projectupland.com On The Go Project Upland Magazine
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- Sports
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Project Upland, in our continued effort to serve our community in new and innovative ways while seeking to lower the barriers of entry into upland hunting, is pleased to publish PROJECTUPLAND.COM ON THE GO. In order to make our content easier to access in more diverse ways, we now publish audio versions of our growing library of online written content. It is our hope that, by creating a new pathway to access the materials we produce, we strengthen our community and bring it closer together.
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Place Training in Your Home
Sit and stay is a tall order. I don’t know about you, but this is no easy task for me or my bird dogs. Many of us are now quarantined in our homes. I’m sitting here writing this article with four very patient hunting dogs huddled up beside me awaiting anything remotely training related. And so place training is one of the things that can be accomplished at home and even with some help from the kids.
If you have ever been waterfowl hunting with a young or developmental gun dog, you know how stressful whining and barking can be. Instead of watching that sunrise with your favorite cup of joe, you find yourself wrestling your hunting dog to keep it quiet and still. It’s in those times we realize that we should have better prepared our dog to control its emotions. Blaine Carter from Merrymeeting Kennels has created a series of at home drills that helps eliminate the issue. -
Ruffed Grouse Drumming – The Mysterious Noise of Northern Forests
The reverberation of a ruffed grouse drumming during early mornings in spring forests is one of the most magical sounds. When you hear it, it starkly contrasts against all other sounds found in the springtime. Its unique nature provokes human curiosity and admiration. No doubt, that very same feeling we get today is what sparked naturalist John Bartram to write a letter to his home in England in 1750, describing the unusual behavior of a bird he called the Ruffed Heath-Cock.
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Whoa Training on Your Home Staircase
Our bird dog training routine has been completely uprooted, though my dogs are thoroughly enjoying all the extra training. Unfortunately for many people, what would have been the start of training season with friends and professional trainers has now become a stay-at-home DIY situation. Nevertheless, we can take this extra time to get some excellent training drills put together and maybe even include the family in the routines. For starters, we will look at building up one of the most important commands in the pointing dog world – “Whoa.”
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Understanding and Flagging in a Bird Dog
So what if my dog has a wiggle butt and flags a bit on point? It’s kinda cute and still gets meat to the frying pan. If that’s the case and your dog will efficiently hunt, locate plenty of birds for you and stand point, I would happily agree with you. More often than not, however, it will affect your hunt in some aspect as it’s a symptom of underlying holes in your bird dog training. It could develop into, amongst other things, a restrictive search, blinked retrieves, self hunting, ripping birds, stealing points and retrieves—which not only limits productivity in the field, it guarantees relentless ribbing from your hunting buddies.
In my last Project Upland article, we discussed some of the nuances of reading your bird dog’s body language and figuring out what they are trying to tell you. I referenced flagging as a specific undesirable action in a pointing dog. Let’s delve into that a little bit deeper to gain some understanding. -
Why Hunt With a Vintage Shotgun?
Being part of the hunting and shooting industry, I get to try the latest and greatest new guns every year. But when I’m not toting a gun for work, I’m usually carrying a vintage shotgun. My duck and pigeon gun turned 100 this year, and my grouse gun isn’t far behind it.
I have a safe full of old pumps, semi-autos, side-by-sides, and over-unders, and I’ll probably never get rid of them. Sure, I’m a sucker for patina, nice engraving, and all of the little things that make an old gun great. But what I love most about vintage shotguns is learning about where they came from, how they were made, and how they handle in the field. -
Learning to Read a Dog’s Body Language for Training
I’m sure you noticed that you can’t make a move your bird dog doesn’t notice. It’s kind of creepy at times finding your dog at the door staring at you the moment the thought crosses your mind to go out dog training or hunting, as if they are somehow reading your mind. It’s because they’ve been studying your every move since the day you brought them home. They know things about you that you don’t even realize. They have learned to become a bilingual behaviorist to be able to read you as well as their own doggy world. We owe it to them and it’s to our benefit to attempt to figure out how to read their language to become bilingual ourselves. It’s only then we learn to develop that harmonious hunting relationship we all dream to have with our dog.
Customer Reviews
Great Podcast
I really like these podcast. They are very informative.
Fantastic show
Just listen to the show about using treats for dog training and I agreed wholeheartedly with Jason on this form of training. Excellent, excellent!!
Great
Love the podcast keep up the good work!!