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By Nora Hale
The 6th Annual Midwest Large Munsterlander Workshop was held on a beautiful summer day on Saturday, August 9, 2008 in Three Rivers, Michigan. Hal Standish, (Justamuc Gundog Training Center) a professional trainer with LM experience of all ages and levels of training, conducted this one-day training session/clinic. Although called a “workshop” this event has become a fun day of getting together with other LM owners and watching our fine dogs doing their thing in the field. The order of the day is having a good time, renewing old acquaintances and meeting new LM owners who are just as crazy about their dogs as we are. The big bonus is picking up a training tip or two from Hal. This year we had 11 dogs (2 puppies) and 10 of their humans. With a smaller group than some of our past workshops, each handler was able to spend more one-on-one time in the field with their dogs and Hal. This was the first “event” held at LaubenHaid Acres (just a few miles down the road from Hal’s), owned by Maugh Vail. Maugh owns and trains outstanding field champion Airedales and has many years of experience training dogs. What a beautiful property - 56 acres including a large prairie venue in the north end and a great wood lot bordering a small pond at the south end of the property. The day began with a meet and greet over coffee and donuts and pats all around for our four-legged friends. We then pulled out the lawn chairs and listened as Hal led a discussion of training goals. Hal addressed topics such as starting a dog, encouraging the point, field handling, retrieving on land and water, teaching a dog to search for game, use of whistle, use of the wind, when and how to introduce the dog to game, when and how to shoot over a dog, steadying to wing and shot, and finishing the dog. The Puppies Before heading out to work the “shoot over dogs”, the puppies and young dogs were brought out one at a time to get some hands on instruction with Hal and their owners. This is always the highlight of this event. It is a sight to behold, watching the pups get a snoot full of their first pigeon. Hal does a great job of making this a fun experience for the pups. Both 5-month old Swan Creek’s Black Jack “Jack” (owned by Kathy & Alan Edwards) and 3-month old Weather Hill’s Abraham “Abe” (owned by Dick Ruetz), showed a ton of desire when introduced to their pigeon.
Before heading to the back of the property to run the big dogs, Maugh suggested that the puppies be crated in her basement so as to shelter them from gunfire noise. The "Big Dogs" Upon arriving at the back of the property the big dogs were run in the field one at a time. All of the other participants “the galley” were able to follow along in the field to watch, listen and ask questions when not running their own dogs. This is an excellent opportunity to pick up pointers from Hal because all of the dogs are at different levels of training. Maugh commented that Dick Hale (Red-Tail Ridge’s Argus “Gus” & Snowy Oaks Alli), Randy Hamilton (Snowy Oaks Quito & Northwind’s Blizzard) and Bill Zeman (Manitou’s Desico “Max”) “set the pace” for running with the big dogs. “Bill showed a classic way to correctly go in on a bird to flush it when the dog is on point. He also read his dog Max very well so he could flush the bird in a timely fashion. Randy also handled his dogs very well. I had not seen either of these two people for some time, so I was struck by how well they had maintained standards.”
Pat Saxton (Rainey River’s Deuces Wild “Deuce”) and Dick Ruetz (Timberland’s Grizzly “Scout”) also did a great job of handling their dogs. Pat held Deuce steady so I was able to walk in and get a beautiful head shot (see below). I have to apologize to Dick, as I did not get a shot of Scout while he was working the field (battery issues).
The "Young Dogs" The two “young” dogs, Thunder Ridge’s Altessa “Tess” and Thunder Ridge’s Alex, owned by Joe Cavanaugh were run next. It was a treat for me to see Alex (nicknamed Moose by our kids when he was a newborn pup) as I had not seen him in some time. Joe did a great job handling Alex and I was impressed with his steadiness on point (Alex not Joe:o)! We all cringed a little when Alex was “crunching” a pigeon on one of his retrieves. Hal worked with Joe to show him how to correct this. **Side Note: Dick and Joe have recently hunted together and it was obvious that Joe has been working hard with Alex. He was making solid, soft-mouthed retrieves. Word has it that Joe went out and bought 100 pigeons following the workshop to work with Alex. Good job, Joe!
Next was Tess. Dick regularly trains all three of our dogs with Hal and they’ve figured out that, for some reason, Tess is just not crazy about pigeons. Hal was unfortunately unable to secure chucker or pheasant to use with the big dogs so we worked all the dogs on pigeon. I held my breath wondering how she would do. Dick has changed his training methods with Tess, as she is somewhat of a “soft” dog. She did a good job using her nose to find the bird and held steady through the shot (still working on getting her steady to fall). She went for the retrieve, and rather comically (I’m sure Dick didn’t think so), proceeded to prance through the galley to “show off" her bird looking for praise from all. Shrug shoulders here.
Lunch and Proper Socialization Following the fieldwork, we headed back for a nice lunch and more socializing (this is important for humans not just the dogs)! There is always a lot of good-natured ribbing among the “regulars” who attend the event. This year was no exception. Hal commented that social hour was over and I needed to get back to work (as the delegated LM workshop photographer). Okay, I admit, I was a little more “chatty” than usual. I chalk that up to the vicodin I was taking for what Randy called my “bent wing” (recent elbow surgery).
The group decided to forego water work and bring the puppies and young dogs out for some additional instruction and some work on the “Whoa” table.
By this time we were all tired and the dogs were happy. So after seeing to our dogs, we sat for a while for some more good-natured socializing. Maugh noted that, “It was clear to me that all the people there have been doing some good work with their dogs. There were some nice examples of pointing and steadiness as well as retrieving. Some excellent questions were asked as well.” Then it was time to reluctantly pack up and head for home. I think I can speak for everyone that it was a productive day with our dogs and a fun time for all. Special thanks once again go to Randy Hamilton for organizing this event. A thank you is also in order to Dick Hale, Randy and Bill for sharing the “gunning” duties. And, last but not least, thank you so much Hal and Maugh for (as Randy put it) allowing an LM invasion! We appreciate your valuable insight and great hospitality. Can't wait to do it again next year!
To see pictures from the 2007, 2006 and 2005 |
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6th Annual Midwest
Large Munsterlander Workshop
