Exciting times for our kennel

After a long hot Summer, the dogs and I are ready for Fall weather.  With Autumn comes hunting season, and that means one thing for us...tracking!  This year is especially exciting for a number of reasons. First off, I always like to watch young dogs get a chance to use all of the skills that they have been developing in the off season. Boone had a great rookie season last year as a young puppy.  This year he should be a rockstar.  He is easily the most impressive young dog that I have trained.  I expect really great things from him this year, and look forward to recovering a lot of deer for hunters in our region.

Another exciting change happening here is the addition of our new kennel facility. By mid-September, our 30'X40' building will be completed. This will include 5 indoor/outdoor kennels, an indoor training area, and a large outdoor dog yard. This facility will comfortably house my three dogs, and allow space for housing and training 2 additional dogs at any one time. 

I am excited to announce that both of my training spots for early fall are now filled with 2 great prospects. One of the trainees will be a 3/4 beagle, 1/4 healer mix that was the result of a puppy search that I did for a client.  Finding the "right" tracking dog to fit each family's needs is an important starting point of owning a tracking dog.  Usually, the client wants a full blooded dog, as it is much easier to anticipate what type of characteristics your dog will have.  However, this client had fairly specific characteristics in mind that were more easily met in a mix breed.  Additionally, after reading about my healer/beagle mix, Echo, he was pretty set on finding something similar.  Truthfully, finding a specific mixed breed can prove to be more difficult than finding a pure bred dog. Thankfully, my search was rewarded with a good tracking prospect.  The young puppy will start its training journey later this week, and I will share its progress with our readers. 

The second trainee is the polar opposite. He is a big, full blooded bloodhound from Arkansas. This client has successfully trained and worked a tracking lab in the past, but preferred to get some help with his bloodhound. After a long discussion on the phone, it was clear that we would be a good fit for him and his dog. We will start work with this big guy immediately after the kennels are completed.  He will learn both on lead and off lead work.

Training these dogs during our hunting season will provide us a lot of opportunity to get the young dogs on real tracks which is always a benefit in training.  I am excited to get to work with the new prospective trackers, and see how they develop.