Dove, Dogs, and Shotguns

Enjoy the collection of Layla growing up set to Eric Clapton’s ‘Layla’.

• DJ Farms Dove Lease Review After a long week of waiting, I finally got to load up Layla and my 11-87 and head to Dallas to meet up with my brother and go hunting on DJ Farms leases in North Texas. The preliminary scouting reports were very encouraging, plowed corn, lots of dove in the......
• Judge takes away 9-year-old's shotgun The spokesman reported that a judge in Spokane, Washington ruled that a father is not allowed to give his 9-year-old a shotgun. The court was involved due to a divorce between the boy's parents. The mother filed for a restraining order on the shotgun, claiming the boy was too young......
• Layla's Progress (11 weeks old) video Well, Layla's growing like a weed. Already weighing in at 22 pounds. I've been trying to mainly use positive reinforcement during all of her training, and believe me, she knows which behaviors call for a treat or other reward. I try to reinforce basic commands at least twice a day,......

Okay, it’s been almost two months since Layla’s last video. I’m no expert trainer, but I am one proud papa. She aims to please. Notice the distance has increased and she has graduated from a toy to a camo decoy.

I spend 15-20 minutes on training a day (or most days) and Layla does the rest. Positive reinforcement has worked well. She has been sitting since she was 7 weeks, retrieving since 8, and actually is hunting the decoy when she loses sight of it.

I think the next step will be using some scent on the decoy. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. For now, I couldn’t ask for a better dog.

• Picking a spot in the field Who hasn't done it, shown up for a big dove hunt and put yourself in a bad spot. It is simply miserable to listen to all the blasting around you as you contemplate everything from moving spots to what you did to deserve this. The best bullets, most expensive shotgun,......
• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21 Using positive reinforcement training yo train your hunting dog. http://bit.ly/Zt81d # Tips on Starting Kids Out Hunting http://bit.ly/jdFYt # Just broke 100 followers, THANKS to everyone. # Good night tweeters # An interesting article on dreams http://bit.ly/dWX4Z # 96 pound catfish!! http://bit.ly/Q1ITZ # Just broke 200 followers, THANKS EVERYONE,......
• When To Start Training I'd like to introduce you to Layla. She's six weeks old and I just brought her home two days ago. Soon she'll be retrieving my dove but for now I have to start the training process. Let's face it, at six weeks old her attention span is short and......

• The Positive Reinforcement Training For Your New Puppy Psychologists have been promoting positive reinforcement as a way to change undesirable behavior to acceptable behavior in humans for some time. The method can be described simply as rewarding behavior that is considered acceptable and ignoring behavior that isn't acceptable. Animal trainers have learned lately that this same method......
• Assist Weighted Golf Swing Trainer, right, 3LB User Reviews Send this to a friend Assist Weighted Golf Swing Trainer, right, 3LB Manufacturer: Gibas Golf Products, Inc. Customer Rating: List Price: $63.95 Sale Price: $69.95 Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Now Product Description The patented ASSIST, with its precision bent shaft, exaggerates the release......
• Sticking with Your Resolutions Why do we make New Year's resolutions? What's the purpose? Did you even bother making any resolutions, or did you refrain due to the associated pressure and oft resulting disappointment from trying to follow said resolutions and failing? We make resolutions because we want to move forward; we want to......

I vote chocolate. I’ve had two chocolate labs and I’m hooked.

What about you, which do you prefer? Seeing how there are some 12k registered labs in the US this should be a fun poll.

• New Dove Lease Listing Charlie at the Picosa Ranch has recently listed his dove lease on our free listing service. THANK YOU, Charlie. Our goal at DD&S is to build a free site where hunters can view available listings and read reviews from hunters who have hunted these leases. So Charlie, get some of......
• Farmer vs. Lawyer From Field & Stream: Farmer vs. Lawyer joke. (Bird Hunting)  A big city lawyer went duck hunting. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on......
• Extreme Dove Hunt If you've got the funds the you should check out LCHunting.com. They are offering some serious dove hunting for a serious dove hunter. Just check out what is included for the price: Ground transportation from McAllen Texas Beretta AL390 Shotgun Deluxe Accommodations** Delicious meals included Open bar daily Field transportation......

• What is Your Niche? When you are working to find your blog's niche, it would be a bad idea to choose one that you think is profitable. That would be the wrong choice to make. Instead, you should consider a few questions in determining your niche. The first is important: Is it something that......
• Get into Bed with Tessa Dare (Author Interview) Keira: Of the three heroes in your latest trilogy, The Stud Club, who would look best in a cravat? Tessa: Hm.  I know which one to rule out immediately, and that's Rhys.  He's definitely the Regency equivalent of a t-shirt and jeans guy.  Spencer cleans up well, but given......
• Women: What is your Hair Budget? Yesterday I was reminded of something that I tried to forget. My wife had mentioned (quite a long time ago) the cost of her hair coloring. At the time if she asked me to guess what a coloring costs, I'd say it should be in the neighborhood of $40 -......