Backwater Outdoors TV field host and gun-dog segment host, Dwayne Padgett (Avery Pro-Staffer), gives a valuable tip for dogs starting off on dog stands. This tip is important for young dog trainers as well as the dog itself. Dwayne does a great job of breaking down the tips for all of us to understand. As always, thanks for all of the great tips and info Dwayne.

Rick McCurley of R&B Outdoors, as well as a field host for Backwater Outdoors TV, gives you a waterfowl migration report for the country for the week of December 8th. We look forward to having Rick on again in the coming weeks to continue to give you the latest migration trends for many species of waterfowl in all four flyways.

Take a look at one of our stock gun-dog training tip of the week videos. This video features Avery Pro-Staffer and Backwater Outdoors TV field host, Dwayne Padgett, discussing the importance of obedience when raising a young pup.

This was a show featuring best of pieces from previous Backwater Outdoors TV shows. The featured interview was from the Lakeland Big Buck Expo 2009, Johnny D and Capt. Rodney Ristau spoke with country music singer and writer, Rhett Akins. Our gun-dog field host and Avery Pro-Staffer, Dwayne Padgett, gave us a gun-dog training tip of the week that focused on dog-stands. Finally, Rick McCurley, of R&B Outdoors, gave us a nationwide migration report for waterfowl.

This was a show featuring best of pieces from previous Backwater Outdoors TV shows. Featured guests were Tammy Sapp, Marty Greiner with a gun-dog tip of the week, and Rob Roberts with a Shotgunning Tip of the Week. Check out the video below!

By Howard Altman | Tampa Tribune

Everywhere Mike Jernigan goes, Brittani, his 51/2-year-old goldador, is sure to follow.

Around his St. Petersburg house. To classes at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus. On airplanes.

Jernigan, 32, is blind. He’s had reconstructive surgery on his right hand and his left knee. He relies on the golden retriever/Labrador mix to help him live independently.

His life changed in a flash on Aug. 22, 2004. The then-25-year-old Marine lance corporal was riding in a Humvee’s machine gun turret in the Iraqi town of Mahmudiyah when the vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. His forehead was crushed inward. In addition to losing both eyes, he had traumatic brain injury.

The next 16 months of his life were spent in and out of hospitals, with 30 surgeries in the first year alone.

Even after the hospitalizations and the surgeries, Jernigan was forced to rely on others to get around.

Enter Southeastern Guide Dogs, a Palmetto company providing assistance and companion animals for the blind and others.

Some of Jernigan’s friends contacted Bobby Newman, a Southeastern Guide Dogs board member, to tell him about a wounded Marine who needed a dog.

That was in 2006. And thanks to Newman and Southeastern Guide Dogs, a program called Paws for Patriots was born.

The program provides dogs to vets like Jernigan who need one to get around and for companionship. So far, the program has placed more than 100 dogs.

The program provides professionally trained guide dogs to visually impaired veterans and companion therapy dogs to veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

Southeastern Guide Dogs has also placed facility therapy dogs at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to spread encouragement to soldiers as they recover.

The dogs are not cheap.

It costs about $60,000 to breed, raise and train the animals, according to Southeastern Guide Dogs spokeswoman Jennifer Bement. The recipients pay nothing, she said, and the program receives no government funding, relying completely on donors and volunteers.

Bement said the dogs are Labradors, golden retrievers, a mix of the two called a goldador, and smooth coat collies, “which are like Lassie with short hair.”

They all come from Southeastern Guide Dogs’ breeding colonies and are chosen because “they are all working breeds and are hard-wired already to serve us.”

The animals are trained from birth, Bement said.”They are handled immediately and socialized aggressively, so when they are acting as someone’s eyes, they are completely unflappable.”

Half the dogs wash out of the program, Bement said. Even the first dog in the Paws for Patriots program.

In 2006, Jernigan received a dog named Kera, but she couldn’t correct a flaw in Jernigan’s gait that resulted from his surgeries — one that he didn’t even know about until he had a guide dog.

“Before, I had to lean on people and didn’t know,” he said.

In April 2007, he got Brittani. The two have been tight since.

“Even more than just being a guide dog, and a mechanism for safe movement, she is a companion as well,” Jernigan said. “When I am feeling down or low, she is right there with me. Petting the dog helps quite a bit.”

To help defray the cost of the dogs, the Old Town Hog Chapter, motorcycle enthusiasts associated with Harley-Davidson of Brandon, has been staging an annual poker run. Today will be the group’s fifth.

So far, they have raised more than $50,000, according to event coordinator Rick Vincent.

Registration for the poker run starts at 8 a.m. today at Harley-Davidson of Brandon, 9841 Adamo Drive. The first bike leaves at 9 a.m. and the last bike comes back at 2 p.m.

In addition to the poker run, there will be raffles, a silent auction, food, a swap meet and other events. For more information, contact Vincent at (813) 625-1969 or Cal Reimann, event director, at (813) 760-4757.

The poker run is not the only fundraising effort on behalf of the program.

Retired Lt. Col. Kathy Champion, who received one of the dogs, has gotten together a team of at least 90 women to run the Women’s Half Marathon of St. Petersburg with her on Sunday. This group includes three other visually impaired women, a number of staff and volunteers from Southeastern Guide Dogs, women from the military’s intelligence community, U.S. Special Operations Command and even an Olympian, according to Bement.

