Duck dog concealment

I’m sure this has been touched on but…..after building a nose platform for the pooch in the boat blind is it necessary for overhead cover? I have a very young yellow lab( wears camo vest) that has been doing ok but blind water retrieves are not our strong point yet open lines of sight would be nice. In a nut shell, does an exposed dog spook ducks? As far as ladders, who makes the best or what are the best designs on boat entry? Any tips would be great, the boys and I have had a blast with our floating blind but still a lot of bugs to work out

So far I have just had mine sit on the front deck. She is also a yellow lab and seems to blend well with the cattails. Not sure if I will do it this season, but will probably make a little cover to go over her spot on the bow. I have not made a ramp for her yet. So far we have hunted in shallow enough water that she can just jump up onto the bow.
DT

In my experience, dogs don’t spook ducks or geese. I’ve hunted water and field and I’m always surprised how birds will come in with dog sitting upright right near the dekes. Keep them down as long as you can, but don’t worry too much about it IMO.

ET

I agree. My black lab, with a vest, hasn’t had an issue yet. I built her a set of stairs out of pvc pipe and taught her to use them.

I used 1″ pvc and ply wood screwed down with 1 1/4 sheet rock screws. Then I had some marine carpet left over so I threw down some glue and stapled it to the plywood.

So far it’s worked great she’s a bigger dog and it supports her fine!

I’ll see if I still have the pick I used to design it off of. I don’t have the semantics any longer.

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This is the only other pic I have. This is 75% complete. Hope it’s a help.

Tim

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We have always hunted with our dogs up on the front. Our blinds are fixed and have 3 doors to cover front, middle and back. Leaving 2 openings for hunters, and we leave 12″ right up front for the dog so sit and look out. When dog is bored they lay under front door. I don’t think you will have a problem if your dog is still while ducks are coming in. Sometimes on NO WIND days if the dog gets excited while ducks are coming in and moves a lot they can flair ducks. We also don’t use any kind of ladder. We hunt in mostly shallow water. If hunting in deep water it doesn’t take them long to figure out to just put front paws on boat and we will pull them in by the collar. Every dog I have pulled into a boat has instinctively pushed back against me when I grabbed the collar and they come in with little effort.

On the east coast they have a dog called a nova Scotia tolling retriever. It runs back and forth on the shoreline to gain the attention and curiosity of the ducks and bring them in.