caveman22

I have always had Golden Retreivers for pets. I bought another dog about 7 months ago and started working with him for hunting(upland). He is now obediance trained, retreives wonderfully and knows some whisle and hand commands. I mentioned taking him to duck hunt next to my hunting buddies Labs. They swear that the hunting conditions are to harsh for the Golden and that he will freeze to death. I will admit I have not seen anyone personally using a Golden for waterfowl. I will be hunting mostly in Oklahoma. I plan to buy him a vest, however, I do not want to expose him to something that he is not equiped for.
What do you think?

ontturkeyman

Hi , goldens are fine for water fowel , i have one this is his first year duck hunting, and goldens are very smart , i found it very easy to train him , he did his first real out of boat retreave a couple days ago and boy was i impressed, he retreaved 3 ducks . I made a small ramp to help get him in and out of the boat ,it works great , just a piease of thin plywood with hard foam glued to the bottom, and tie one end to the side of the boat . I think a golden can handle anything a lab can handle.

Dave Nuttall

caveman22

Thanks for the reply ontturkeyman,

I have been asking this question for a while now and got only a couple responses. I guess there's not very many of us using Goldens. I do agree that they are very smart. This is the first dog I have trained and I was amazed at how quickly "MOJO" picked up everything. I'll have to try the plywood ramp. I had thought of buying one but sounds like it wouldn't take much to make one. Just curious....how did you connect it to the boat? Temperary or Permanant? MOJO is 7 months now he has been in boats and love them but I have yet to practice drills from a boat.

ontturkeyman

hi Caveman , with that ramp i just drilled holes in the one end and tied it up tight to the side of my 12 foot aluminum boat, i also screwed 1 inch x 12 inch pieces to the top side so my golden("Hunter&quothas something to grab for traction, it was just a last minute thing i thought of but it worked really good. then if you need to move , you just flip it into the boat. this was my doge first time in a boat and he loved it . well happy hunt'n . Dave

Dave Nuttall

caveman22

Dave,

Thanks for the advice and good luck with Hunter. I'm leaving tomorrow for a long bowhunting weekend. MOJO won't be very happy!!