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Sophia LaRun for Duck competed in her first Master test and received her first pass hot off of finishing her Senior Title the week before.   The first series was a double with two blinds.  A life flyer was the first bird down on the far left about 100 yards  out second bird was about 75 yards strait out and to the right of the flyer.   Two hot blinds were planted to the right.   We had to pick up a bird (last one down generally) which is the one Sophie picked up quickly and cleanly.  Then we had to get the blind to the far right I lined her though the middle of the cover she took a great line right to the bird and hooked left at the bird a whistle sit and a right over and bird two was picked up.  It is now time to pick up the flyer.  I line her up a little left of the bird because I was afraid she would go to the old fall her bird fell much nearer the first bird than most dogs.  She went to the area left of the downed bird and began her hunt she after a while cirled enough to the right to pick up the sent and nailed it.  Now for the 2nd blind.  This blind was left or the first and to the right of the last bird down.  I lined her she took an excellent line and again hooked left just when she got to the bird a sit whitle and left over and the bird was picked up!  Called back for second series.

The second series was a land water triple  The first bird out was a long crossing flyer from left to right in the middle of two peninsulas  about 150 yrds out.  The second bird was a high arching bird that landed up a steep embankment to the left across the pond.  The third bird was short off to the  right in dark shadows ,  Sophie goes picks up the bird to the right  set her up for the bird on the left and she takes a good line and picks up the bird.  Time for the long bird.   She starts on a great line in the water and is doing very well but gives in to the land on the right and the other dog sent that went up the bank.  She went to the edge of the penisula and did not pick up the sent or see the bird.  She hunted and hunted and hunted finally she starts heading back so I whistle sit her and give a back she heads up the hill and out of my sight.  I whistle her in to see her and she pops up on the right I give a big over and she nails the bird.  Whew.  Many dogs needed to be handled on the 3rd bird so we made it to the final series.

The final series is a water triple with a blind just off the line of the first bird down.   We had to run this test out of a boat and had to receive the bird in the boat.  We had to duck call for each bird to be thrown.  Sophie got into the boat ok but was not totally comfortable.  I decided to make sure I counted to 3 after each bird fall to give her a good picture to remember and turn and line up for each bird thrown.  The first bird was from right to left and just landed off the peninsula, the second bird was right to left out of the same blind with a sharp angle into the water just off the other bank across the pond.  The third bird came from shore in the same line as us and out into heave duckweed.  You could hardly see the duck after it landed.  Sophie goes and picks up the first bird fine.  She does not want to get into the boat with the duck and she did not want to get out of the water in front of the boat she went to the side I called her over to receive the duck and heeled her to me in the boat  .  She is focused on the bird strait out but I heal her to the right bird she spits the middle and crosses the bank and picks up the sent of the bird and gets it.   Same story on receiving the bird does not like the boat.  She goes back for the 3rd bird again and splits the middle of the flower pot throw goes left but just not far enough to catch sent let her hunt for a while and she gets close to the blind and I whistle stop her give her a left over and she picks up the bird.  We get the bird and now it is time for the long blind down the bank.  Sophie will want to get to that bank  we have to keep her off the bank.   She takes a good line to the left of the blind but decoys pull er left toward the bank area she gets past first set of decoys and starts to turn toward the bank, whitsle and back with the left.  Sophie naturally turns left so it pulls her from the bank and back on course for the blind.  She swims to the left of the blind so again whistle and an angle back and bird in hand.

Was very please with the first master test I and Sophie did rather well, we have work to do we could have made the tests look a lot easier if I lined her better and if she can trust herself better.   We are glad we have the first behind us looking forward to 4 more hopefully in a row.  http://hatszel.com