At the end of the race, Champion will be reunited with her guide, Angel, and greeted at the finish by a number of guide dogs-in-training.

Champion is trying to raise $2 million for Paws for Patriots, Bement said.

By Dan Bedell

Joe invited me to bowhunt with him on Wednesday, November 11th. Prior to that, a buddy stopped by my shop and told me about some New York based deer scents he’d been using that had been very effective for him. He suggested I use some of their scent the next time I went hunting, since the rut wasn’t fully underway.

Like a lot of hunters, I’ve had mixed results with scents, and I’ve never been a real big user of them. But, I decided to take my buddies advice. I stopped by and picked up a bottle just before I went hunting

When I got to Joe’s place, I put some scent on a drag line and made a trail as I walked to my stand. I hadn’t been sitting more than 35 or 40 minutes when I saw a buck – about a 130 class 10 pointer – following my scent trail, nose to the ground.

It was coming in from right to left. When it got about 42 yards out, the buck veered off the trail and stopped behind a thorn bush. I decided to take the shot, but he wouldn’t move. After what seemed like a long standoff, I tried to send an arrow through the little opening in the bush into his vitals. My arrow hit a small branch, deflected and stuck in the ground in front of the deer. He immediately ran back to where he had come.

A friend of mine, who was in a stand about 150 yards up the trail ended up shooting the buck. When all was said and done, I was kind of glad I’d missed because the rack had a couple of broken tines and didn’t carry much mass.

Later, I asked Joe if we could hunt the following weekend, and he invited me back for Saturday afternoon, November 14th.

On my way to the property, I picked up another bottle of scent, this time estrus doe. The rut was starting to kick in with a little more intensity.

I made another drag line going to my stand. When I reached it, I also set out a few scented wicks.

I got settled in around 2:30 PM and did a loud rattling sequence. I followed up with a few grunts. Ten minutes later, I heard something coming from my left. It was thick that way, so I couldn’t see much.

Finally I saw a buck walking through the woods about 60 to 70 yars out – this time from my left to my right. When he got to the ATV trail I walked in on, he immediately put his nose to the ground and started coming toward me. I couldn’t believe it!

The buck went a short distance, broke off the main trail and stopped behind a large oak tree. There was a small opening in the front of it. Beyond that was the same thorn bush that the other buck had stood behind three days earlier. I planned to shoot the deer as soon as it hit the opening.

I normally hunt with a compact hunting bow. However, this hunt I decided to use a more forgiving bow in case I had a longer opportunity.

I came to full draw for the 42 yards shot. As I drew, the bow’s bottom limb hit the edge of my stand, making a loud PING! Briefly distracted, I looked down. When I looked back up, the buck had already stepped through the opening and was standing behind the thorn bush.

I had a good shot at his vitals, so I let the arrow go. But when it got to him, it deflected slightly and went forward into his neck.

The buck ran and stopped about 90 yards away. I tried to grunt and lure him back, but he wouldn’t respond.

After the buck disappeared, I got down and went over to where he had been standing. The bush and ground was covered in blood. I called Joe and told him I’d shot a good buck. He said he would get the four-wheeler and meet me in a few minutes. I followed an unbelievable blood trail for about 400 yards, Then Joe arrived and we continued on for another 100 yards.

I looked up and saw the dead buck against a tree that had been rubbed raw of it’s bark. I’m not sure if the rub was the bucks handiwork or not. We walked up to the buck and couldn’t believe how big and massive the rack was.

His eyes were glazed over, his tongue was hanging out, and he was motionless. We stood talking for about a minute, then I reached down and grabbed the huge antlers like I’d done many times before.

To our amazement, the buck immediately tried to stand up. I held on to the antlers and yelled for Joe to put another arrow in him. After what seemed like minutes – in truth only a minute or so – Joe was able to put an arrow through the deer’s heart, ending the drama.

In a lifetime of hunting whitetails, I’d never had anything like that happen.

Dan’s 17-point, Orleans County, non-typical goes into the official New York State Record Book at 183-2 B&C and grossed a whopping 195-1 B&C.

Hunting Segment: Alex Rutledge of Rutt and Strutt Outfitters joins Chuck on the phone to discuss deer season and tactics to help the average hunter bag that monster buck.

Gun Dog Segment: Avery Pro-Staffer Dwayne Padgett talks to us on camera about basic obedience for a young dog.

Chuck gives the listeners a shotgunning tip of the week.

Backwater Talk Segment: Chuck and guest co-host Doug Dort talk about Saturday’s opener for the first phase of Florida Duck season and discuss this year’s migration.

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The owner of Ure-a-Duck Decoys, Tracy Blake, joins Johnny D and Chuck Echenique for a special insight on the fabulous products that Tracy and his team put out. I can’t wait to use a Ure-a-Duck Decoy on my next hunt, and we invite ya’ll to listen to this great video and do the same.

Hunting Segment:   Sean Mann of Sean Mann Outdoors joins Johnny and Chuck for his 25^th Anniversary celebration from the Easton, MD Waterfowl Festival where it all started for Sean.

Gun Dog Segment: Rhett Riddle, BWOR TV Field Host and Pro-staff  Avery Outdoors, shares a Gun Dog Training Tip of the Week.

Backwater Talk Segment: Tracy Blake, Owner,  Ure-a-Duck Decoys visits with the Backwater Crew on his company, products, and his hot new motion and decoy lines for 2010 and what’s next for 2011.

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