Rusty at the October 21 Hunt Test, where he earned his Junior Hunter title
Rusty, whose baby name was Blueberry, was the first born and initially the biggest,
weighing a whopping 21 ounces at birth. Hilfy really looked relieved when he was finally out!
He was the first to open his eyes and see the world, at 10.5 days old on Sunday
morning, August 14. He is an outstanding hunt prospect, very birdy with a very strong retrieving drive. He likes water
and has plenty of energy. On top of that, he loves people and is a particularly gorgeous puppy.
He's gone to live with Greg and Lauren Young of Nashville, Tennessee where he is Greg's hunting companion and
shares the limelight with Greg's older, semi-retired dog Chase.
News from the Youngs, 2008
January 22, 2008
Just wanted to give you a heads up on Rusty's first hunting season. Dove season was a lot of fun.
Rusty picked up a bunch of doves. The duck season has been slow for us, but Rusty has done a very good job.
His blind manners are superb and many buddies have commented that he is a great dog to hunt with.
We got into a few ducks early at Reelfoot. Our lake blind was tucked away in some of the toughest
retrieving mess I have ever seen. If the ducks didn't fall in the open pool, then all of the dogs
(including a MH dog) had a very tough time bringing anything back. Rusty held his own and got out
there with a lot of heart and drive. He picked up a few ducks in the open pool and worked hard to
bring ducks out of the mess. January has been extremely slow at the Reelfoot blind, and I simply
have not been able to get out as much as I want. We had a slow hunt one weekend in the Missouri
rice fields, but Rusty was able to pick up a couple of ducks and his first speckled belly goose.
At another slow hunt on a farm pond Rusty picked up his first snow goose (and a few pigeons since
it was a slow day...) I am heading to Reelfoot this weekend to hunt our lease field (the blind is
probably iced out). Expectations are very low for anything, but we need to wind things up so I
figured I would try one more time. Although I am disappointed that we did not have more successful
hunts this duck season, I am very pleased with how Rusty performed.
News About Rusty, 2007
October 21, 2007
I'm pleased to announce that we have a new title holder in
the group -- Rusty won his Junior Hunter title today with his fourth pass at
the East Tennessee Retriever Club hunt test over in Spring City, TN. We
were particularly pleased that we (breeders Karen and Jim) were able to go watch him on his title
run!
It was a terrific pleasure for us to be able to see Rusty work, as we
hadn't seen any of the puppies in person since they walked out the door at
7 weeks -- and I am very proud of how hard working AND BEAUTIFUL this boy is!
Greg says about the title: This weekend was a lot of fun...a little nerve-racking but still
a ton of fun. I think this is a great breeding and thanks go to Karen & Jim and Lori Jolly.
Also, Marty Kurzendoerfer [owner of older brother Beau JH. actually
handled and passed Rusty in the first two legs of the Junior title in Middle TN the weekend before.
Finally, and not to put out an advertisement, but Jody Ware also deserves a ton of credit for
Rusty's progress. I have been extremely pleased with how Jody has trained Rusty and recommend him highly.
Ready for duck season!
September 10, 2007.
Rusty is doing very well right now. Not
sure of his exact height and weight - I'd guess around 60 lbs. He is
slimmed down right now from training. I'd say he will range between
60-70 pounds.
Rusty had his first dove hunt opening weekend and did exceptionally
well. He picked up at least a dozen birds opening weekend, and a couple
more this weekend. Most of the retrieves were fairly simple marks
within 50 yards. I think he will be an very good hunting dog. Still
have some work to do on the transitional training, but I am looking
forward to duck season.
August 6, 2007. Rusty's training has finally taken that next step we have been
waiting for. Will be picking him up soon.
June 6, 2007. The trainer says Rusty is coming along nicely. He is in very good spirits
and I should get him back in the next month or so. Here is a picture of
him from a month or so ago.
News from the Youngs, March 2007
Here is Rusty at approximately 6 months - his first snow experience.
