Retriever Training in a Drought

[TuMicks]

Yes... I was out at the reservoir and where there should be 100's of thousands of acre feet of water, nothing but dirt. The lake beds are dry such that you can walk across them and not have any soil stick to your boots. Carp skeletons everywhere. As if the predators ate so many of them they just left the rest to rot. The HT this weekend will have no water series. Think about that! No water series at a licensed HT. (Yes, it's allowed by AKC. Not recommended. But allowed.) We were out on the grounds to clean up and prepare the place... (you know, haul out discarded junk, pick up used drug-paraphernalia and condums... the usual.) The only good part of the drought is that we hauled out all the broken bottles and ancient beer cans that have been submerged for eons. So, when (God willing) there is water again, the place will be better prepared for it.

[Anna Scott]

It annoys me when I hear that government or so called conservationist are trying to prevent dog training and events on public land. It is the dog clubs with members such as yourself that do much of the clean up and maintenance of these properties every Spring. Jane and John Q Public are either too lazy or don't give a hoot to clean up after themselves. The crew that uses this property come every spring for half a day and cut and clear getting the place in shape to play. I greatly appreciate it. People should be thankful for the dog trainers.
Sure hope you get some relief soon.

[TuMicks]

Oh, you are so right! When we're on private land, we pick up our dog's poop. We pick up our shells and brass. We try not drive off where a vehicle should go so as to not damage plants or leave deep tread marks. We pick up our dead birds and dispose of them in our own garbage. We never want it to look like someone has been training dogs there. Retriever people frequently belong to conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited. The very reason there have been well-trained retrievers from the beginning was to conserve game... not one killed bird should go anywhere but in the game bag.

Lately, some of the more extreme environmentalists have even suggested people shouldn't have pet animals because they produce carbon. (Big sigh.)

[TuMicks]

We had our hunt test this weekend. No water. The AKC was OK with it, the qualifications are just that... qualifications even though no dogs got any water tests. Nevertheless there were some outstanding tests with excellent utilization of terrain. I'll diagram one of the master tests in future posts. It was just excellent.

The temperatures were in the low 80's and there was very little humidity. The sun was intense and all the club members were advised to be on the lookout for any sign of dog distress. Almost no trees (except raggedy, thorny Russian Olive trees.) We had to put out wading pools near the line for dogs who seemed over-heated.

Just very disgusting, this drought.

I hope one day we're out there at the reservoir with overflowing water and we can complain about having little land and no place to put our trailers and headquarters.

[doubledip1]

That's awful! We just filled our big pool and the kiddie pool this weekend and Luna has been swimming like crazy.

I'm definitely thanking my lucky stars we live someplace this is not an issue!

[TuMicks]

Oh, I love upstate NY. So gorgeous. And you guys got lots of precip this winter. We used to live in the Western part of the state and I remember you could just be driving around and see some water off the side of the road, find out which farmer owned the land, call him up and ask to use it and bingo! You had a new training site.

Oh, those were the days.

[Anna Scott]

Sounds like the weekend went well despite the lack of water. We often put wading pools out at the line for dogs that over heat and we don't have a problem that is in anyway as serious as yours. We had a beautiful weekend here for our seminar, will post later. Perhaps shouldn't tell you this but it is pouring rain today and calls for more tomorrow. Wish we could send it your way.

[windycanyon]

It was probably the driest grounds in Carnation WA I've ever seen this weekend for a Spring test. Normally we're knee deep in mud. The ponds were all much lower than I recall for the May tests... but they HAD good water, thankfully!

[TuMicks]

I remember a HT on Sauvie Island (Portland RC) where they had trouble finding land. The water was rising such that by the time the last dog ran, the dogs were sitting in it.

[windycanyon]

I remember a HT on Sauvie Island (Portland RC) where they had trouble finding land. The water was rising such that by the time the last dog ran, the dogs were sitting in it.

Been there when that happened too!! Had to park on the outside of the dike and hike in.