Boot Camp for Dogs

Well...it is that time of year again. You know, the time when I'm outnumbered. Oh, and the time where I hear "We're counting down the days!" No, it is not the countdown to sunny beaches and the beautiful ocean like I have. It is THE countdown. The official time left until there will be days of wading through muddy cold water, waking up at 3:00 a.m., lugging heavy gear for miles, and finding that 'perfect spot'. That's right folks--hunting season is just 3 'short' months away and our house has already begun preparing...in full force.


Aspen is probably the biggest priority as far as 'preparations' go. In addition to her two training sessions each day (which we do all year) we have started taking her out to 'swim' two days a week for about an hour. These 'swim' sessions are not quite as leisurely as they may sound, however. Scott demands a lot of her by throwing multiple birds (dummies) out. She then marks where the birds are and has to go out and get them one at a time (while holding the bird in her mouth a certain way, swimming in a straight line, treading water in place on command and trying to keep her head above water.)


Scott also has been working on her field retrieves. There is a significant amount of ground cover where we take her which helps her learn how to mark where a bird lands and also teaches her to follow the directional hand signals we give her. In real hunting scenarios, it is likely that the shooter will not see exactly where a bird lands. These exercises will also help Aspen learn to 'hunt' for them.


Aspen really is such a well trained dog and I am so proud of Scott for working with her and helping me learn how to train her. One of these days I'll get a video of a few of her retrieves on here...they are actually pretty cool to watch.


We are still working on getting Aspen's health back to 100%. What has been diagnosed as an 'allergy' seems to be getting slightly better on the new (expensive) diet we have her on. (Isn't it ironic that she likely has a FOOD ALLERGY considering Scott and I are BOTH on special diets for food allergies?!) Once the food trial is over we should be able to determine a better solution for the problem.


Our next preparation was of course, a trip to Cabela's. We spent a little over an hour there on Saturday in their 'waterfowl' section but came away empty handed with Scott saying, "Seriously?! It is three months before opening day and they don't have ANYTHING! They need to start stocking up!" My silent response was, "We were there for over an hour looking at so called 'nothing' and I didn't even get any fudge out of the deal." Don't get me wrong, I really quite enjoy going to Cabela's. However, after spending an hour in one section of the store I require a fudge fix. :)


Scott and I have also started running in the mornings to help us get in a little better shape. I'm worried that Scott is going to have a heart attack pulling all of his heavy gear out on the marsh and so we have rededicated ourselves to a workout program. We are trying to start off slowly at first and then will work up to something a little more challenging. I think it would be fun to run a few races where we can be sponsored to raise money for the Celiac's Foundation. We're still working on the details of if that would be a possibility.

I am also more than likely going to be enrolling in a hunter's education course so I can actually shoot when I'm out hunting. I have some scheduling conflicts that we are trying to work out, but I'll definitely keep my 2 blog readers updated. :)