This picture was taken just before Rusty went to train with Jody Ware in February.
I have been happy with Jody. His patience and ability to train Rusty as
an individual dog - not just shuttle him through a set program - is what
I was looking for in a trainer.
I plan to visit Jody and Rusty next weekend to see how things are going
and to get some training myself. I will keep you posted.
News from the Youngs, December 2006
We are doing great. Went to the Lorie Jolly hunt training seminar in Kentucky in November and it was pretty awesome. I met
Marty and Beau and enjoyed hanging out.
Rusty is progressing very well. This morning he was doing 60-70 yard
single retrieves. He also loves retrieving the ducks I bring home from
hunting. He has actually been in the field with me a couple of times
though I was not really hunting. I just wanted to let him experience
the rice muck, riding on four wheelers and big gunfire (the gunfire was
from my hunting buddies about 100 yards away though). Obedience is
getting better and better with each session, but he is not rock solid
yet (which is just fine at this point). I am going to start testing
just how obedient he is by adding new distractions, etc. He went
swimming a couple of times when it was warmer, and with the warmer
weather this weekend we will probably try to find some place to swim
again. I had also planned to take him to the skeet range to get him
really comfortable around gunfire. Right now I am planning to send
Rusty to a pro trainer in February. Hopefully all of this preliminary
stuff will make his job much easier. All in all, he is a lot of fun to be around. On the bad side, he has
destroyed my backyard - it looks like moon craters out there!
I'm MOSTLY good!
Family Portrait, with Rusty & older pal Chase
News from the Youngs, October 2006
10/23/06: Rusty is doing good so far. He is over 20 pounds now and has moved up
to a bigger crate. We went to the vet for shots last weekend - vet says
he's healthy. He is getting darker and even has a brownish red colored
patch down the middle of his back near his hind legs and tail. As far as
training, I have been keeping things fun and lighthearted. Here is an
update of things so far.
Housetraining / Obedience:
He is housetrained for the most part, although he has an occasional
accident. He is sleeping through the night. He knows SIT, HERE, DOWN and is learning
HEEL. He also knows KENNEL, but sometimes ignores me so I have to lead
him to the front of his crate where he will then walk in on the KENNEL
command. He knows the SIT WHISTLE and HERE WHISTLE. At times he is a
little loose on all of these commands, and I will probably start to
"formalize" the obedience over the next month or so.
Retrieving:
He is play retrieving a paint roller in a hallway in my house. I
position myself between the fall and his crate so that when he tries to
take the roller back to his kennel, he has to run in to me. Lots of
praise. I tried some yard/field retrieving, but if he is not on a check
cord he likes to prance around and chew the bumper rather than returning
to me.
Socialization / Exploring:
I have tried to do something new with him every weekend. He does fine
around other dogs, has experienced many different terrains, and has even
ridden on a 4-wheeler. I wanted to really introduce him
to water before it got too cold. For the last two weekends temps have
been in the 70's so I have taken him to a small, slow stream at a nearby
farm. We would walk around for a while to get him warmed up and then
head to the stream. The first weekend he just splashed around and was a
little apprehensive. This weekend he took the plunge and found his
sea-legs for about 15 seconds in a deeper section of the stream.
(Having an older dog has helped tremendously with the swimming and
exploring new terrain.) He has been exposed to small gunfire (starter
pistol) and reacted just fine - basically looked up and then went back
to his exploring. Next weekend will be a lot of people socialization as
we are taking him to a college football game tailgate with my wife's
family in MS. Not going to the game, just want him to be in a setting
with a whole bunch of people. Other "socialization" goals include a
boat ride at some point and decoys.
Birdiness:
He remains interested in feathers and went to town on an old beat-up
turkey fan at the farm this weekend. He also found a baby bird on the
sidewalk while we were walking one day by my house. He was on the leash and
all of a sudden lunged and pounced on something. I pried the bird from
his mouth and then tossed it a couple of feet away. He lunged and
grabbed it again. After one more time, there was not much left to the
baby bird.
