This morning we made the trek to Thurman, Iowa to observe the Heartland NAVHDA Chapter’s June Training Day. Up to this point in our dog training/child-rearing adventure that is life, we never had the time to explore NAVHDA in-depth. Charles was always actively involved in the Pheasant’s Forever Chapter and skeet league; that always seemed to be enough. He seems to be interested in getting Sam into doing some NAVDHA training after observing today. I don’t think I will be getting involved (outside of working with Sam at home) until we add a new female pup to the pack within the next couple of years.
The training session was split into two groups, puppy and adult dog. NAVDHA training at the pup level is the same as the instinctive hunting method we’ve been using to train our dogs when they were pups. I met this adorable 9 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy from Grand Island, Nebraska and it was love at first sight!
Cute 9 week old pup from Grand Island, NE
The first thing the trainer did was give the dog the scent.
Griff pup getting the quail scent
He turned the quail loose and she was after it!
Giving chase
Meanwhile, the adult dog group was practicing their field skills.
A brace of German Shorthair Pointers
Bracco Italiano taking the field
Charles observed the adult dog group for the entire two hours, while I only made a brief foray into this crowd. I mainly observed the puppy training and tried to keep my three kids out of the way of the whole scene. Overall, it was a good experience and something we feel will make a good addition to our training regimen.
Bluestem Kennels 
Jul 16, 2010 @ 04:22:48
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!