about if you have good control on your dog and you have, you know, a nice retrieve on your dog, those are kind of the things you got to be aware of.
• 34:47
  Tyce: Obviously, if you're having control issues, the dog's chasing birds, you know, hunting out there too big.
• 34:54
  Tyce: Bumping birds, whatever it may be, that's an obedience issue.
• 34:58
  Tyce: If your dog's chewing on birds, not retrieving them, uh, dropping birds, not whatever it is when it comes to retrieving, that's also a training issue.
• 35:07
  Tyce: So those things you want to go back and address, and we won't talk about those in this podcast.
• 35:12
  Tyce: So anyhow, hopefully you guys are all having a great season.
• 35:17
  Tyce: You're excited for the fall.
• 35:19
  Tyce: You've all this hard work that you've put into your dog, um, is about ready to be, um, Paid back to you.
• 35:26
  Tyce: So it's really fun to put them in the, put them in the real game.
• 35:29
  Tyce: I mean, cause you're training for the real game all summer and now it's here.
• 35:33
  Tyce: So it's really cool to see him, uh, be successful as you take him out hunting.
• 35:38
  Tyce: So thanks for listening.
• 35:40
  Tyce: Hope you guys, uh, all have a great, uh, beginning hunting season, uh, stay safe and have fun with, uh, with your dog.
• 35:49
  Tyce: And we'll see you in the next podcast.