Training and Hunting

Winston's training continues.  We are working towards his pet therapy certification and Canine Good Citizenship titles.  We are concentrating on Winston's weaknesses which include wanting to play with other dogs and a little too much exuberance when greeting a stranger.  You can see here that Winston is doing a pretty good job with both problem areas.

Here is a shot of Jackson, a beautiful rescue Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who is in Winston's class.  He is a really nice dog.
















And here is Brendy.  She is a beautiful massive Mastif who has been with Winston since they were both 10 weeks old.

Lindsey is helping us teach Winston new tricks.  Here she works on 'close it' (the cabinet) and 'wave'.  Winston is getting pretty darn good at both.

The original reason we decided to get another dog was to accompany me when I go deer hunting and help find downed deer.  Kelli has reluctantly allowed Winston to leave home with me.  It's been great (for me).  Winston has become my best hunting buddy.  He goes with me every time I can get away to go hunting.  He follows me into the woods and if a deer is shot (not very often) it is his duty to find the deer.

I hunt primarily in a pine plantation and we hunt openings in the forest.As you can see here, the foliage is incredibly thick where I hunt in Alabama.  This is where Winston's nose really comes in handy.  As you probably know, we have been training Winston to track all summer and he had his first real tracking experience recently.  He tracked his deer perfectly and I was more excited about his tracking performance than I was about harvesting a deer.  Great job Winston!

The more I hunt, the more I find I enjoy shooting deer with a camera than I do with a gun.  Winston doesn't seem to mind too much although I wonder if he thinks that I am a lousy hunter because we don't 'bring home the bacon' very often.

Here are a few shots of the critters we see.