WoodieBoater

Northern Quebec Walleye Trip i know this isn't ANYWHERE near here, but i thought id throw up a report just in case anyone was considering a Canada walleye trip. We go to Cabonga Reservoir in Quebec (semi) annually. Its a great trip. Pretty much everything i look for. Tons of water to fish, disconnected from the world, pretty remote, no other boats to fight with, no trash species to wade through.Anyway we had a pretty good trip. the jig bite was tough but once we switched to trolling worm rigs things sped up. Came home with a 10 man slot limit, most fish in the top end of the slot 19-20 inch range. We had shore lunch every day with the smaller slot limit sized fish. Lots of big 6 to 10 pounders but unfortunately, all of those had to go back. and let me tell you its tough to throw one back on a tough day of fishing. All in all a great trip for anyone looking for good water to fish up there.

Onion that pup looks great. Perch sorry for the delayed response. I've spent quite a bit of the past couple weeks away from service or the internet. Dutch is back to 100% were picking up pretty much where we left off training wise. Its hard to believe its almost august already.. time to start sharpening things up again, because October is right around the corner. Its been tough to get good weather to train in this year it seems. it'll be interesting to see what bird numbers are like with all the rain

That's a great looking pup. reminds me a little of what Dutch looked like when he was a puppy coat looks a little longer but structure wise. You might be in for a good sized dog

The reason I went so far for my pup was mainly due to availability when I was looking to get a dog. Add the credentials that his parents had and the credentials the breeder had and it was a no brainer for me. They aren't like GSP's, there aren't 12 breeders between Rochester and Buffalo to choose from. The year I got Dutch there were 112 registered griff litters in the U.S. vs. 32,000 lab litters. If you're serious about getting one you're probably going to have to work for it. For a more common breed id agree with you, there's hardly a reason to drive hundreds of miles. Marshoy was the first kennel I contacted when I was looking for a pup because they were local. At that time they weren't planning any breeding's and told me to look elsewhere. The next "local" breeder I found was in New Hampshire, and they had 10 people on a waiting list for a breeding a year out and weren't accepting any more reservations. I think that's the biggest problem with griffs is they're hard to find. Even if you do find a local litter like marshoy, you may be 12th on the list. I was on 6 lists for breeding's from New Brunswick to Montana to South Carolina. So yes, I would recommend looking locally for starters, Marshoy is a great start, but if you're really serious about getting a griff I would hold the notion in the back of your mind that you might to have to travel. I know Onion had a similar experience trying to locate a pup. It looks like marshoy has pups available now? so anyone wanting one close... get on it. Diver that's a great look-in dog as well. I think a lot can be said for the breed and breeders in that they're all very conscious about producing great, healthy, good looking pups. hard to find or not...

Dutch has made pretty much a full recovery. The hair is even coming back in nice. Back to training Onion congrats on the new pup. Ill look forward to seeing pictures and updates either here or in your own post

Yeah don't worry. I was cranking on that collar pretty hard. Everything went so fast I didn't even have time to explore more extreme measures. perch I don't think it altered his temperament at all. even right after he was waggin his tail. My friend that I took him to for surgery for had 5 dogs (including a pair of pitts that are very well trained) and he was his old self playing with them both before and after surgery. I made sure I got him around friendly dogs right away, and frequently since the fight. He seems to be fine thankfully. Dennis that blows. Id be pretty pissed in that situation. If anything i'm hoping this prompts the other owner to at least get into obedience class or something. It may be too late to socialize with other dogs but some training needs to happen.

Glad to hear you have a date to pick the pup up. Id love to come out and meet him/her once you get settled in.

Thanks for the wishes. And yeah I agree you can never trust a dog to be rock solid. What bugs me is I got talking to the owner of this dog after the incident. It was 10 months old, and had never been socialized at all with other dogs (and my guess.. anything else). One of those situations where both owners have a job, leave the dog locked in a room all day, take it for a walk when they get home and that's it. I understand that a lot of it is my fault for not asking those questions beforehand. On the other hand it could probably have been avoided with basic training and socialization

Yeah this dog had a nylon collar on and I got my hand in it and twisted the collar to choke him off. Once I heard the gurgling and gagging I knew it was just a matter of time. I was totally prepared to deal with the owner if they had a problem with it too. its not my fault your dog cant behave. I tell you what if another dog has ahold of mine I'm not gonna stop short of anything to win. Id rather take the chance of suffocating a dog to save mine than watch mine get torn apart. And trust me once I get my mitts on something it doesn't stand a chance. There's no reason to have an animal that behaves like that. do some ****ing training people

Yeah as I'm sure you know it all happened pretty fast. There wasn't any indications that the dog was going to be aggressive. not even raised hackles. Another token of advice is if you do have a fight and you cant get a dog to let go (as most bully breeds instinct is to grab and hold) find a way to cut off the air supply. If that doesn't work right away eventually the bastard will pass out, and maybe you'll feel somewhat redeemed. probably not tho. Its amazing to see a friendly dog flip a switch when push comes to shove. I'm glad none of your dogs got hurt. And pretty grateful that we got Dutch straightened out.

