I have lurked here for a couple of years but have just recently joined the forum. I am not a fisherman, does that ban me immediately? I do love ponds however and do a LITTLE dog training of retrievers. Basically a technical pond or retriever training pond is a pond that has a lot of points, islands and channels. Basically the object is to send the dog to retrieve the bird and have them go to the bird and back on a straight line while having to go from land to water to land to water, etc on the way there and back. I can post some pictures of ponds but while many are very functional they have no form. I would like to build a pond that looks good when not being trained on but funtions well when it is. By the way, if it looks good and I need an excuse to just look at it, I might take up fishing.
Thanks, Don
dwiggens, welcome to the forum! You're in the right place! This isn't about fishing, it's about ponds---they just kinda go together. I can't imagine why a training pond can't look good. Ponds are only limited by our available space and budget! Points, channels, etc happen to make great fishing ponds as well.
Don -- welcome to Pond Boss.
Rainman stated it well.
I gotta believe there are more of our active participants who use ponds like you do. We'd love to hear a little more about your pond uses.
Diversity is good. Us northerners would never know a tank from a pond, nor a perch from a perch, if it weren't for our Texas friends. Heck, it was right there in Edmond, OK that I learned what you use cutting horses for -- and it has nothing to do with mowing hay.
Ken
Welcome. We do have some threads on training ponds (tech. ponds). And several dog experts.
I remember a pretty good thread going about a pond for training dogs, but Theo put the whammy on it when he said the aerial view looked like a tanning spa for mummies. The guy cut out and never posted again.
Oh, and btw....I almost forgot...
This post explains and shows links to pond designs that I would be interested in.
Is there any special things to keep in mind if someone were going to build a pond like those shown in the links?
These ponds may have a very irregular shoreline.
Some of the channels between points may only be 10 to 15 feet wide. What kind of depth would you aim for in such a narrow channel of water? How would you compact the bottom with such a narrow area?
Another consideration would be keeping the points of land low enough and water high enough that you don't lose sight of the dog when they re-enter the water.
It is probably best that the banks be fairly steep, making it black and white to the dog whether they are in the water or on land.
I'm in the very early stages of learning what it would take to make a technical pond a reality.
Those links are right in my back yard, so to speak, but they all appear to go to the same location in Pittsburg, Kansas. I don't see any markers or anything on the maps to designate ponds of interest.
John, the google maps also show my area in the D/FW metroplex.
The link takes you to your home position on google maps.IE they take me to my house.
Have worked a lot with ponds that are designed for dog training.
The land owner was on hand all the time----mostly on a spot where he could overlook the work. He and his wife have at least ten ponds set up only for training.
Soft sloops --low dams---- points and water coves everywhere'
He has people on his property everyday training.
They are amateurs and very willing to meet new people and share their knowledge.
Some of the most beautiful technical water I've ever seen is right here in NE OK. Derek is always open to visitors and I believe the Ozark AKC club is hosting a hunt test on his grounds next month.
http://www.theretrieveracademy.com/grounds.html