Hello From Texas, USA

[TXDRAKE]

I have a couple of questions for my fellow Australian retriever owners/trainers and I know that they are probably going to be thought of as stupid, but I will ask them any way. I am wondering how you guys deal with the Crocodiles over there with your retrievers, it seems like being a retriever in Australia would or could be a very hazardous occupation. We have dogs killed here in the states every year by our alligators during our training and hunting sessions and the alligators we have are not anywhere nearly as aggressive as those crocodiles. I also did not know that you guys had duck hunting in Australia as that would also seem to be very risky as well with the Crocodiles. Do you use decoys like us, or hunt geese in agriculture fields like we do, etc? These will probably be stupid questions to you guys but it is very interesting and it is wonderful to know that retrievers are as loved in Australia as they are here and that the retriever sport is alive and well in the Land Down Under. Thanks and hope to hear from Yall soon.

[Mark Sewell]

Hi TXDRAKE

Rest assured that your average American’s view of Australia is way off the mark!! Crocodiles do not inhabit a great proportion of Australia and I’m sure that most Australians haven’t even seen a Crocodile in the wild. The main danger in running our dogs is snakes.
Duck hunting is an activity undertaken in Australia. Here in Victoria, there are no crocs and hunters readily use decoys.

Regards

Mark

[Graeme Parkinson]

Hi TXDRAKE

With a name like that you have to be a keen duck hunter your self. Crocs inhabit the uppermost part of Australia ( the tropical north) and people up there do hunt geese and ducks, I have often wondered about the croc thing myself.
As for those of us down south we don't have geese but we sure have ducks and hunt exactly the way you guys do. Some of my fondest memories are those times spent with my brother hunting ducks. Not all states have duck seasons the conservationists have won the battle in Western Australia and New South Wales.
If you like to e-mail me your mailing address I will send you a couple of magazines that describe duck hunting in Australia (one has an article about hunting up north).

Graeme P

[TXDRAKE]

Very nice to meet the two of you and I understand that our views (including this average American) of Australia have most likely been blown out of context with all of the shows here showing all the wonderful wildlife in your country. I hope that I did not insult anybody. I was just wanting to learn more about your interesting country. I guess it is just like someone saying that all Texans have a ranch and horses and little do they know we all have Retrievers . I have always dreamed of visiting your wonderful and beautiful country. It has been number one on my places to visit before I pass on to that great duck hunting hole in heaven. It seems, by what you guys have told me is that our countries are alot alike. We have the alligators in abundance in the southern part of our country but up north they have none. We also have to be very careful of the snakes here as well but I am sure that they in no way come close to how poisonous your snakes are, but any snake bite is a bad thing. So I guess we are more alike than I knew and as far as being a keen duck hunter lets just say I try hard and I am always trying to figure them out. I would love to recieve those magazines, so I will email my address to you Graeme. I am still looking forward to others responding to this question. Thanks for the info. guys.

Best Regards, Jason Davenport

[Joanne Hagan]

Hi TXDRAKE,

Interesting (slightly amusing ) question. I can tell you that I have a friend in Darwin with GSP's and I have asked her the question about what does she do about the crocs. Darwin is our northern most capital city, where I would expect there'd be a bit of a crocodile issue (despite the nice beaches up there, no one goes swimming). Apart from the crocs, they also have problems with the Box Jelly Fish too (again, found in the northern waters of Australia). Anyway, she tells me she has only ever seen one crocodile the whole time she has lived up there. It was on the beach, and she promptly called her dogs to her and let it be. She does take her dogs & horse swimming along the beach, but I think only at certain times of the year.

Cheers
Joanne

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi Txdrake,


Our native aboriginals have an interesting way of dealing with the crocodile problem in rivers. If they need to cross a river on foot they will send the women and children first, men in the middle and the dogs following last. The theory is that if an attack occurs its more likely to happen when they first enter the water (so the women and children cop it) or as the stragglers cross the water (the dogs). Henceforth minimising the risk to the men.

On the topic of snakes - I was doing some training in Tasmania recently, a small island state with only three species of snake. Unfortunately all three species are venomous with the Tiger Snake I think being amongst the top 5 world's most venomous snakes. The snakes were so bad on the property I used that I had to clear the area on foot before I conducted the training exercises with my dog. It was freezing cold as well so go figure why the damn things insisted on hanging around out in the open

Great to see you on the site and hope we get to chat to you again.

Kirsty

[Prue Winkfield]

Good to have another US participant here - am sure we could ask a lot of - to you - stupid questions about the US as well - some of us think it is all gangsters and hamburger joints! On the subject of snakes - at the trial yesterday - sudden stop to proceedings when a large - over one meter brown snake was discovered next to the game steward on the thrower - apparently it had been lying there beside the log whilst about 10 dogs had run!

[Alan Donovan]

Hi Prue

On the subject of snakes - at the trial yesterday - sudden stop to proceedings when a large - over one meter brown snake was discovered next to the game steward on the thrower - apparently it had been lying there beside the log whilst about 10 dogs had run!

As you know, my dog was at the trial, and after Jason "The Snakecharmer" had lured the snake into the next paddock Numnuts suggested that his method of handling errant reptiles (pick up in the mouth and shake gently until asleep) could have been used instead of the Jason's Negative Reinforcement method.

As a matter of interest, in my experience E-collars have always been difficult to use in snake training due to the neck being difficult to find. But I am still trying to find something to do with them now we don't use them for dog training.

But be warned that if you have spent the previous evening with Gareth imbibing "performance enhancing" substances Numnut's method might not be the way to go - your reactions have to be quicker than the snake.

Cheers - Alan