Mud Lake Kennels

11/29/2023

I love a good seminar or workshop. It’s a great opportunity to get a lot of work and learning done in a short amount of time. This is my first time offering something like this as Mud Lake Kennels but I have run many similar events in the past for my pet dog clients. So let’s give it a whirl!

Who is this for?

Well, you could take it in a couple different directions. I think it will be especially helpful for folks who are very new to owning bird dogs and want to learn the proper way to introduce obedience without hurting their goals in the field. It could also be helpful to people with adult dogs that they are struggling to connect with in the field. I’m thinking of some of you with big running, self-motivated dogs 😉 It could also be an opportunity to just hear a different perspective for those of you who just enjoy learning.

I’m limiting the working spots to ten dogs but anyone can come without a dog to observe and learn.The curriculum is flexible and designed to adapt to the individual dogs in the room. Any dog breed is welcome and will benefit from these lessons, however the focus is going to mainly be on pointing dogs.

$45 to attend with a dog, $15 to attend by yourself.

Women Behind The Whistle meet up to follow. Location TBD.

To register send a DM or
Email: [email protected]
Call/Text: (612)888-3055

11/27/2023

In June I announced on social media that I was, after about eight or nine years working with pet dogs and their owners, planning on changing my focus to bird dogs. I asked to be sent puppies, because that’s a gap in the industry I think I could fill well. I didn’t know what to expect and continued to take a few pet dogs in for training because I was worried there would be a lack of work.

As I’m heading into the end of the year and sending my last few training dogs home in a couple of weeks, I decided to crunch some numbers on exactly how many dogs have come through my doors this year. I started my count around Thanksgiving of last year, since I still have a couple Thanksgiving boarders here right now.

Overall, counting first days only and not individual dogs, since most of my boarders are regulars and stayed many times this year, I’ve had 102 stays logged on my calendar.

83 of those stays were for boarding only.
19 of them were here for training.
12 of those were bird dog/gun dog training.

Between Thanksgiving of last year and into December of this year, I’ve had 305 days where I had more than just my own dogs here. My busiest stretch has been from end of August to now with 43 total stays just in that timeframe alone. And zero breaks in client dogs! To say I’m looking forward to a little downtime is an understatement but I have enjoyed this busy season so much.

My last round of dogs currently on my calendar leave mid December. After that, my training books are closed for the winter. I’ll start taking dogs in for training in the spring again. If you’ve got a dog that needs work or are expecting to bring a puppy home around that time, let’s talk!

I am also exploring the idea of running a couple workshops for pet dogs and bird dogs throughout the winter (indoors). So stay tuned for more information on that!

Boarding is available year round for all dogs.

Thank you to everyone who either shared my name with friends or sent a pup my way. It’s been a really fun Fall.

11/17/2023

I have time for a couple lessons on Wednesday the 22nd if anyone wants to come out! Obedience (all breeds) and/or pigeon work (pointing breeds).

Starting at 11am.

Shoot me an email: [email protected]
Or text: (612) 888-3055

11/15/2023

Obedience is nothing if your dog can’t do it anytime, anywhere.

I have conversations with folks all the time about bad behaviors their dogs are displaying that require professional intervention. In the initial conversation the potential client will, without a doubt, list all the things they claim the dog DOES know. Simple obedience behaviors, sit, down, stay, sometimes recalls… Then immediately after list the things they cannot handle. Greeting guests politely, staying out of the way during dinner, walking past other dogs without losing their minds, walking well on a leash, etc. I can certainly help with those things but I’m going to teach them obedience.

“Oh their obedience is great they don’t need help with that. Just the things I listed.”

Here’s a little industry secret: Advanced training… is just really good basic obedience. It’s basic obedience that has been taught and practiced every day, in every situation. Somewhere in the process of raising up dogs, we seemed to forget *why* we teach obedience. It’s so we can use it to communicate our expectations to our dogs.

The solution to almost all behavior problems is better basic obedience and the sense to know how to use it.

Sheldon, the Border Collie in this clip, came to me with a good understanding of his basic obedience but the only missing link was applying it to real world scenarios. His obedience was taught really well which made my job easier for sure. I’m not always that lucky. I’m often rebuilding poorly taught obedience from scratch. He made a lot of progress in a short amount of time because the foundation was done well.

If you’re raising up a young dog and you want advanced obedience in two years, let’s talk now about the basics.

11/09/2023

Our training books are closed for the season! We’ve got two more young dogs, a Pudelpointer and another Lab, coming in this weekend and then that’s a wrap until the Spring!

I’m considering doing a training day or two this Winter on handling and obedience but that will depend on how much interest there is for something like that and of course how weather looks. If this is something you’d be interested in let me know and I can start planning.

We will continue boarding dogs year round so if you’re planning any trips and need a place for your dogs, we’ve got you covered!

www.mudlakebirdkennels.com

10/24/2023

I try to do as much as I can with young dogs on wild birds but sometimes you just need a pigeon to make a point.

