A Couple's First Experience with a Hunting Dog

Caren's View...

My husband Josh and I drove to Jamestown, North Dakota, to meet Wayne Meagher, breeder of the famous Dakota Ridge Weimaraners, from Aberdeen, South Dakota, who was delivering our 7 week old Weimaraner puppy. We pulled into the Perkins parking lot so anxious to see our new dog! We made a loop around the parking lot, and Josh said that he had noticed a little puppy head pop up in a car down the row. So, back around we went, and there he was, our sweet little Dakota Duke. He slept on Josh's lap the whole car ride home. He was the sweetest little angel ever! That didn't last long, Josh will vouch for that!

We have had quite the adventures with this puppy! We got him in May of 2003, and he's learned many of the family ways! Duke's first adventures were boating and fishing. He's had a few hooks in various parts of his body, but nothing too damaging!

The most important thing for Josh was that this dog be an awesome hunter. He had it in his head that the dog would instinctively know exactly what to do as a hunter. The poor puppy didn't have a chance with Josh! I can say this, cause I'm his wife; the man has no patience whatsoever!

I decided I'd work with him as much as I could to make him the best hunter ever, so Josh wouldn't throw it in my face that I picked a slow breed or a dumb dog! As soon as he could walk he was retrieving sticks and other miscellaneous items. We worked with him religiously, using dummies while playing fetch. Our whole problem was helping him to understand what a pheasant was while trying to keep the peace in our household; I researched trainers in the area. I just knew this dog was a natural from the beginning!

At 7 months, Duke went to Ambush Kennels in Minot, North Dakota, for 2 weeks of puppy bird training. I cried the entire way there, and the whole way home to Bismarck. Our little baby that cuddles with me in bed and stays indoors was going to puppy boot camp! It was a traumatic ordeal, and all I could think about was that look he gave me when we left. How could we do such a thing to such a young puppy?

After three days, Josh decided Duke wasn't having any fun, and said I should drive up there and get him. I knew the only way that this dog was ever going to get Josh's respect, was to be a hunter. So, we left him there for the full 2 weeks. When we went back to get him, we got nothing but raving reviews on our little hunter. We were able to capture what he learned on video, and I'm telling you, I was so proud of that little guy! He knows what birds are now!

Recently, we've been doing some ice fishing, and taking Duke with us. Josh would tell you he's a total pain in the butt. I just think he's really friendly. I wouldn't be upset if a dog came over and visited me! The last time Josh took him, Duke ventured into a guys ice house when he wasn't in there! Josh was not happy when he got home.

My favorite, though, has got to be the last time we were out. We were on a small little lake, where there were only about 2 other people fishing. Duke doesn't quite understand the need to stay near us, so I figured, what the heck could he get into, I'll just leave him out of the house for a while, until he gets too cold. A few minutes later, I heard his dog tags jingling outside the ice house door. I opened the door, and there he stood with a half frozen perch in his mouth. Now, where would he have gotten that? Our perch were in a bucket of water, and we hadn't laid any out on the ice. You got it! We've got a fish hunter on our hands! So, I proceeded to return the perch to the man that caught it, needless to say, Duke stayed in the house the rest of the day.

As you can tell, I love dogs, and most animals. I've been talking about getting another dog for months! I even went out to The Pet Connection; a shelter located in Bismarck, North Dakota, and found just a sweet little weim/red heeler mix that needed a home. Josh absolutely forbid me from doing any such thing - the dog isn't a hunter, our house is too small, we don't have much room for them to run here, let's just wait till we have a place in the country, and on and on! So, I gave up hope.

Well, let me tell you about this site called fishingbuddy.com! Josh was checking out some hot topics on the site and saw that there was a German Shorthair Pointer puppy that people were bidding on in Williston, North Dakota, and it would help out there local pheasant chapter in buying food and bales. They even included 3 months of training for free! What man could refuse this deal, right? So, to make a long story short, while I was at a business appointment, Josh got the call saying that we are the proud owners of a GSP puppy, which is 6 weeks old!

We will be getting our puppy sometime in February and we'll keep you all updated with pictures and I'm sure some very interesting stories.

Josh's view...

I have a 10 month old weim and at his young age is a freak of nature in the field. At 7 months we took him to Ambush kennels in Minot for two weeks of puppy training, and when we got him back it was like he had been hunting for years. The trainer had nothing but praise for little Dakota Duke, he had over 20 pups when duke was there and said that he was really advanced for his age and learned really fast and mentioned that weims were usually a little slower to mature than most dogs and that he was an exception.

At a little over seven months, he flushed and retrieved his first limit with amazing style, we were really proud of him and he was totally stoked to be in the field flushing those wily roosters.

We introduced little Duke to water at a little over two months, and he was a little hesitant at first, but it didn't take long and he was swimming all over! Not long after he began swimming he was retrieving his dummy. Thankfully, he has retrieved several birds that have landed in water.

Little Duke is a house dog and at times he can be a handful, especially if he hasn't gotten enough exercise, but that's our fault. He has a very short coat and sheds very little, which is nice. I have hunted around many different dogs including labs, gsp's, Brittany's, as well as Springer's and for his age he is as good if not better than any I have hunted with and he is still very young. I can't imagine him getting any better. As of late, he has been picking up hand signals with surprising ease. I am looking forward to next hunting season, it should be a blast.

My wife wanted another dog but I said I wanted to wait until we got a place in the country. Well, I was checking out Fishing Buddy Outdoors and came across a thread about feeding pheasants during the winter. In that thread, I stumbled across some guys talking about a puppy auction taking place on 660 AM in Williston, North Dakota, so I checked into it a little more and found out that a kennel from Williston had donated a GSP pup and three months of training to the local Pheasants Forever club. I was thinking, these guys are going to raise a bunch of money because just the training alone was worth over $1200.00.

The bid was at $500 when I found out about it and thought what the heck, so I put in a bid for $600 thinking there was no way I would get that lucky. To make a long story short, I'm the new proud owner of a little GSP pup. I feel kind of bad that the bid only went to $700 because this pup has an awesome blood line with both parents and grand parents being national field trial champs as well as shoot to retrieve champs.

I had talked to several of the people that own dogs from the pup's breeder and both said that I won't find a better pup anywhere. I suspect that if they would have advertised more they would have made 2 or 3 times more than they made, but I am not complaining, I got a great pup and pretty much got the training for free. Can't beat a deal like that! So now Duke has a new playmate and hopefully they will be dynamite in the field together. I will post some pictures of Dakota Duke's White Arrow and some pictures from his first hunting season. I will keep everyone updated on how the new GSP pup is coming along. Until next time, enjoy the Dakota outdoors!

Editor's Note: Josh and Caren Loebs are an outdoor couple who spend a lot of time in the field and on the water together enabling them to grow from these outdoor experiences. They are promoters of the outdoors and will be contributing more of their outdoor moments as well as thier lessons learned from their dogs in future articles. Both Josh and Caren have had other great articles published on www.southdakota-outdoors.com.

Top Photo: Caren, Dakota Duke, and Josh with a limit of late season Dakota roosters. Middle Photo: Dakota Duke as a pup... Bottom Photo: Josh Loebs with an excellent whitetail buck. I am sure Duke would have liked to have been along on that hunt!