Dwight,
Thought I would share a little of the progress we have made with ABE 2 (Call name Agrippa or aka “My Baby” to my wife Jessica) out of Santo and Neena’s “A” litter. Everyone wants to be able to brag about their dogs but Dwight I honestly have to say, at 4 months old, he is well beyond what I was expecting to accomplish by this age…in the field and in the home! He has an over the top prey drive and is afraid of nothing, which is not always a good thing, but has been the best behaved puppy in the home I have ever seen! He has been in the house with my wife and I since I brought him home and has not once chewed on anything that was not his toy…all furred or feathered game outside the house however he has declared were put on earth just for him! High or low test score at this point really doesn’t matter…he’s our family; However, if I can do my part, he definitely has the skills to excel as a versatile hunting dog!
Here is a list of where we’re at through 4 months:
Come, sit, and stay 100% in a controlled environment.
Heel 80%...we will be there in a few more weeks.
Fetches dead game and bumpers when thrown only when released.
Very consistent on dead rabbit drags out to 200yrds-needs to get on more live rabbits
Swims well and will charge the water but we need much spend much more time on direction
I have now shot about 35 planted chukkar over him in the past three weeks- he is starting to use the sent cone and the ground now-he started to firm up his point at bird six but we still got a lot of work to do- at bird 12 he started to connect the dots on retrieve to shot but a lot of work still ahead-he has however found and retrieved every single bird that was hit back to me-including two fast running cripples- with the second cripple he decided to power leap into the briar bush that the bird ran into and it took me 10 minutes to cut him out- he still had the bird! Some of these were only 5 yard retrieves with the first birds but he found them with his nose just the same and brought them to me.
It’s not about how fast they develop, it’s about the finished dog you have in the end and we are having a blast trying to get there!
Thanks,
Shane Kitts