Arrow Retrievers!

[NDTerminator]

Thought you might get a kick out of this.  As a fun little task aside from their regular training, I trained both my labs to find and retrieve arrows.  Josie (the yellow) loves to find arrows, but little Sunny (the black) has refined the arrow retrieve to an art form.  The only problem is the frozen lab spit on the shafts!...

Stump (or more accurately, tumbleweed) shooting out by the barn.  Note the focus of both dogs...

   

Tumbleweed terminated, Sunny is sent on the retrieve.  Josie honors pretty but wants that retrieve bad!

     

Sunny on her way back with the arrow...

   

Another shot and I send both dogs.  A little competition encourages drive...

   

[knife river]

Great stuff!    

[Voodoofire1]

That is awesome!, my dog just wanted to catch them in mid-air, made for some very interesting moments, as he waited just out of sight and made a mad dash and leap,I like your way much better!

[mike g]

Very nice....
At least with the frozen druel all ya got to do is break it off....No mess.
Do they allways want to pick it by the fletching....?
Do they find them under the snow also....

[cdi3d]

That is so cool - Would be great for bunny hunting -
Mike

[NDTerminator]

Yes, they can find them by nose under the snow or grass. Josie really excels at finding arrows lost under grass, field decoy stakes forgotten in a ploughed field, empty hulls, you name it.

The reason Sunny is carrying the arrow back by the fletching is because that's all that was sticking out of the tumbleweed.  It was lodged pretty solidly in the dirt after passing through the dreaded bush, so she tugged it out by the back of the arrow.  She usually holds it in the middle, as they are taught to do with birds.

They deliver the arrow to hand, the same as with birds...

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Thats Sweet. I trained my Jack Russel to Tree Squirrel but he dont think much about an arrow, unless its got some blood on it. LOL

 Congrats on some Excellent Dog Work  

[The Whittler]

I can see who gets all the exercise when stump shooting lol. Thanks for the pics. they are great. Alan

[Bishop]

Jon, that is so cool. Do you think it would work with my Bassett?

[Eric Krewson]

I no longer have any dogs but when I did it was labs. I trained all of them to retrieve arrows, with good dogs that takes about a minute. My first lab was so good I could throw a small pebble into 15 ft of water and she would dive down and bring me that pebble. I sent her on a half mile retrieve on a wounded duck one time, 45 minutes later she was back with the duck.(still very much alive). She never failed, never. She was too much of a hard charger to send on a wounded deer trail so I never trained her for it.

My second lab was a good retriever, slower and just right to train to blood trail deer and find arrows.