Never Spoil your Bird Dog!

My dog decided to jump out of a moving Ranger once, luckily I was driving slow and saw her go *** over teakettle over the passenger door. Unluckily for her she was still hooked in by her collar so she ended up partially hanging over the side of the door standing on her back legs until I could make it around to lift her back in.

Turns out the leash hook placement in my brothers machine gives her an extra 6" of travel which is just enough to get her collar past the door. On my machine she stops short and doesn't have enough length to even attempt a jump before hitting the end of it. Apparently she thought she wasn't hooked in since she wasn't leaning into the collar pressure the entire time like she normally does.

I'm just glad I wasn't going faster and stopped immediately, scared the crap out of me.
 
That's actually how we used to train bird dogs to ride in an open truck: hanging once or twice will break a dog of most anything.

This is the first dog that I'm raising so I'm definitely overly cautious. Watching my wife's collie Dollie waste away at 5 years old last year due to a degenerative neurological issue definitely made me much more cautious with Cedar as I do not want to go through losing another dog for at least a decade.
 
Snoozing on the way to Nevada for Chukars and Huns. First flight . My flight bag made a perfect pillowView attachment 578923

My co-pilot and navigator. They both loved to fly. They may have thought it was just a noisy car, but the Brit used to love to look out the window in the 180. In the car she'd just sleep.
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Here's a picture from one of my last hunts with Candy. She was the once in a lifetime dog and I honestly don't think another one will ever compare to her. She was my first hunting dog and made me look like a professional trainer and now many years later I realize that I am nothing of the sort.
 

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Love Brittany's! Easiest dogs to train. I grew up with lemon and liver pointers. I don't think God ever made a more stubborn dog. A friend gave me a Brit nearly forty years ago and I never looked back. I have owned and trained a half dozen since, a German short haired and a couple of Weimaraner. My son owns a Weimar I trained now. The only way to have a good bird dog is to spoil them. Use to have one that would go to the truck and load up if you missed more than three or four birds in a row! 😂 Said he wasn't hunting for free. 😂 My Grand father used to feed him the heads. Ole Joe was definitely spoiled.
I feed my Drathaar the head, feet, liver and gizzard. We are a team. lol so she shares in the bounty
 
Our ShadowMax. German shepherd. Not much for birds, but chases them! His GF Roxie. They and me are inseparable. Incredible guard dogs. The last picture was when he was six months old.
 

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There has always been a 4 legged friend in my life and always will. We now have Soft Coated Wheaton's, The Wheaten is not for the couch potato they are super high energy and love the rough housing that they can get involved in. My first was Charleigh a female we got just before a big surgery I was going to have . We had to put down our Springer Sophie at 16 1/2,I feel guilty as she should have been put down a year earlier, I just could not say good by....................... We got Charleigh 1 1/2 months before I had Surgery, she was a life saver. When she was 5 we got Anya a 8week old Wheaten female and Charleigh would not look at us for 2 months. Charleigh was 15 1/2 last July when she had to say good by.................THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE, she is with me always. WE found a Breeder in Iowa in Red Oak and got Maeve, she is different than the other 2 as she see's things we don't and nor does Anya, Maeve is a paper shredder, and loves my slippers, will go in and pick them up and bring them out to put on the floor, as if to say lets get rough! We will be going out to Anacortes, Washington the day after Labor day driving from here in Wisconsin to see Mom ,She's 97 lives in her house and still drives for herself. To say the least we have been taking this trip for 16 years to see mom, always driving and staying at Best Westerns, they have gotten to know my girls at all the Motels. This year with Maeve, I have a funny feeling it could be a trip that I will never forget. Soft Coated Wheaton's originated in Ireland, so they are Irish like me and they all have Female Irish girls names, Pete Maeve , Anya and Charleigh and Anya
 

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