Huge Day for Ace!!!

A5 Sweet 16

A5 Sweet 16

Well-known member
Oh happy day!!! Ace is 18 months, and I can now say w/ 95% certainty that he understands that "fetch" applies to roosters the same as tennis balls!! His first ALL RETRIEVED limit!! The boy has known much praise in his short life. But none as exuberant & heartfelt as today. I'm so excited!

Finding & flushing are, of course, 2nd nature. These 3 happened to be perfect. The ones where he tracks for a little way, I know he means business, I'm easily able to keep up, & they happen to be roosters. (shooting was pretty good too)😉 These weren't the fastest retrieves, or the longest, or the blindest, or the toughest, or the most robust. 1 was about 10 feet. 1 was about 25 feet. 1 was about 50 feet. Medium to medium-light cover. And he dropped a couple of them once. But the birds came all the way back to me!!! I knew we were getting close the last 3 or 4 hunts. And we made it!!! For me, the greatest thrills of pheasant hunting w/ Ace start now! (SD public land)
20201101_164054.jpg
 
Last edited:
Outstanding, Ace! Congrats A5, you will have a reliable partner for many years to come. Don't you love it when that light bulb lights up?
 
Thanks for the pictures and great story , the dogs , their methods , style , stories of how they develop are some of my favorite reads on this site .

Great post !!!
 
Labs said:
Outstanding, Ace! Congrats A5, you will have a reliable partner for many years to come. Don't you love it when that light bulb lights up?
Click to expand...
Absolutely! Once he gets it a little more solid, I'll have free reign on any bird over any type of terrain, except thin ice. To me there's no bigger thrill in pheasant hunting than those ones where you know your dog is out there after the bird. But you don't really know where. Then a little movement catches your eye & you get that first glimpse of him w/ a mouthful of rooster, trying to make his way back to you. For me, that's a feeling like no other.

My training is what you might call....soft? Sporadic? Certainly not very regimented. But I don't have terribly many expectations & my dogs eventually meet the ones I do have. Last season he started hunting at under 6 months. So we just hunted & didn't worry about retrieving. Right out of the box he was hunting. He didn't know what, but he was hunting. Then after about 2 hunts he had a pretty good idea there were large birds in the grass that were fun to flush. And the pretty ones, he usually got to find again! He located, flushed & found a lot of birds. Then we spent all summer fetching stuff. So the last few hunts we've been working on fetching roosters (in our own little way). I'm pretty happy that it only took a few hunts to realize he could, in fact, out-tough them, pick 'em up & carry 'em. Super happy!

Another somewhat interesting thing I guess I've taken for granted over my years hunting w/ FBESS.....I hunted one day last weekend w/ a friend (which I don't do often) & his GWP. The 2 dogs hunted just fine together & it turned out being a really fun day. Afterward the buddy said, "You know what's really interesting?? How Ace is so totally keyed in on you while he's hunting." I'd never really thought about it that way. I've of course known there's communication going on between us pretty much continually, whether it be visual, a little whistle, listening for each other, sometimes a little, quiet verbal acknowledgement or command. But I guess from the perspective of another hunter, that must be even more evident. It's cool to think about & adds 1 more aspect to my hunts.
 
A5?
Ace and I have been talking. He's really glad he brought you along the way he did. He said something like "took him a while, but finally he got to the level where I decided to reward him for his efforts. You should have seen him! He was as excited as a young puppy! He's come a long way."

Nice, A5, very nice.
 
Kismet said:
A5?
Ace and I have been talking. He's really glad he brought you along the way he did. He said something like "took him a while, but finally he got to the level where I decided to reward him for his efforts. You should have seen him! He was as excited as a young puppy! He's come a long way."

Nice, A5, very nice.
Click to expand...
Kismet, thank you. That's really funny. And all this time I'd have sworn it was the other way around. Ace must've just kept reminding himself, "Patience. He'll get there. Is puppy." Just goes to show though, I can be trained. If not by my wife, at least by a dog.
 
Great seeing Ace having success and getting the final portion of this hunting thing figured out. Find em, flush em, and now retrieve em. I was in your hometown this weekend taking care of some family projects before winter returns so my 2 labs were disappointed that we didn’t get to hunt such a gorgeous fall day. Will be back out to hunt next weekend!
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Absolutely! Once he gets it a little more solid, I'll have free reign on any bird over any type of terrain, except thin ice. To me there's no bigger thrill in pheasant hunting than those ones where you know your dog is out there after the bird. But you don't really know where. Then a little movement catches your eye & you get that first glimpse of him w/ a mouthful of rooster, trying to make his way back to you. For me, that's a feeling like no other.

My training is what you might call....soft? Sporadic? Certainly not very regimented. But I don't have terribly many expectations & my dogs eventually meet the ones I do have. Last season he started hunting at under 6 months. So we just hunted & didn't worry about retrieving. Right out of the box he was hunting. He didn't know what, but he was hunting. Then after about 2 hunts he had a pretty good idea there were large birds in the grass that were fun to flush. And the pretty ones, he usually got to find again! He located, flushed & found a lot of birds. Then we spent all summer fetching stuff. So the last few hunts we've been working on fetching roosters (in our own little way). I'm pretty happy that it only took a few hunts to realize he could, in fact, out-tough them, pick 'em up & carry 'em. Super happy!

