The Blast Wingshooting Kennels

09/12/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: If Your Effort Is Minimal…

I often get asked what’s the key on a hunt to be more successful with your dog or anything in life for that manner. There’s many ways to address this question. Of course the first most obvious question is how well is your dog trained? Let’s say the dog is trained to a good hunting level. What we call a Foundation dog. They find Upland game stay in range and deliver the bird to hand. They sit still on a Waterfowl Hunt go out and pick up ducks they see fall in easy to moderate situations through decoys. Just a nice standard hunting dog.

So let me help you understand this simple concept. What makes a dog better on a hunt?…………… Think about it for a minute………. What truly makes your dog better?……….. SIMPLY- Bird Engagement! Every dog good bird dog isn’t just good automatically. (although you could argue that good genetics have more natural traits- but that’s for another time) They get better and better the more birds they become engaged with and learn how to problem solve the engagement of each bird thru experience.

If you hunt your dog twice a year and on those two hunts you don’t harvest any birds, how do you expect the dog to get better? All this training is to teach him the standards of “Engagement on a Bird.” Think about this…… We spend all this time training, yet we aren’t putting in the effort to help the dog be successful with Bird Engagement on a Hunt.

If you’re a Waterfowl enthusiast that means lots of miles on your truck to find birds, door knocking for permission, building relationships with land owners to scout for success. It means walking back in as far as you can to get away from people in public marsh areas. It means buying a boat to get areas others can’t. Why do you put in so much effort?? To get more “Bird Engagement” for your dog. If you don’t have time to do all of this, then it means hiring a guide.

If you’re an Upland enthusiast it means finding out the states and areas of the states with good bird numbers. Putting miles on your truck, checking into local hotels, stopping at the local bar to have a burger or drink and get the low down with the local farmers. It means getting up early to see where birds are coming from and staying out late to see where birds are feeding and returning to. It means understanding what type of cover birds are in for what time of year it is in the fall. Sometimes this can change weekly. Then it means you better have strong legs and a strong mind…. Why you may ask?……. Because to make a good bird dog in the Uplands you need to wear out your boots. If you don’t have time for this, then you need to go to a lodge where they guarantee good numbers. Still you have to find them.

Let’s analysis real quick here…

Waterfowl: Let’s say you journal all your hunts and out of 10 hunts you shot 50 birds, an average of 5 birds a hunt. That’s 50 REAL- LIFE, REAL- WORLD; Bird Engagements that build you and your dog’s confidence. That’s priceless experience for your dog and priceless memories made! The gift of memories you get to cherish for a lifetime.

Upland: Let’s say your journal all your hunts and out of 10 hunts you shot 20 birds. That means you didn’t limit out each time you went. However in Upland Hunting even bird engagements you can’t shoot, like a hen pheasant, teaches the dog something. That’s 20 REAL- LIFE, REAL-WORLD; Bird Engagements that you and your dog experienced out smarting birds in their own environment. Once again, that’s priceless experience for your dog and priceless memories made! The gift of memories you get to cherish for a lifetime.

I once was feeling down on myself about where I was in life. I just didn’t feel like financially I was getting anywhere and that I wish I had the fancy truck, gear and guns that I seen all the “successful bird hunters”
have. When will I get my break? You know, the normal self sabotage crap your brain does to you. I was in North Dakota pheasant hunting with Winnie and this well-off guy joined me on the hunt. The day was over and Winnie put on a Wingmaster seminar on Roosters. Doing what she did best, outsmarting Roosters as easily as eating her morning breakfast. This guy was a well off businessman and we were discussing the success of building a business over getting a late supper. I was expressing my frustrations with growing a business. He said to me, how much for Winnie? I’ve need seen a dog like that in the Uplands before. I laughed and said, “she’s not for sale”. “No, seriously how much?” “There is no price”!! He told me, “if I gave you all the money to make you successful right now, and all you had to do is sell me Winnie, would you do it?” Of course I said, “NO.” “Well then it seems like you’re already living your success then.”

He taught me an important lesson. He had everything I thought made a successful bird hunter or businessman from the outside… I had everything he thought made a successful bird hunter, a great bird dog.