I spent the morning with Aggie and Rexy on a few pigeons each and saw the progress I wanted to see. Now we can try hitting some woodcock again and see if they learned what to do!

10/21/2023

Two years ago I wrote this post on Facebook:

I’ve raised a handful of puppies myself and another handful for my clients. I’ve had even more dogs and client dogs that I wished I had been able to raise. You know what I think is the most valuable but least taught concept in puppy raising? It’s not crate training or potty training. It isn’t not to jump or not to pull. It’s not even really socialization and confidence building.

It’s that you, my dear sweet puppy…

are not the center of attention.

It’s hard when your puppy first comes home to put it away in a crate, it’s hard not to pull it out every hour to cuddle and play. It’s hard to not bring it everywhere to meet all your friends and family. You waited so long for this moment! And it’s so cute!

It’s hard to say no to the people in public who are enamored with your puppy. No, you cannot pet him or her today. It’s hard to not let them meet every doggy friend you pass on the street.

But it’s so valuable that you teach this lesson early and you teach it well.

Consider the messages you are sending when you allow aaaall of this to go on.

- It’s always exciting when you are out of your crate and with the family.
- It’s always exciting when you go outside and see all the people.
- It’s always exciting when you pass by the other doggies on the street.
- And it’s boring when you are alone…

Those other very important things listed above become very challenging if every time your puppy is out it’s the most exciting thing. It’s hard for a little puppy to not jump and pull and bark when they are used to always getting the most attention! The mindset that you create when doing these things is very important. If you want a well behaved and well adjusted puppy, you must balance the excitement with calm.

This does not mean create a boring life for your puppy and never allow it to have fun. Not at all. But the puppy needs you to be intentional in the amount of attention and excitement you allow. Put effort into showing the puppy that sometimes life IS boring and it’s okay to just lay down and rest.

10/19/2023

Puppy Gang

I think you can tell which dogs have been here the longest and who just arrived!

R 👉 L
Rexy, 8 month old Setter
Aggie, 6ish month old Griff
Monty, 7 month old Doodle
Archer, 5 month old Lab

10/12/2023

What comes first? The hunter or the dog?

A week ago I turned down a request to board and train a two year old Golden whose owner wanted it to become a hunting partner for her. Why did I turn it down? Because the owner wasn’t yet a hunter herself.

It’s certainly not a problem to come into hunting later in your life and it’s definitely not wrong to need help learning how to do it. So why did I turn the dog down? Because I believe the hunter needs to come before the dog.

I could have taken her money and done the work but it would have been for nothing if the owner didn’t have the ability to get the dog into birds and make progress on the work I begin. So that’s what I told her. You learn first and then we’ll teach the dog.

Even the best bird dog in the world is a nothing but a piece of furniture in your home if you don’t know how to find birds yourself. And you’ll certainly struggle to make a decent dog a good dog without the ability to show them birds. You don’t even need to know how to shoot, just become the bird finder for your dog and then, if they have it, the rest will come.

10/08/2023

Left the Setters at home yesterday and gave the German dogs a day. Duck in the morning and deer in the afternoon.
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Game Recovery services available for areas surrounding Harris, MN and along the western border of Wisconsin.

Call/Text 612-888-3055

09/30/2023

Dogs will always speak for themselves. No amount of excuses will hide the truth a dog tells.

Back when I was training for protection sports, my trainer used to drill into me and the rest of his students, “You either have it or you don’t” and he’d say the same for dogs, “They either have it or they don’t.” Some might think it’s harsh to draw such strict lines but if you really want to excel at something you have to be a little ruthless.

By the time you step onto a trial field, whatever the sport or test might be, you’re laying it all out on display and you better hope you have it. If you don’t, there’s nothing to be said. Work harder and try again.

09/27/2023

A question I see asked online and hear people talk about quite a bit is,

Is running my young bird dog with other dogs detrimental to their development?

The easiest answer is to say, if it’s a training run with goals of finding birds or working on something specific, it’s best to do that without pet dogs. Sometimes it’s better to do it completely alone.

If you’re out to exercise and socialize where it’s not likely you will find birds, then it’s probably not going to harm much to let your bird dog hangout with other dogs.

Nothing in dog training is a hard and fast rule. It depends on what issues are presenting themselves. Here are some examples of when I would or wouldn’t run a young dog with other dogs.

- I will run a young dog with an experienced dog that can give them confidence ranging out and opportunities to find birds.

- I will stop running them together if the young dog never begins to hunt independently after a handful of bird contacts.

- I won’t run a young dog with a pet dog if they are distracted from running independently.

- I won’t run a young dog with pet dogs if my goal is that they find birds. That is specifically training time for the dog, not fun time.

- I will run two young dogs if they need experience being braced with another dog. Ideally those two dogs match in pace and hunting style.

- I won’t run two young dogs if they are only trying to play.

