Colorado Parks and Wildlife is proposing to change regulations involving dog training. These changes will be discussed at the September Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in Steamboat and would be finalized at the Commission meeting in Yuma in November.
The key changes appear to be:
- You will need to be actively training your dog for hunting. “Exercising” and “conditioning” will not qualify as training. The language of the regulation does not specify whether training for “search” and “range” is covered.
- Permits will be issued on an individual basis, though permit holders may train with up to 9 friends. “Subpermittees” are eliminated. If you will be releasing birds on your own, you’ll need to have your own permit.
- The annual reporting requirement is dropped.
I’ve posted below the letter from CPW outlining the proposed changes, and the actual language in Chapter 8 of state wildlife regs.
While the changes may appear to be minor, it’s unfortunate CPW did not reach out to us or to any other dog club that I’ve spoken with in the past few months to notify us about potential changes to dog training rules, let alone solicit input.
We will seek to get some clarity from CPW on the impact of these regulations. In order that the RMC chapter can best represent our shared interests, let’s please get information before we respond to CPW or the Commission, and we’ll take it from there.
Thanks and stay tuned,
Theo Stein
President
RMC NAVHDA
Dogs with Altitude