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Subject: Bird "restoration"

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gsc
Wasilla, Alaska

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03/13/2007 11:39 AM	Alert
trout bum, I am in Juneau for a couple of days, but I will get some photos when I get home. I will also dig up some of the references about survial rates. As I said before, establishing a population is not what I am after, and I haven't tried to do a restoration project. Could be an interesting study.

Jere

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03/14/2007 12:04 AM	Alert
Randy, Thanks for the anecdotes re Bills West & Gibbons. I never actually met Bill West. One of my big mistakes was to drive through his part of Texas and not stop. That was the first year I met and worked dogs with Bill Gibbons. He gave me BW's address and urged me to stop. Well, I was still young and shy at the time and didn't do it. Haven't been that way since and now he's gone. On the same trip I drove past Bob Wehle's plantation in Midway, Alabama - again without stopping. Another big mistake. For the past few years Bill Gibbons has run very few field trials. His clients frequently want him to take a dog to the Nationals - usually Vizlas. I think he's made a few NCs. Last winter, when I saw him, he was talking of retiring from dog training. Training grounds have been getting more and more scarce near Phoenix and he was commuting many miles a day. He began talking about finally writing a book. Yes, he has an uncany knack to "get into a dog's head." You know, a few years ago we had another of Bill West's proteges posting regularly on the pointing Lab. forum. He finally gave up. Got tired of the flak he got because he had different ideas about how to train a pointing dog than what was gospel there, and "didn't like training the retriever stuff." If APLA ever has a test in the SE he might go and check it out. I'd reccommend him to train "manners on birds" to anyone without the slightest reservation. One of his protege's lives and works dogs in Kentucky. I tried to get him to a test last year but I guess he's a bit strapped for cash. That's REAL nice looking country you play on, Randy, along the Platte. I could get attached to that country. Gosh, I'm rambling tonight. Kind of gassed up. The winner of the Iditarod just crossed the finish line in Nome, nine days five hours and 1022 miles from the start (subtract 40 mandatory rest hours for average speed). Don't be fooled by the average speed. These guys also rest along the trail in between and there is no accounting for that. Typical average speeds between checkpoints near the end of the race have been six to seven miles per hour. These are dogs that have just run 900 miles. The same dog driver and largely the same team won the 1000 mile Yukon Quest just a few weeks ago. He just ran away from the field there. This is a feat that in unprecidented and will be hard to repeat. His dogs looked like they could gas up on another load of food, rest a bit and drive on another hundred miles. Superbly conditioned animals! It takes on the order of 16,000 calories per day to fuel these little guys. I'm glad I don't have that food bill. That would be eight pounds of Pro Plan performance per day per dog. Jere

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Forums > American Pointing Labrador Association > Training > Bird "restoration"