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Sophie earned her Senior Hunter Title at the Westchester Retriever Clubs Test at Stewart State Forest on Saturday July 10,2010.  Sophie is a Yellow Labrador Retriever owned and trained by Mark Coppola of Hatszel Kennels out of  Castle High’s Never Tucker Out GMRC x Down Winds Wandrin Madison.  She earned her title at the age of 22 Months of age and will be competing in her first Master Test at Three Rivers at the Fingerlakes Retriever Clubs event held on Saturday July 17 & 18th.   The first test was on land which was held in a steady to hard downpour with little wind.  It was a memory bird thrown right back from the gunner station onto a road way, at about 125 yrds,  the second bird was a shot flyer also going left to right in rather heavy cover landing about 100 yrds out.   The blind was left down the roadway at about 100 yards sitting in front of a heavy cattails just past the roadway.   Most dogs had rather long hunts and needed to be on top of both birds to sent for a pick-up.  The blind possed little problems other than most dogs need to go into the cattails and called back again the dogs had to be on top of the bird to pick up the sent.  7 dogs of the 24 were dropped at the end of call backs.   Just as the land series was completing the rain stopped thank goodness.  Water was a good two mile drive away it seemed over very bumpy roads.  The water series was run on a pond with heavy heavy elephant lily pads .   The first bird was 100 yards out square throw just off a point of land in deep cover on the right.  We also had a shot flyer that was square and would land in either heavy cover hooking left down the shore or out square in open water.  The water blind was to the right of the first bird strait trough the heart of the elephant lilies.  Again most dogs had a hard time scenting the birds with little wind.  About 1/3 of the dogs needed to be handled on either the shot flyer, the memory bird and /or both.  All that were able to run the blind did fine and a few dogs broke on the shot flyer.  About 10 Dogs passed of the 24.  the day was challenging day from a weather and  test conditions.  Dogs had to nail their marks as their was no wind.

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The weekend was great Sophie my 21 month old yellow female passed the 4th
leg of her Senior Title she needs one more. The club did great work
running the test which made for an enjoyable weekend. Our big test is
coming up July 17 & 18

Shophie my 21 Month old Lab with her 4th of % legs toward her Senior Tiltle!

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I am starting the new pup “Moose” on force fetching. This is his second training session. force fetch. This is a technique that helps cements the dogs ability to retrieve on command and become consistent with their pick-up of the object to be retrieved. I place the dog on a sturdy platform with a cable over head attached to the collar. I have a pulley that can move left and right with a cable u bolt I tighten down so the dog can’t move from side to side to start. I will take the dogs ear and hold the collar and the ear between my first finger and thumb and apply pressure and as the dog opens his mouth I say fetch and place my hand in its mouth release the pressure pinch and say hold. I hold my hand there until the dog just hold my hand and is not trying to push my hand out with its tongue once that is accomplished command drop and take your hand out of the dogs mouth, you repeat this several times over in a session 5-10 times. 10- 15 minutes. Stroke the dog and build him up when he does the right thing for you so he gets what he is doing.

Once the dog progresses and is not trying to spit your hand out I move to a small diameter dowel and repeat the process. These are not a pleasant training session by any means but it is necessary to build a good consistent dog. It also helps to establish you as the authority figure making other training steps easier. Usually you start this once the dog has its permanent teeth around 6 months of age. However by using my hand I find I can start ealier because my hand is not as hard as the dowel and makes the process in my opinion a lot easier.

Birds and airplanes compete for airspace and runway dominance. Usually, the aircraft win, but not always.

Between 1990 and 2007, more than 82,000 aircraft-animal collisions were reported to the FAA, with birds involved 97 percent of the time. They caused $291 million in damage to planes.

Border collies are coming to the rescue for wildlife control at 20 airports in the United States, according to Flyaway Farm and Kennels, which supplies dogs to military and commercial airfields. The dogs look like a wolf or coyote to birds. When they run onto runways, they scare birds away.

Southwest Florida International Airport, near Ft. Myers, was the first to use a bird dog in 1999. It scares off the cattle egrets, blue heron, great egreet and grackels as well as flocks of migratory birds that stop by in fall.

New York’s JFK International uses dogs to chase off the gulls, geese and starlings. They also use falcons!

Charleston International in South Carolina uses dogs. Canada’s Vancouver International has two border collies, according to USA Today. At Minneapolis-St. Paul International, the dogs clear red-tailed hawks, Canada Geese and starlings from runways.

Some airports use fireworks or recordings of explosions. Tampa International plays recordings of seagulls screaming in distress.

At Bird Strike Committee USA, an association of aviation and wildlife experts, they say no single tool can fully solve the wildlife problem, but dogs do help.

Mark 315-729-7546