Puppy Check List

So I have been thinking about everything I need to buy for the pup. Here is what I have so far. I will not need all of these things right away, but I am just pulling a list together. Let me know if I am missing something important.

Travel Kennel - I am hoping that I still have one from my Lab, Kavu. If not, I will probably buy whatever plastic kennel I can find that is on sale.

Whistle - I really have no idea what kind to get. I have never used a whistle, but it sounds like it would be a good idea for me to get a general, all-purpose whistle to use with the pup. My hope is that he will learn early that a whistle means "pay attention". Looks like Roy Gonia makes a good whistle.

Collar - I'll probably just get something cheap until he grows up. At that point, I have spotted some very nice leather collars at www.snowcanyonoutfitters.com.

Leads - I read on someone's blog that they had made their own using some static climbing rope that were scraps from an outdoor store. That sounds like a good idea.
Puppy Gate - I really do not have a good idea for keeping the pup in the kitchen. Wolters suggests in his book (for housebreaking purposes) to keep the pup in a room with a hard floor that is in a high traffic area. That is our kitchen, but it is a wide open room. So, it will be very difficult to keep him in the kitchen without barricading our kitchen to where it is a hassle for everyone in my family under 6'4".
Training Bumpers - Let me know if there are preferences out there. Once again, I will probably get whatever is on sale.
Stainless Steel Bowls -
Bed - I have seen some fairly inexpensive beds that appear to be durable.
Comb - More on this later. My friend, Don, showed me a great comb that works really well. I can't remember the name of the thing, but I'll ask him about it and post it on here.

That's all I have at this point.

Family Dog

It's been a while since I've written a book report. Bare with me.

I have nearly completed reading Family Dog, by Richard A. Wolters [Dutton Adult; Revised edition (February 1, 1999)]. Most people that have trained a gun dog are probably familiar with Wolters. His other books, Gun Dog, Water Dog, and Game Dog are well known and highly regarded.

Family Dog focuses on basic obedience training. Wolters also shares his philosophy of when to start training a dog, and he supports his philosophy by citing research done by the Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye has discovered that you can greatly improve your chances of having a well-trained dog if you start training at 7 weeks. Contrary to many assumptions, a dog's brain is completely developed after only 6 months. Your pup only lacks experiences and repetition. It is really fascinating and helpful how Wolters breaks down training by the dog's cognitive development. It is basically broken down into four stages. I plan on using his method on my next pup, but it will require a commitment. One of the stages where Wolters recommends introducing a new experience to the pup, only lasts a couple of weeks. I agreed with the "meat" of the book, but as he got into later chapters on breaking negative behavior, he started to lose me a little. Some of his techniques seemed to require tricking the dog into doing a particular behavior so that you could associate this behavior with a negative consequence. I am unsure if I would choose to look for negative behaviors proactively. For example, he discusses the problem of "dog napping". He stages a scenario where you get an assistant to sit in a car and entice the dog to get in their car. After the dog gets in the car, you are to have the assistant be rough with the dog and give the dog a spanking outside of the car.

I highly recommend this book as a supplement to any other gun dog training books you may have. Wolters makes some salient points that any dog owner can use.

A Little More on Bret...

I thought I would write a little bit more about the Sire, Bret.

It is a little unusual that my connection to these dogs is through Don, the owner of the Dam, and I know more about Brett than I do Daisy. I suppose it is because I happened to be in Don's car when he had recently received Bret's pedigree. His pedigree goes back 5 generations and only 3 of the 63 dogs on the pedigree were not champions of one kind or another. Apparently, Bret was sent to a trainer out New Mexico way. While he was there, he was trained to be a horse dog. Both Daisy and Bret are very athletic and should whelp a great litter.


I am going to feel like an idiot with this blog if Daisy is not "with pups" this year. Here are a couple more pics that I took this past Monday. Sorry if Bret happens to be exposing himself a little.

The Beginning

Unfortunately, I am a 31 year old male. Which means that everyone my age will think I am pathetic for having a blog. Well, maybe I am and maybe I am.

I am going to put up some pictures and a little text of my experience getting a gun dog, a German Shorthair Pointer. I went with my friend Don to pick up his Dam, Daisy, from her weekend of breeding with the Sire, Brett, this past Monday. I took my camera and got a few pics of Daisy and Brett while I was there.













Neither of them had ever been bred so they were a little inexperienced. Don certainly knows how to handle a dog. Wow, that was an educational trip to Statesville, NC. I'll just leave it at that since Don asked me not to give away any of his "trade secrets". Well okay...I will say that I did not shake hands with Don at the end of the day.

Don is the owner of Hunting Creek Retrievers. His labs are outstanding hunters, and I am hoping his first litter of GSP's is too.