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Jay
Topeka, KS Go GORILLAS!!

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08/02/2006 6:27 AM	Alert
I need to start using a lot more birds on blind training. She's going well, but I'm sure would enjoy it more if there were feathers at the end of the road. Anyways, I'm having a hard time finding pigeons, and I don't have the time to catch them, so has anyone ever used quail? I'm kind of worried about the small size and mouth habits at that long of a distance. (standards I know, we've been through this ) What do you think? Jay

There is a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness. GMPR APR HR Tornado Allie of Blk Forest

KwickLabs
Roscoe, IL

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08/02/2006 8:41 AM	Alert
Buy a small freezer, a dozen ducks and be done with it. Ducks last a long time, you've got the real thing and mouth issues are minimized.

Jim Boyer www.kwicklabs.com Home of: MPR UH HRCH Kwick Taffey of Joemac's MH Kwick Kooly Dew It Allstar SH Kwick Daisy's Spirit Keeper SH Kwick Draw McGraw ("Dustbucket" II) ---------------------------------- "Excellence is Expected"

Jay
Topeka, KS Go GORILLAS!!

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08/02/2006 10:58 AM	Alert
Thaw, refreez, thaw refreez? Or just keep frozen? The standing rule at the house is that if something in the freezer is wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, then you don't want to know what it is so don't ask. Jay

There is a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness. GMPR APR HR Tornado Allie of Blk Forest

Jay
Topeka, KS Go GORILLAS!!

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08/02/2006 10:59 AM	Alert
Thaw, refreez, thaw refreez? Or just keep frozen? The standing rule at the house is that if something in the freezer is wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, then you don't want to know what it is so don't ask. Jay

There is a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness. GMPR APR HR Tornado Allie of Blk Forest

KwickLabs
Roscoe, IL

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08/02/2006 11:31 AM	Alert
Here's the ideal routine with buying a dozen ducks. Bring them home in a bird crate. Dispatch most of them, wrap individually in at least four layers of newspapers, place the number you would use for a training session (that's four for me) in a plastic bag and freeze. A label keeps track of which bag is which (how often used). That first day you have a session set-up where you shoot a flyer for your dog. Two more ducks are kept live in a bird crate for a couple more days to use as shackled, in your face live ducks for close up bird handling sessions. Three of four days later you have a dozen frozen ducks ready to use in training. If you are training one dog, two per bag is fine. When you want to train figure out how far in advance of the training session you would need, take two out and unthaw them. Today maybe 15 minutes! When they are almost thawed (still cold inside) place them in a designated cooler to transport to and from the training session. When training keep the used ducks in a covered bucket. Afterwards, some like to let the duck air dry. I don't. The wet or dry ducks are wrapped in four fresh layers of newspapers, placed in a clean plastic bag (if the freezer is used for edibles) and refrozen. If you don't have to put the ducks in a plastic bag the freezer defrosts the ice out of the ducks (through the newspapers) and they are dry for the next thawing. It takes only seconds to have fresh ducks for every training session. And if you read articles like The Secrets of Pros" birds in every training session is a must. When I went out to check on Daisy a few weeks ago, the Pro's freezer was a huge upright. The ducks were not even wrapped or bagged. Frozen ducks were taken in buckets via an ATV to the field and the earlier dogs picked up frozen ones. Immediately, when we came back to the kennel the first thing done was to place the ducks back into the freezer. A few were tossed as they had seen better days (if you know what I mean). In the winter, when running the dogs at tower shoots, after each shoot I can take four or five pheasants home to the freezer. I'm just now finishing up the last ones. They don't hold up at all when used in water, but they make a great change of pace when running blinds. I bought 24 mallards way back in the early spring. I still have a enough frozen pheasants and mallards to make it through the end of August. I'm training two dogs right now and Daisy was in the mix until the end of June. So if you are careful they last quite awhile. If you have training partners that like your ducks......plan on a lot less time. PS I fine tuned my frozen bird process this year. Someone told me that a small upright Haier regfrigeator (if cranked up enough) will almost freeze food. I bought a fairly new one at a garage sale and now I can toss a few duck into it and keep them at 32 degrees and close to thawed out for the next day. It works. I figure between the chest freezer and small upright, in one year the new little "fridge" paid for itself because the birds have lasted so much longer.

Jim Boyer www.kwicklabs.com Home of: MPR UH HRCH Kwick Taffey of Joemac's MH Kwick Kooly Dew It Allstar SH Kwick Daisy's Spirit Keeper SH Kwick Draw McGraw ("Dustbucket" II) ---------------------------------- "Excellence is Expected"

stuw
North Central Minnesota

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08/02/2006 1:13 PM	Alert
Jay...see if there is an HRC event in your area....when the event is done...they give away all the ducks...well atleast we did....some werent any good and had to disposed of....but lots of folks took home free training birds....

APR Gull Dam Labs Sagebrush Dragon ??R Gull Dam Labs Lady Willow

hooligan
Southern California and Vancouver Island

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08/02/2006 1:17 PM	Alert
Ok-I have (frozen) 1 duck, 1 chukkar and 3 quail (I've been collecting ). Should I be using them for retrieves for Churchill now, or is this for later?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Jay
Topeka, KS Go GORILLAS!!

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08/03/2006 7:56 AM	Alert
"Haier" - Brand name? Where did you get it. I like that rotation idea. I may have to try that. You mentioned shackled ducks and handling? Pleae enlighten me. Jay

There is a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness. GMPR APR HR Tornado Allie of Blk Forest

KwickLabs
Roscoe, IL

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08/03/2006 9:36 AM	Alert
"Haier" - Brand name? Where did you get it. Yes, it is a brand name. Walmart carries them (last time I looked), but I bought mine for less (garage sale). A shackled duck is similar to the same way you use a clipped winged pigeon......just way bigger and probably better for "mouth" training. Late in the force fetch processs, I try to get a shackled (legs tied together) duck to hold. The wings are taken out of the equation by slipping a piece of nylon hose over it. This way the pup is holding live, warm squirming bird without the wing slaps or leg whips. Throwing one down in front of a dog is a good way to increase the stanards for sitting until released. Kooly's going to be getting a bunch of this over the next few weeks. Adrenalin evidently is eroding his sanity. With an older dog (not a puppy), the duck shackled duck presents an opportunity to maintain those standards we'd like to see. A pheasant presents more problems in that a young dog needs to learn now to deal with spurring. Crushing a bird to kill it is not what you want to happen. Therefore, shackled live birds during training is the right way to go. Early to teach mouth standards and later to maintain line manners.

Jim Boyer www.kwicklabs.com Home of: MPR UH HRCH Kwick Taffey of Joemac's MH Kwick Kooly Dew It Allstar SH Kwick Daisy's Spirit Keeper SH Kwick Draw McGraw ("Dustbucket" II) ---------------------------------- "Excellence is Expected"

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