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fabiomilitello

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Everything posted by fabiomilitello

  1. fabiomilitello
    I'm on the Surrey/London border, by Heathrow airport
  2. fabiomilitello
    He still hunts like a gooden so I'll get him finding the dummies in bramble for a couple weeks then, thanks for the advice mate!
  3. fabiomilitello
    Hi all, A bit of a weird issue. Got a 2 and a half year old lab, his first season was the season that's just gone. He did brilliantly hunting in cover, and for the first half of the season was picking up like nobodies business. Towards the end of the season, he got way too excited on the duck drives and I decided to keep him on the lead, otherwise he wouldn't listen. This gave me clear indication that we needed to work on the start and stop whistle a lot more in the off season. Fast forwards a few months, a couple of months ago I was training him on this whistle. I'd throw his dummy ou
  4. fabiomilitello
    This question is so open ended lol, spaniel men will say go for a spaniel and lab men will say go for a lab. There is no right or wrong answer!
  5. fabiomilitello
    He's been on the lead since he began getting brave about running about, and he won't be let off it now for the rest of the season. You should hear the whines! I'm going to just do some strict retrieving training, and hopefully he'll get the idea that the duck drive doesn't mean he can just run amok. Thanks for your advice mate
  6. fabiomilitello
    Hi all, I have been working my 2 year old labrador all season and he has been as good as gold. I work him on the beating line, he stops on the whistle, recalls, and takes basic casting hand signals when he's quartering in bramble. However, on the last drive of the shoot I work him on, it's duck only. As you can imagine, its manic - ducks falling everywhere, being shot or just landing in ponds out of exhaustion. At first, he was fine with this, but as the season went on, it seems he got more and more excited when it came to this drive. It's gotten to the point where I now need to keep
  7. fabiomilitello
    The risk with any purebreed dog is inherited problems. I have a working lab, and he had FTCH in his blood line and great hip scoring parents, but he has HD and elbow displacia and he's only 2! So don't let the "working" line fool you into thinking that they are free from problems. Like I said, any pure breed dog comes with them - working or show.
  8. fabiomilitello
    Right, thought I'd give a little update to the people following this thread. Saturday just gone was the shoot day. I took out the dog, and the way the shoot works is we have 4 pheasant drives and a duck drive at the end of the day. The duck drive is where the dog got nervous last time, so I went with the intention of taking him back to the car if he started getting too scared during that. The first 4 pheasant drives went swimmingly. Asher was working cover crops and bramble, and could hear the gunshots in the distance - but seemingly, they did not bother him at all. He was too occupied
  9. fabiomilitello
    Thank god I stumbled across this thread, that post is absolute comedy gold! Are you being sarcastic or pretending to be dumb? "how do they own the land,because they bought it from someone who bought it from someone etc,etc,etc" Thats your justification for stealing? People own land the same way as they own houses you plonker! Shall I walk into your house, just because you brought it off someone who brought it off someone who brought it off someone etc etc etc? I'll help myself to your flatscreen TV as well! because the land your house was built on once belong
  10. fabiomilitello
    I was with them for a year, waste of my time and money. The only service they provide is an email with a list of Keepers who have shoots that require beaters - regardless of your distance. The only thing I found helpful was the public liability insurance. I wouldn't bother with them again - I'm with SACS this year for shooting insurance and they seem to do a good service to the shooting world as well.
  11. fabiomilitello
    Sounds like a dream job to me! Can't believe someone hasn't bitten your hand off for it.