Every bird hunter wants the same. That phenomenal dog that can do anything you ask it to. Those are hard to find!
Rarely after a hunt does someone say to you, “that dog was great, but my truck is better than yours.”

The fact is that if your “Effort is Minimal, Your Success is Minimal.” Your dog is like putting money in the bank. The more money you put in the more your bank account grows. The more time and effort you put into hunting with your dog. The more time you spend training and hunting your dog the more the dog grows. The only problem with your dog is their time is limited so every day counts.

Your dog doesn’t care about what truck you drive, how expensive your gun is or the clothing that you wear. All he/she cares about is there enough gas in the tank to get to the next hunting spot.







Michael D Vaughn
Wingmasters

09/05/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: On The Hunt- Two Sided Patience

I enjoy all the people I meet each year through competing, teaching seminars, mentorships, selling puppies, stud service, my small hunt club, private lessons, phone consultations and the clients we train dogs for at our facility. I educate people on what a dog is thinking, their ability to learn (trainability), their personality and heart (biddability) and what to expect
On The Hunt for what level the dog is trained.

Now comes the more difficult part. Without going into great detail I have to make sure this dog is ready to be handled by someone with limited handling skills. So my job is to train YOU the owner of the dog, how to operate the dog properly to set him up for success On The Hunt. This comes with teaching the owner-handler how to be patient in their dog’s skills as they mature and hold the standards of which they’ve been trained. Rather difficult to do at times. For the sake of this Tidbit let’s say that you and the dog are synced up and all is good in the handling department.

Now I have to get YOU to understand what the future is going to look like for the level of training your dog has coupled with the your dog’s personality.

Two Sided Patience- The Dog
1. A laid back medium to low drive dog. You have a be patient with a dog like this as they tend to be uncertain in areas of the hunt. So you will have to help them along and allow them to learn, experience and grow in confidence as they learn how to use their skills in the real world of hunting.

2. A high drive dog. Is going to require patience as they are constantly going to be pushing the limits of the training On The Hunt. The distractions are going to be overwhelming to them because of how much “GO” they have. They to are going to have to mature into understanding how to calm down and focus On The Hunt. They will push your patience.

Both dogs need the exact same thing but require different patience based on their personalities. While one dog On The Hunt may not want to do something, the other dog wants to do something too much. The key is for them to mature into the middle ground.

Now let’s talk about handling yourself. Yes, your dog will be happy with me when I say you have to hold yourself accountable as well. Any Waterfowl or Upland game bird doesn’t care how much you trained at the Trap or Sporting Clays Course. The real world wingshooting is way different than wingshooting clay games. Here is the main difference. The element of SURPRISE! In Wingshooting clay sports you got time to set up for your shot. You do as well On The Hunt but it’s the element of “Surprise” that is different. Which requires Two Sided patience.

Two Sided Patience-The Human
1. The laid back person who is in La La land and doesn’t have the timing to know how to get ready to harvest a bird. That person like the dog #1 above has to mature into understanding how to set up better to be prepared to anticipate the “surprise” of the bird so they can be ready and develop the timing to harvest a bird. The dog is going to have to be patient with YOU now. It takes a sense of timing that you have to learn in order to anticipate how to make a shot for your dog to get his reward. If the dog could speak, he’d tell you, “up your awareness in anticipation of the shot.”

2. The hyper person who wants to harvest everything that flys, has to learn to calm down so they don’t shoot too quickly and get over excited resulting in bad timing as well. The dog has to be patient with YOU as well. If the dog could talk he’d tell you to “calm the hell down” and “take your time.” Something a type A personality has a hard time with.

Both humans need the exact same thing but require different patience with themselves based on their personalities. While one person On The Hunt may be too slow to react to the element of “surprise” of the bird, the other person is two quick to react to the element of “surprise” of the bird. The key is for you to mature into the middle ground of finding your place in timing how to harvest according to your personal reaction time.

Both you and the dog have different responsibilities and standards to adhere to On The Hunt. Both of you, play important roles On The Hunt. Both of you have to mature On The Hunt together. Maturity comes from experiences On The Hunt that you and your dog encounter and conquer together.

