Lone Duck’s Gun Dog Chronicles

On today's show, Bob and Kevin sit down over a beer to discuss the 2024 hunting season. You might be thinking "it just started, how have you had two hunting trips already... who has time for this?" Bob somehow does and what a son of a gun. Bob, Nick, Huey and the Setter girls put some miles in looking for grouse up here in NY for a weekend. Bob talks through his weekend hunts, meeting some cool new people, marking new spots on the ol' onX map, training his Setter pup and a whole lot more.

Then we dig into Bob's quick trip for a three day hunt in Canada for ducks and geese and a little bonus hike for upland birds, too. Bob and the group he went with saw so many birds each day it'd be hard to believe if there weren't pictures. This is an awesome episode, enjoy.

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What a treat. Today we had Michael Demmer back on the show AND he was in person. If you haven't heard the first episode with him, please check out episode 181. We get into all sorts of great dog training conversations as we talk through SRS and field trials and raising dogs to be excellent.

We then jump into some good Q&A from patreon friends and discuss the following: raising puppies to be great field trial dogs, building successful dogs, quality training vs quantity, corrections during popping, how dog training evolves, poison birds and KRD drills and when and how Michael prepares for The Grand and what his set ups are like.

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This week, we have the pleasure of chatting with our good friend, Blake Haddock, from Feather Point Retrievers. We kick off the show chatting about Blake's background and how he grew up farming and working with horses and setters. He got his first lab as a little kid when he got real serious about duck hunting. As for most of us, once you get bit by the duck hunting bug, you move quickly onto the part where you need a dog... especially for dog people.

We talk a lot about how Blake got working with pointing labs, how they are unique, how they are similar to Bob's dogs, what kind of training is involved and we answer any question you might have about pointing labs. We also get to hear about Blake's awesome hunting plans for the season and boy, it is gonna be great.



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For this week, we chat with Luke Cour and hear how he calms his nerves before a competition. Pro tip: dogs can feel your nerves so if you can get a routine that calms you, it'll help your dog, too.

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You ever wonder what a summer would be like if you spent it training dogs at Lone Duck HQ? Well, welcome to the summer of George! Bob, Blaine and Kevin sit down to discuss Blaine's (almost) two months at Bob's house this summer. Dogs were trained, tests and trials were run, pools were floated and fish were caught.

Then we talk about some dove hunting and how Blaine manages his dove field, how he works his dogs for doves, some tips and tricks, working dogs in heat, eating birds, marking doves during the chaos of a hunt, etc. and then we talk deer. Blaine has a couple goodies on his property right now and we talked with him about his longbow and his highs and lows of last year and how he is working toward higher highs and less lows. Here's a link to the book they are referring to at the end of the show.

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Welcome to another 7 minutes with Uncle Bob. Tonight we have the pleasure of speaking with Luke Cour and he walks us through how he fixes a loopy sit. Pro tip: bring some running shoes.

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For today's show, we have the pleasure of hanging out with Scott from Trulock Chokes. We kick off the show hearing about Scott's family business and how they got started in the outdoor industry. You'll quickly find that Scott is the real deal and knows a thing or two about hunting, fishing and especially, choke tubes. We get pretty deep with Scott in regards to how and why his chokes are unique, what he looks for in choke tubes, what he recommends for people to do when they get a new gun, etc. One of the most important things Scott suggests is to pattern the gun, choke and shell of choice at the rough distance you plan to shoot game. It sounds simple but ask yourself... have you done this recently?

There's a ton of science that goes into making quality chokes for your guns and Trulock Chokes helps break it down on their youtube channel, which you can check out here. With thousands of variations of chokes, I'd bet there's something for you and your gun. It's worth looking into. Treat yourself.

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Today we had a great conversation with our friend, Karl Gunzer, from Purina. Before working for Purina, Karl worked with some of the most well-known dog trainers in the country and competed at the national level. Karl shares how he got into the training game, how he worked his way into Field Trials and some of the most memorable dogs he has worked with over the years. After the retriever game, Karl began working for Purina and also got into running cattle dogs. We talk a lot about the crossover between training retrievers and stock dogs and Karl shares a lot of insights. It's always great to chat with people who work dogs and have such an interesting perspective on training animals. Karl and the rest of the folks at Purina are working hard to support our industry, the events and the dogs and for that, I think we owe them some gratitude.

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This is a special episode because we get to chat with our good buddy, Luke Cour, from Cour's Retrievers. Luke is an absolute workhorse and knows a thing or two about training hunting dogs. Bob and Blaine kick off the show learning about how Luke got into hunting alongside bird dogs as a young guy and then got his first retriever. We also hear how he started working as a trainer (which is a question we get asked all the time... "well, how does someone get into this business?").

Then we get to hear about some of the special dogs Luke has worked with and issues he works through like poison birds and retired birds. We talk a lot about specific drills and how and when to use them (wagon wheels, 5 leg lining drills, etc.). We talk a lot about Hunt Tests and Field Trials and how he moved from one to the other and then onto the SRS. This is when we really dive in deep with the training work. We discuss using birds and plastic bumpers, when to use flyers, getting dogs comfortable with tricky things for the SRS and a lot more. Settle in, this is a good chat with tons of dog training information.

If you're interested, check out what Luke is doing and tell him we sent ya. Cheers.

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Welcome back to another short show. This questions is from a patreon friend, James. Sometimes dogs lose momentum when they come back from a retrieve and are getting lined up for another one (a memory bird). Well, let's chat about it confidence, marking and discipline.

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