my dog the arrow hunter

[jayman448]

i live in the central parts of BC Canada where winters can dip below negative forty C. the snow gets deep and i get cabin fever so i practice and loose arrow after arrow in the snow bank thinking "ill get them when it thaws". as it thaws i find an arrow here and there, but my little Australian shepherd border collie seems to have a better eye than i do. lately i find little gifts around the yard of arrows long since forgotten, dragged out by a proud pup. this would be great if he did not eat the fletchings, chew the nocks, and snap anything that isn't aluminum.  if only i could teach him search and rescue rather than search and destroy... XD silly mutt!

[Eric Krewson]

I trained my last lab to "find the arrow" just by first just throwing an arrow out in front of her and giving her the command, I would give her a treat when she found it. I progressed to hiding an arrow with just a little showing and finally pushed completely under the grass. It only took her an hour or so to learn the new command, after that she never missed finding a lost arrow.

[jayman448]

yea... but this is a dog who wont even fetch XD. throw the ball and he looks at you like " you go get it!"

[Eric Krewson]

You don't want your dog to fetch and arrow, only find it. My lab would start to dig for it at which point I would praise her and pull the arrow out myself. When your dog retrieves and arrow for you there is often not much arrow left after all the chewing.