This is what becoming a Wingmaster is all about. Unification of Man/Woman and dog to experience life together On The Hunt as a team. When you both grow together On The Hunt and you’re proud of each other for doing your part of being a Wingmaster team, you make lasting memories that go far deeper in both your souls than any writer can ever describe.

Cheers to crisp mornings, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, coming our way with our family, friends and most importantly our dogs.











Wingmasters
Michael D Vaughn

08/21/2025

08/15/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: Idealism vs Realism

I think people in the dog world need to understand the definition of preconceived notion. A preconceived notion is an opinion or belief that someone forms before having enough knowledge, evidence, or experience about something or someone. In the dog world people believe that if they own any breed of bird dog that automatically it should know what it’s doing because it’s a Bird Dog . There is still some
mythism in the air that a dog should just be a bird dog because that’s what he is.

It’s the same as saying a child should just be a baseball player because that’s just what he is. He was born a baseball player. Therefore he should just know how to play baseball with no learning or training at all. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Well that is still in in the air of owning a bird dog. If I could change one way people looked at bird dogs, i’d change the Idealism vs Realism mentality of all people that own a bird dog. Let’s take a dive into what I mean in some of the categories.

Ideally: a dog would just love birds. Just because they chase birds in the back yard has nothing to do with how they handle a game bird.

Realistically: When a dog is taken out of their environment (home area) and asked to engage with a bird they are very tentative to start to engage a bird. It’s because they at not in their “comfortable” environment.

Ideally: A dog would love guns

Realistically: A dog can be fine with loud nosies but still be gun shy because the gun was introduced with birds wrong. Or the dog can be deathly afraid of thunderstorms and still be a crazy bird dog. It’s the association, not the environment.

Ideally: A dog would retrieve to hand perfectly.

Realistically: 90 percent of all bird dogs don’t retrieve naturally. Some do but they are rare. Others sorta do but they drop it at your feet. Every dog needs to go through the Fetch Process to retrieve to hand.
I’ve hand many people tell me their dog retrieves perfectly and then when I ask them to show me the dog won’t engage in a bumper or bird at all. Then the thousands of excuses start. No excuses please just be realistic that this dog wasn’t taught to retrieve in all environments.

Ideally: A dog would just sit still and watch ducks come into your decoy spread.

Realistically: At some point and time the dog is gonna test you and break. Or worse a person just thinks “since he’s a bird dog” that he should just know be to be steady, then he develops the habit of crazy whining when sitting in the duck blind because he wasn’t Steadied properly. Or even worse they steady him but don’t gun condition him
properly and the first time everyone shoots he’s back at the truck.

I could go on and on but here is probably the best one.

Ideally: All breeds of bird dogs would be the same.

Realistically: Bird dogs aren’t even the same in the same breed. Labs are not all the same. English Pointers are not all the same. Springer Spaniels are not all the same. Golden Retrievers are not all the same. So we’re going to say that all bird dogs should perform the same…..

The question becomes what is ideally the same amongst all bird dogs? Nothing! They are all different. Now ask me realistically what is the same amongst all breeds of bird dogs?

LEARNING and TRAINING the dog to perform in all environments he’s faced with.

Having a realistic understanding of how long the training of each process takes to complete without skipping steps.

Having realistic expectations of your dogs capabilities

Now here’s the hard one…… Stop comparing your dog to other dogs and just train it properly!!! Every dog needs three things before you what their capabilities will be On The Hunt or in Competition.
� #1: All dogs need to be Bird and Gun Conditioned properly

#2: All dogs need to be E Collar Conditioned to field and home obedience properly while maintaining a good attitude.

#3: All dogs need to learn how to Retrieve To Hand properly.

All three of these processes are MUSTS, they are non negotiable to find out your dog’s talent when you take them to the field.

Ideally you want to think you have a great bird dog. But realistically when it comes down to the hunt or any type of competition the training will shine through. Suddenly the idealistic people are making excuses for their dog’s performance, while the realistic people are making adjustments to make them better when they perform.

The dog tells us what their capabilities are. You just have to understand their language so you can train the dog you have properly. Only then will you truly know what level of bird dog you own. Then be proud of what your dog is for his own capabilities not what you think his capabilities should be.

As Always; We Be Rockin at Godspeed!










Michael D Vaughn
Wingmasters