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  1. #1
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Training dogs in to hunt and retrieve game requires land, guns, and birds.


  2. #2
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    One the other issues I see is that lack of young people involved in field sports. Where is the next generation?? I am the youngest person in our field training group, and I'm 58. In my obedience and rally classes it's the same. Mostly the over 50 crowd.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog IRISHWISTLER's Avatar
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    MENTORING is a key factor relative to any hope for the long term survival of our outdoor and dog related sports.

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  4. #4
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    I agree that mentorship is critical. Since I don't hunt, I haven't a clue to how to bring more young people into the hunting game. Maybe you could share if there is something that has been successful in your part of the country. (Couple of things here that I had little to do with... our retriever club keeps a good relationship with high schools in the rural county where we have our trials. We offer some scholarship money from our fund raisers. We pay pretty darn good for helpers every year and always have kids interested, and they work their butts off. One of our club members is with the SAR for the sheriff's dept. They also interact in these high schools. I mention this because there is a cross-over among and between dog-training venues.)

    Not being a hunter... I got into the sport when my husband brought home a lab pup he had no time to train. And the acquisition of that first puppy (or the first well-bred lab/golden/chessie pup) is the time to grab new owners' attention and educate them about how far their dog can go and how much fun it is.

    One of the things about which our club is remiss... we don't have a website. This makes me crazy. I just KNOW that every day there are people in our area who get a retriever pup and I know they hit the internet within hours of making the decision to get one, or bringing the new pup home. If they knew there was a retriever training community right in their neighborhood... I would bet we'd get new members. Maybe not a landslide. But some.

    (Another thing that makes me crazy is how little hunters expect from their dogs. If they only knew what exquisite work their dogs could do with relatively little... but consistent... training!)

  5. #5
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    I think part of the problem with getting new people into dog sports is just that people are busier than they used to be. Work no longer means 9-5, kids are in way more activities than when I was growing up and until they retire, many people don’t have the time or energy to commit to it.
    I know it’s a major problem in Obedience, as well. Personally, I wish I had the time for more than one dog sport, but at this point in my life, one is all I can manage!
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  7. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    I think part of the problem with getting new people into dog sports is just that people are busier than they used to be. Work no longer means 9-5, kids are in way more activities than when I was growing up and until they retire, many people don’t have the time or energy to commit to it.
    I know it’s a major problem in Obedience, as well. Personally, I wish I had the time for more than one dog sport, but at this point in my life, one is all I can manage!
    I normally work 20-25 hours per week, and at times I have a hard time managing time for everything. I can't imagine working 40+ hours and having kids around.

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    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Yep. And in an economy where the middle class is squeezed, it's just more so. It's not the Averell Harrimans and the Dupont families keeping the sport alive any more. It's the regular Joes.

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  10. #8
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    Could they be in other sports? Agility and flyball seem busy with young dog people. mostly women :P Dock diving is picking up. around here the "joring" sports are also picking up (canicross, bikejore, skijore). Again though - you mostly you see childless women (younger) or retired women (young retired). Hard to do anything consistently over the year as a parent except those who bring their kids along (and kids start handling pretty young - I know a few kids that are awesome from a very young age as they are raised to train and work with their dogs). And yes it's a big $ commitment as well as time.

    In the city it's a bit harder for the hunting people (though they are around). I took a class but don't have interest in shooting a gun or handling dead birds. so I'm game more or less in the training aspect with bumpers and I could probably eventually get used to dead birds in the freezer :P

    ETA: the large proportion of people I see are hard core dog people. Family's with "pet dogs" generally do a few classes here and there but nothing over most of a year consistently. They are around but not in large numbers (I know of two from my flyball team that were fathers with family who got into the sport on a regular basis but didn't head out to all tournaments) or the "hard core dog people" that happened to have kids along the way haha.
    Last edited by Tanya; 10-17-2016 at 02:41 PM.

  11. #9
    Senior Dog BaconsMom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by barry581 View Post
    One the other issues I see is that lack of young people involved in field sports. Where is the next generation?? I am the youngest person in our field training group, and I'm 58. In my obedience and rally classes it's the same. Mostly the over 50 crowd.
    Don't Fret! In our Hunting and field trial club, we are the youngest (26 and 27), but not by much, most of them are in their early 30s
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  13. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanya View Post
    or the "hard core dog people" that happened to have kids along the way haha.
    Waving my hand here!!! Was already pretty into Obedience competition before kids. If not, I don’t know that I would have gotten into it, but once I was, I wasn’t going to let them interfere.
    Annette

    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
    Sassy (HIT Jamrah's Blonde Ambition, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015

    Chloe (HIT HC OTCH Windsong's Femme Fatale, UDX4, OM6, RE) 6/7/2009

    And remembering:

    Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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    Tanya (10-17-2016)

 



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