- I won’t run a young dog with other dogs when I am in the process of steadying them to wing and shot. Not even with another handler unless I know that the other dog will honor my dog or the handler can keep their dog far away from my dog when they stop on point.

- I will run multiple bird dogs by myself if their stages of training are staggered enough that they won’t effect each other’s progress. i.e My adult bird dog can hold long enough for me to call the young dogs up and will remain steady with another dog at its feet. My “teen” bird dog is not distracted by puppies or adults and will hunt independently. A puppy can benefit from the experience of older dogs so long as it doesn’t run off.

What are your thoughts? When is it okay or not okay to run a young dog with other dogs?

09/26/2023

I am so proud to share that Maven took 2nd Place in the CVGDA NBHA Sharptail Championship Open Puppy. Our first trial together and she blew it out of the water. I was so happy with her run, I was beaming the whole time. She showed a lot of intelligence and maturity in how she sought out likely cover and moved efficiently and with purpose. She’s graceful and proud when she runs and I love watching her. She had two Sharptail finds in the last few moments of her brace as well.

We got 2nd to our good friend Ben McKean and his puppy Eddie Setter. I couldn’t be happier to be up there with those two! I’m looking forward to running along side them for the years to come! Ben’s Shooting Dog, Eddie’s sire, also took RU in the Championship!

Rexy, the puppy I was handling for a client, got an Honorable Mention (thanks for holding her in the photo Jordan!). After a few dogs scratched, there were five puppies entered so only two official placements could be given. But she ran well enough to earn a mention at the announcements. She ran hard and had so much fun. She has a much bigger range than Maven but I got her around with only a couple hang ups where she couldn’t figure out how to get back to me. Right at the end, after time had run out, she was a ways out ahead of me and kicked up a sharpie. Then it was really hard to get her back! But once she made her way to me she flopped over on her side and the look on her face was just pure joy. She needs more experience on wild birds and few pounds on her and she’s going to be a strong contender!

Thank you to the judges and all the people who work their asses off to make these trials happen. There are so many moving parts and it’s no easy feat to make things come together.

09/25/2023

A few people have asked my secret to getting Easy to gain and maintain weight well. The answer is FAT.

I have tried all kinds of different things over the last year or so. Our biggest hang up is that Easy will not eat consistently. So what I can get in him has to be purposeful.

The game changer was when I was given the advice to add more fat. Dogs utilize fat for energy. The dog food companies push “High Protein” foods for athletic dogs but don’t speak enough about how FAT is what they need to be able to burn energy and not deplete their reserves.

I think for most dogs in Easy’s situation, Inukshuk food is the simple answer however Easy won’t consistently eat it.

A few weeks ago I switched from Victor Hi Pro Plus to Diamond Pro89 after stumbling across it at Fleet Farm while looking for something similar to the Victor but that was a little less expensive. Pro89 has a similar formula to Hi Pro Plus. It’s beef based, 30/20, grain inclusive, added probiotics, etc. The biggest differences I’ve seen is that it has 60 more calories per cup and it has “Ancient Grains.”

Something about that food has been enough of a game changer for Easy alone. He seems to have a higher output of energy. He runs stronger more consistently and he doesn’t look like he depleted all his fat reserves immediately after getting back to the truck.

I wasn’t going to take my chances that food was going to solve our problems. He’s coming into his “busy season” with trials and hunting trips every weekend just around the corner. Rather than feed what he looks like right now in front of me, I needed to feed the dog that he’s going to be in January.

I add about 1/2 lb raw, 80/20 ground beef to add more fat and increase his likelihood to eat. I also add one raw egg and a sq**rt of fish oil to add more calories and fat. I mix that with 3 cups of the Pro89.

It’s a lot of volume and fat in one meal so I do it cautiously. Easy is a slow eater so even though it’s a little gross, I leave it with him throughout the afternoon and he eats when he wants to. If I had a dog that ate faster, I would split the volume into smaller meals.

09/20/2023

Rexy made her way over here from Moorhead yesterday and had a good rest. She woke up ready to get to work! She is is entered in her first trials this Fall and I’ll be preparing her and handling her in three of them!

09/17/2023

Kyle’s friend from college is boarding their Northwoods bred Pointer with us for the weekend. Huxley an older guy and doesn’t get out to hunt as much as he used to so we brought him over to the farm and put a couple pigeons out for him. He had a very good time!

09/16/2023

Maven, my seven month old English Setter, has one problem. She’s too sticky! Read this short article about how I am working through the problem and the progress we have made.

Yesterday I loaded Easy, Maven, and Reba up and drove up to northern Wisconsin AGAIN. This was our third time up there this week. We've been going fairly consistently for the last few weeks and twice we ran into a huge covey of Sharptail. I had yet to go out on my own with the dogs so I picked a day...

09/15/2023

I recruited another German so Reba didn’t have to third wheel with these English dogs anymore.

Aggie is here from Wisconsin for a while to get in on some bird action!