Another somewhat interesting thing I guess I've taken for granted over my years hunting w/ FBESS.....I hunted one day last weekend w/ a friend (which I don't do often) & his GWP. The 2 dogs hunted just fine together & it turned out being a really fun day. Afterward the buddy said, "You know what's really interesting?? How Ace is so totally keyed in on you while he's hunting." I'd never really thought about it that way. I've of course known there's communication going on between us pretty much continually, whether it be visual, a little whistle, listening for each other, sometimes a little, quiet verbal acknowledgement or command. But I guess from the perspective of another hunter, that must be even more evident. It's cool to think about & adds 1 more aspect to my hunts.
Click to expand...
..."keyed in on you"...nice compliment and astute observation. The 10-yr old Golden (aka hunt machine) is far from keying in on me - just the way it is. Poor training? Probably. He gets nicked often as he likes hunt by himself. Strong prey drive combined with male hard hardheadedness.

Brent, you're fortunate to have that keying- in with Ace.
 
That's awesome A5. Ace looks interested in something while you shoot the selfie. Nice looking dog. Ellie was about the same age when the light bulb went off with the retrieving skills. The damn time change relegates any hunting to mainly the weekends with an occasional vacation day. All week long I find myself counting the "sleeps" to Saturday and Sunday praying for a reasonable forecast. The cool thing is both Ellie and Willow the pup do too! Rob nailed it with his comment.
 
I know the feeling A5, this past trip to SD i duck hunted as well. Bella made a great water retrieve on a bluebill i dumped. My buddies lab got his bluebill and ran up to my kennel got Bella and walked her down the shore. No blind retrieve work mind you. I threw two shells well short of the duck, but i knew if she saw the splash she would then see the duck. This was about a 70 yd retrieve.....i was one proud owner! You have a good one in Ace and your work with him is paying off!
Hope this link works to see her retreive
https://www.facebook.com/127855270948099/posts/1241319662934982
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Oh happy day!!! Ace is 18 months, and I can now say w/ 95% certainty that he understands that "fetch" applies to roosters the same as tennis balls!! His first ALL RETRIEVED limit!! The boy has known much praise in his short life. But none as exuberant & heartfelt as today. I'm so excited!

Finding & flushing are, of course, 2nd nature. These 3 happened to be perfect. The ones where he tracks for a little way, I know he means business, I'm easily able to keep up, & they happen to be roosters. (shooting was pretty good too)😉 These weren't the fastest retrieves, or the longest, or the blindest, or the toughest, or the most robust. 1 was about 10 feet. 1 was about 25 feet. 1 was about 50 feet. Medium to medium-light cover. And he dropped a couple of them once. But the birds came all the way back to me!!! I knew we were getting close the last 3 or 4 hunts. And we made it!!! For me, the greatest thrills of pheasant hunting w/ Ace start now! (SD public land)
View attachment 439
Click to expand...
Ace is gorgeous.
 
A5 nice job being so patient, you are on your way with Ace.
What are the specs on your gun, getting the itch for an older sweet 16 below 7 lbs. tom
 
Tukudu said:
A5 nice job being so patient, you are on your way with Ace.
What are the specs on your gun, getting the itch for an older sweet 16 below 7 lbs. tom
Click to expand...
Tom, thanks. My Sweet 16 is 1991 (Miroku built) w/ 28" barrel & is NOT all that sweet when it comes to weight. I have it written down at home, so I can't remember exactly, but it's just at or barely below 8 lbs. But man it fits & shoots nice. I don't know that you'll find an old style Sweet 16 under 7 lbs, regardless of age. But the new style A5's of course they claim are under 6. Pretty close to my 1929 model 12 16 gauge. I love to hunt with it too, but I don't very much. It's a warm-weather gun & I don't shoot it that great. I can't fit my cold-weather gloves in that small trigger guard, it just doesn't feel as good as the Sweet 16, I prefer the safety behind the trigger, & after so many years of shooting autos & o/u's, shucking that pump isn't as 2nd nature to me as it used to be. All sorts of valid excuses for missing. ;)
 
Last edited:
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Tom, thanks. My Sweet 16 is 1991 (Miroku built) w/ 28" barrel & is NOT all that sweet when it comes to weight. I have it written down at home, so I can't remember exactly, but it's just at or barely below 8 lbs. But man it fits & shoots nice.
Click to expand...
My A5 20 - 26" is about 8# - and also shoots well. I've reconfigured the gun, due to an arm disability, however, it didn't get any lighter, after the alterations.
 
One more quick question. Is there a particular year or range of years that is preferred on the Sweet 16. I have a Franchi SL in 16 guage that I really like for longer stints in the field but I keep looking at the A5.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top