So we had a great time up north visiting the family. Junebug and Elvis love going to the farm, where there are tons of things to do and places to go. They are natural farm dogs, going with you everywhere, and happy to come in and nap when the work is done.

My parents have three dogs, one of them a hefty black lab (Bug--yeah, I know it's wierd to have two!) that is either very poorly socialized or just plain slow of mind. Mom plans to visit during pheasant hunting season, and was all gung-ho to train the lab to retrieve birds. Well, let's just say that this dog has never been consistently worked with, and has a long, LONG way to go to be a bird dog. She doesn't even have basic commands down. And though she likes to fetch, she simply refused to fetch the dummy with the pheasant scent on it. Not sure how she got so picky all of a sudden, since a rotten deer head was good enough to chew on all last winter.

For the fun of it, I thought I'd try some of the training methods on Junebug and Elvis. June loves to fetch, and the games would be fun for them to try. First, I threw the dummy for them a couple of times, and got them excited to chase, chew and retrieve it. Soon, they were happily playing fetch with the dummy and even giving it a good shake when they first picked it up. And I should mention that the dummy was huge, 4" thick and 8" long. They could barely get their mouths around it, but they did, and they loved taking turns hauling it back to me.

Once we knew they would fetch it, I would drag it to a place out of sight to see if they would sniff it out. Mom would hold them, and when it was placed, they were let go. "Keep looking" is the phrase I use for Junebug when she can't find her ball or a toy, and she goes into serious search mode. She quickly found the dummy the three times I hid it and brought it back to me.

My mom was having a blast, saying "forget the lab, I want the corgis to hunt with us!" As much fun as that would be, I don't quite think they're ready for the mayhem that is pheasant hunting in SD, and I'm not sure I want to hear the teasing for bringing to short-legged herding dogs out to retrieve pheasants. And let's not forget that the pheasants need to be successfully hunted before they can be retrieved!