Bo - a Hunting Machine!

Some of you may recall my many tales of my dog being an epic a-hole. I like to call him "imaginative." He has a real passion for birds. Actually, he just likes to chase things in general. That made for a not-so-happy dog-momma. We had to find a way to get the dog some exercise, and attempt to find ourselves some sanity.

Enter: Doggie bootcamp.

A few months ago, we sent Bo on a little vacation.......for six weeks! He not only learned basic obedience, but he also honed his already natural hunting skills.

I have to say I was VERY hesitant to do this. We established that I would never be able to do day-care drop-off because I bawled for 20 minutes after we dropped him off the first day. They said we could call and check-in as often as we wanted, and of course we checked in the first week. Once I heard he was loving life running around the country-side and swimming all day after ducks I knew he was going to be just fine.

We visited him after 2 weeks and spent the afternoon with him. The first 20 minutes we had to hide and just watched the trainers working with him in the field. Then we got to spend an hour or so just playing with him. I missed that dog!

Mr. Housewife with Mr. Bojangles at our first visit

With my baby-dog

After the six weeks were up, it's safe to say we were VERY eager to get our dog back. The final day we got to go out with him in the field and hunt with him for an hour or so. The dog is COMPLETELY changed! He is off-leash (while wearing his training collar) and he honestly never even gets buzzed. (I know that sounds terrible at first, but we've even buzzed ourselves and it kind of feels like the little shock you get if you rub the carpet and then touch a doorknob. It's always on a very low setting and only if he deliberately chooses to disobey. He honestly gets shocked less than once a month.)

Shockingly, I LOVED working with him in the fields as well!  The man in my life focuses on the hunting part, and I do most of the controlling with Bo. We use a whistle and he responds to different numbers of whistle blows (ie; 5 quick tweets and he comes right back to you and sits at your side. AMAZING)

The hunter and his dog

I knew we had made progress when Bo scared up a bird that ended up flying quite aways off (like a whole football field away). He took off after him in a cornfield and we couldn't see where he was at all.

After a few minutes of worrying we finally decided to just call Bo back to us; figuring that bird got away. We gave him the command and after just a few seconds Bo appeared out of the cornfield, with the bird in his mouth! He'd tracked it down the whole time and brought it right back.

On a retrieve

Happy he brought back the bird!!!

We've since gone hunting with him a few more times, and I'm shocked at how much I enjoy it! It's an amazing way to get outside and spend time with my man-friend. I'll say I'm not a huge fan of seeing the birds, but I don't usually see them up close. It's such a great feeling to just watch the dog doing what he was born to do. 1 hour of hunting and he sleeps like a baby. It's awesome!

Now I'm asking all of you, if I start blogging about camo dresses or adorable blaze orange apparel.....commit me to the psych ward!