  12. fabiomilitello
    After re-reading your original post I see the dog had issues with the .22 blanks, which I had somehow not processed before. I have a question. What gun breaking did you do with this dog before you took it out on a shoot? How long/how many gun breaking sessions? I should have probably elaborated on that. My apologies! His first gun breaking sessions were done last winter, where I would take a starter pistol and fire .22 blanks (shorts). This was done at about 100 yards away by a friend, whilst I would stand with the dog and pet him / praise him if he didn't react. At the start, he never got
  13. fabiomilitello
    After re-reading your original post I see the dog had issues with the .22 blanks, which I had somehow not processed before. I have a question. What gun breaking did you do with this dog before you took it out on a shoot? How long/how many gun breaking sessions? I should have probably elaborated on that. My apologies! His first gun breaking sessions were done last winter, where I would take a starter pistol and fire .22 blanks (shorts). This was done at about 100 yards away by a friend, whilst I would stand with the dog and pet him / praise him if he didn't react. At the start, he never got
  14. fabiomilitello
    After re-reading your original post I see the dog had issues with the .22 blanks, which I had somehow not processed before. I have a question. What gun breaking did you do with this dog before you took it out on a shoot? How long/how many gun breaking sessions? I should have probably elaborated on that. My apologies! His first gun breaking sessions were done last winter, where I would take a starter pistol and fire .22 blanks (shorts). This was done at about 100 yards away by a friend, whilst I would stand with the dog and pet him / praise him if he didn't react. At the start, he neve
  15. fabiomilitello
    It's interesting that you're adamant my dog is no good and might as well retire as a household pet at 18 months old already, without seeing it work at all. He isn't afraid of guns, he has not even made the association between guns and the gunshot sound. He gets nervous around very loud bangs. Whether it's a firework, or a dummy launcher being shot next to him, or a gun. Very loud noises make him uneasy. 22 blanks and banging pots and pans is fine. It's like Casso said, I'm going to be going round in circles forever banging pans around my house and shooting blanks in a field. It's not going to
  16. fabiomilitello
    I'm trying to get your thinking on that with the greatest respect ? My thinking on it is that the young dog is been shown that the sound of the gun means work , its showing what you want him to do , when you want him to do it and if he grasps that everything in the hunting environment becomes a positive in his mind including the gun shot He associates his surroundings when working with the most positive experience he gets while out I can't see what holding him back would do , I'd push him on through always trying to make the last half hour most memorable and positive while out , the end
  17. fabiomilitello
    This is exactly what I was thinking - he wasn't running away or bolting off in a random direction away from the guns when a shot popped off. He just looked very uneasy, kept looking up at me and keeping very close to me. He is also a sensitive dog, which may be why! I plan on just keeping him in the beating line for the time being, I think that with the gunshots going off at more of a distance, and with him working through cover and bramble (he loves it), he will eventually make the connection between doing what he loves - hunting, and hearing gunshots. I don't want to have to leave h
  18. fabiomilitello
    Not sure on this one, definitely not a mole - some people are just too trigger happy!
  19. fabiomilitello
    Sound advice guys, Next shoot date is in 2 weeks, but this one will be a pheasant shoot so the guns will be much further away from us. On the duck day, the guns were very close, virtually standing next to me and the dog - which is why I think he got a bit scared. When he was a pup I used to bang his metal food bowl on the floor whilst he was eating from it, and also clap behind him as he was eating his dinner. I've had him on a starter pistol with .22 shorts, but he is fine with that. At about 100 yards, sometimes for a split second before I send him in for a retrieve, he'll stand tall
  20. fabiomilitello
    Hi all, Just a quick post to see if anyone has any suggestions on how to iron out the early stages of gunshyness in my Labrador. Asher is 18 months, I took him out on the first day of our shooting season at the small shoot I beat on, and as it was a duck only day he was mostly picking up. He picked up every bird I sent him in for, but I noticed he was a bit sketchy every time a gun would go off. The guns were very close, and every time a shot would go off, I'd notice he would crouch very low to the ground and almost crawl. But once he was sent in for a retrieve, his tail would be waggi
  21. fabiomilitello
    Thanks for the helpful replies everyone!
  22. fabiomilitello
    Hi all, Been a while since I last posted. Asher the lab is now 10 months and Gundog training is in full swing. It's going quite well, apart from one hitch. When I throw a dummy and send him after it, he goes out and gets it, I then get on my knees, clapping away with arms wide open, but he always seems to drop the dummy before he gets to me. I tell him to go and get it, and sometimes he runs out for it and gets it, brings it a little closer to where I'm standing, then drops it again! I cannot get my head around how to stop this. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
  23. fabiomilitello
    Had some trouble with Buzzards this year, took about 36 of my poults! Had to throw a few dead rabbit carcasses around the place to draw them away from the rearing pens.
  24. fabiomilitello
    Last Saturday was the releasing day on our shoot for the pheasants and ducks. We put down about a thousand pheasants and 600 ducks. Here's a (badly shot) video of one of the crates of duck poults that went in the pond. https://youtu.be/i1fvooK4H-c
  25. fabiomilitello
    Not sure about all this pompous attitude towards cross bred gundogs! With a cocker x lab, you've got the hunting instincts of a cocker and the retrieving instinct of a labrador. What more could you want? Like the user who first replied said, train it like a gundog and you'll have, no doubt - a brilliant little worker! It always intrigues me how in the gundog community, crossbreds aren't well received, yet in the lurcher and sighthound community, crossbreds are the norm! Good luck with the dog, and get a few pictures up if you can!
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