Well we finally had our first major medical speedbump. The goofy loveable bastard got attacked by another not so friendly dog. Long story short it was probably my fault. It was a dog I was unfamiliar with and they had about 3 minutes of playing and tail waggin. Before you could say holy **** the other dog had a lock-jawed grip on Dutch's shoulder. Fast forward 24 hours and he had a wicked infection around his elbow and severe pain. Luckily a friend of mine is a DVM. we did a pool table surgery and installed a drain. Fast forward another 48 hours, some HEAVY antibiotics/anti-inflammatory and the pup is pretty much back to normal. The drain will stay in for another 4 or 5 days just to make sure all the dead space heals properly. So I guess my piece of advice (which I'm sure you all know, but it bears repeating) is don't trust any dog you don't know. Don't even trust one you do know. When I was breaking up the fight Dutch put a lot of holes in me (I don't blame him, he was fighting for his life and grabbing the closest thing to his face, which was me). Needless to say, summer training is put on hold for now

We've been working on some obedience and blind retrieves in big open water. I had him in a woah about 75 yards further back from the water from where I was standing. Bumper was about 50 yards out. This is by far the most polished one yet. hopefully the video works blind retrieve work.mp4

feeling pretty cooped up lately. Dutch pointing a mosquito Its about time we had some descent weather to train in

Yeah I'm starting to really appreciate his undercoat. He goes a lot farther in cold weather than a shorthair does. although on the flipside I cant push him hard at all when its "hot" out. Btw Dutch is a Griffon, I know he looks just like a wirehair but there's a few differences haha. If you want me to point you in the direction of good breeders for both wirehairs and Griffs I have a long list for both. feel free to PM me and ill get you some info. Struggling with boredom and laziness in the off season as you can see

Got a couple of pictures of Dutch's littermates today. The grouse and woodcock dog is in northern Wisconsin The duck dog is in Michigan Amazing to see so many pups out of one litter be so successful in their first season.

Yeah the fun was over at that point and he wasn't really feeling like posing. He did pretty well enduring the conditions, especially for his first real late season hunt. Couldn't ask any more of him.

pretty awesome shoot yesterday. Got lots of good dog work in and limited in just over an hour. Pretty mixed bag with lots of old squaw, a couple redheads, goldeneye and mallards.

Finally got a successful late season duck hunt in. Dutch did a lot of good retrieving work, made 11 retrieves in just over an hour. He did finally refuse the last retrieve, but I cant say I blame him. I wouldn't want to dip my nuts in that water once let alone 12 times.

I was flipping thru the post and I found a couple of other good pics from Maine that I never uploaded

Well its been a while so here's an update. We've slowed down quite a bit since deer season is in full swing. I don't like to run dogs much during deer season. I did get out after thanksgiving to do a couple of planted bird hunts with some young kids and younger folks interested in getting into bird hunting. Its interesting to see Dutch handle a planted bird now that he's had a lot of wild bird experience. a lot of long, long, long points and some pretty impressive steadiness. I like it. the bird is almost out of frame to the left in this picture

Temperament as far as bird dogs go is pretty laid back. That was part of the draw for me. He's pretty goofy for sure. He doesn't have that serious aloof air about him that usually comes with a pointer. He is a goofy bastard... all. the. time. He's great with kids, a little rambunctious for the smaller ones but he's still a puppy yet. I haven't found a mean bone in his body yet. He's serious when he's hunting but he's not brutal if that makes sense to you. he doesn't even try to kill crippled birds. All that said that's exactly what his parents were like. "goofy" is pretty much a breed characteristic as far as I can tell, but im sure you could find some aloof ones as well. Very easy dog to live with. and I think that would be a necessity if you get one. Everything I've heard and observed points to them not doing well in an outdoor kennel situation. They need companionship. They definitely aren't like shorthairs or wirehairs mentally. So if that all sounds good to you id say go for it. What kennel are you looking at? IF you want to PM me I looked at a lot of kennels and I can point you in some directions. Hope that helps.

Sorry for the blurry picture. A little unorthodox but he got the job done. He's turning into a meat dog... its not usually pretty, and its hardly ever perfect but damnitall he gets the job done one way or another and theres usually meat in the bag..

Hunted Hemlock on Monday and Oak Orchard on Wednesday. Put up two birds at Hemlock and shot one. Only put up one bird at oak orchard (shot that one too). Seems like there was quite a few guys out (especially at Oak Orchard) for weekdays. Nice to see guys out working dogs.