# Too cold to take the pup?



## Brm113 (Jan 10, 2014)

Thinking about taking my silver pup out for her first duck hunt this weekend, she's about 4 1/2 months old and it was in the high teens to low twenties last weekend. Is this something I should wait to do till she has more body weight?


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## cootlover (Sep 26, 2015)

Has the dog ever been in cold water are in water for that matter. I wouldn't if it was me not worth killing a dog .


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## Greenhead_Slayer (Oct 16, 2007)

As long as you can keep her up out of the water while you're waiting for birds I think she'd be ok. Just don't expect her to lay on ice or stand in the water all day. Make sure her feet don't get cut on ice shards, if they do call it a day. Feed her plenty before you go and bring along some high calorie dog appropriate snacks.


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## Brm113 (Jan 10, 2014)

Thank you for the advice. I wasn't planning on letting her in the water, just sitting in the blind and maybe getting her feet wet. She's my first hunting dog so it's all new to me.


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## Cazador (Sep 4, 2014)

Brm113 said:


> Thank you for the advice. I wasn't planning on letting her in the water, just sitting in the blind and maybe getting her feet wet. She's my first hunting dog so it's all new to me.


+1

As far as age she is perfect to start getting her out. I had my lab out retrieving ducks at 4 months, but that was in October. Congrats on the new pup they are a blast. I have to say even after ten years with my girl I still enjoy watching her make a retrieve just as much as shooting the birds.


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## Hawk87 (Apr 4, 2014)

I would be really careful taking a pup that young out. My main concern would be gunfire conditioning, gun shy dogs are made, not born. The other things I would be worried about are: being able to sit still in the blind, cold water giving her a negative water attitude, developing bad habits like breaking, and not having a solid way to enforce recall if the the situation gets bad.

I wouldn't do it, but good luck whatever you decide.

ETA: Out of curiosity, where are you located?


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## Brm113 (Jan 10, 2014)

^ thank you for the advice, I took her to the Turkey shoot before thanksgiving and she had no problem with gun shots. But sitting still would be a problem for her, she has tons of energy and the hardest pup I've ever trained. We are in nsl.


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## Hawk87 (Apr 4, 2014)

Brm113 said:


> ^ thank you for the advice, I took her to the Turkey shoot before thanksgiving and she had no problem with gun shots. But sitting still would be a problem for her, she has tons of energy and the hardest pup I've ever trained. We are in nsl.


Awesome, I am glad she did well. I have no idea how close she was, but keep in mind that a duck load right next to you is a big jump from a trap load at 20 feet.

It's your dog, and the last thing I want is to tell someone how to train their dog (I don't know that much anyway), but I wouldn't risk taking her out.

The last piece of advice I would give is that training a hunting dog is pretty different then training a pet. I recommend getting a program and following it. I have been using the Danny Farmer Basics program, and have had to transition to Fowl Dawg's. I like Farmer's much better

http://www.dannyfarmer.com/dannyfarmer.com/Training_DVDs.html


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