My Dog has Graduated!!!!

J

JHoch00

Member
So forgive me for my pride... but it is for my dog, Dallas, not myself;)

4 years ago I bought a duck hunting lab from a kennel in Alabama. She proved to be a great hunting companion... if not a trial type dog. Trained her to sit at the blind, stay at me heel when walking, etc...

Then about 3 years ago I got into pheasant hunting. I realized I had no command for "Go" when she stayed at heel as she was trained... and she had never smelled a pheasant in her life, so even when she did range, she had no clue what she was supposed to be doing. However, she retrieved well, and stayed within gun range (my pet peeve...) and so was a part of every pheasant hunt.

However... over a few years, I have been blessed to hunt her with a number of other great pheasant dogs... and slowly she got the idea of what she was supposed to do.

OK... enough intro... my story.

Sunday I was out on the last field of the day, a big CRP corner... I wanted to go right, but Dallas kept going left... so I followed... she got birdier and birder... and about 200 yards later, she jumped a rooster that I am sure she was following. I shot, and watched shocked as the bird flew off... way off... and then flipped upside down dead... At that point I was disgusted... it was that super thick, waist high, can't see the ground cover.

However, Dallas was on her way, so I had hope, and tried to walk to where I thought it dropped. Then halfway there she jumped another rooster and naturally turned and followed it for a while while I continued on... I got about 20 yards from where I thought it fell, and she ran past me, 20 yards right of where I marked it... and came out with the rooster in her mouth.

I paced it off... 168 yards through thick cover... with the midway distraction. And that on the bird she tracked down for me as well.

I just can't explain how proud I was... one of those moments I'll remember forever.

I would love to hear your own "best dog moments" in this thread if you want to share...
 
JHoch00 said:
So forgive me for my pride... but it is for my dog, Dallas, not myself;)

4 years ago I bought a duck hunting lab from a kennel in Alabama. She proved to be a great hunting companion... if not a trial type dog. Trained her to sit at the blind, stay at me heel when walking, etc...

Then about 3 years ago I got into pheasant hunting. I realized I had no command for "Go" when she stayed at heel as she was trained... and she had never smelled a pheasant in her life, so even when she did range, she had no clue what she was supposed to be doing. However, she retrieved well, and stayed within gun range (my pet peeve...) and so was a part of every pheasant hunt.

However... over a few years, I have been blessed to hunt her with a number of other great pheasant dogs... and slowly she got the idea of what she was supposed to do.

OK... enough intro... my story.

Sunday I was out on the last field of the day, a big CRP corner... I wanted to go right, but Dallas kept going left... so I followed... she got birdier and birder... and about 200 yards later, she jumped a rooster that I am sure she was following. I shot, and watched shocked as the bird flew off... way off... and then flipped upside down dead... At that point I was disgusted... it was that super thick, waist high, can't see the ground cover.

However, Dallas was on her way, so I had hope, and tried to walk to where I thought it dropped. Then halfway there she jumped another rooster and naturally turned and followed it for a while while I continued on... I got about 20 yards from where I thought it fell, and she ran past me, 20 yards right of where I marked it... and came out with the rooster in her mouth.

I paced it off... 168 yards through thick cover... with the midway distraction. And that on the bird she tracked down for me as well.

I just can't explain how proud I was... one of those moments I'll remember forever.

I would love to hear your own "best dog moments" in this thread if you want to share...
Click to expand...

That is awesome:10sign::thumbsup:

My 6yr old chocolate lab female is now hunting like a pro. I trained her myself and all, however it took a couple of years before she put it all together. This year she was a hunting machine.

There are a couple of reason why I hunt upland and waterfowl. #1 is taking my son hunting and #2 is watching my dogs work and hunting with them. I truly believe they enjoy it just as much as I do.

I have been hunting, training, some breeding, hunt tests, and field trials with labs since 1992. They are an amazing animal. Again, congrats and good luck and enjoy your dog hunting.

Greg
 
One of my my stories is with my current dog Copper an Irish Setter. We were hunting in South Dakota along a swampy marsh area. The cattails and grass were at least 8 feet high as i could not see over it. We flushed a rooster and of course it was shot high over the swamp. All three of our dogs went through the grass into the swamp. After about five minutes the golden cam back no bird, followed shortly by the Lab no bird. After a few more minutes out came Copper total soaked with mud and water I assume he had to go under get the bird as he and the bird were completely soaked. He did that twice that day which still amazes me how they can mark the bird even if they cannot see it fall completly to the ground. On a side note my wifes father wrote a book whos title was Why Can't Dogs do Calculus? The jist is they actually do it intuitively. When a dog catches a frisbee it uses calculus to gage the distance, when to jump and how high as the frisbee keeps moving. Don't ask me how but it is amazing when they do things we cannot.
 
Congrats.:cheers: My 3 year old springer graduated this weekend. We were up 4hrs north and my brother forgot his dogs collar so I suggested we run one dog at a time. We got to our first field and I couldn't leave my dog in his box while we hunted so I dropped him too (without an e collar:eek:). He was perfect! Never ranged to far, heeled around other dogs, to directions, everything. He hunted both days and put up 6 roosters without ever a problem, I was so proud, all our hard work had payer off.
 
Nice post Jason. Isn't it great when your dog pulls off one of those great retrieves? The first wild pheasant that my 8 mo. old lab Parker retrieved was out of a 7 ft cattail patch like Steve was talking about. At least this one was dry. I had given up and struggled back out of there and a little bit later Parker came out with the bird.

Hunting is all about the dogs!
Tom
 
A Grand Finally

Me and my dog, Mesa a pointing lab, took a trip up to SD this past October. She had lots of awesome retreives during the week, thanks to my lousy shooting. But the best one came on our last day after we were done hunting. I was breaking down camp and getting it all loaded up, a shot went off a couple of hundred yards up the two track road. Five minutes later after loading up the last of camp we roll up beside four guys looking in the tall grass. I ask em if they need a dog and let Mesa out of the truck...I told her to find-it find-it. She starts working the area really hard and was intent on finding the bird. The guys show me a few feathers on the ground where the bird piled in...they told me it was hit real hard and has to be right here. She starts to cross over the two track road about 50 yards away, I whoa her, then sit her, then cast her to my right...she took my command and disappears into the cover. The guys and I start talking hunting, dogs and being in SD. A couple of minutes goes by and the guys start giving up on Mesa...I tell em to just wait. About that time she comes running back down the road with a rooster in her mouth. I tell her to heel beside me and release the bird to my hand. I then ask the guys if this looks like the bird they shot at...a few chuckles, I hand the bird over and they say, Boy we have to get one of those dogs. Her and I jump into the truck and drive off into sunset, both grinning ear to ear.
 
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mtnlab said:
Me and my dog, Mesa a pointing lab, took a trip up to SD this past October. She had lots of awesome retreives during the week, thanks to my lousy shooting. But the best one came on our last day after we were done hunting. I was breaking down camp and getting it all loaded up, a shot went off a couple of hundred yards up the two track road. Five minutes later after loading up the last of camp we roll up beside four guys looking in the tall grass. I ask em if they need a dog and let Mesa out of the truck...I told her to find-it find-it. She starts working the area really hard and was intent on finding the bird. The guys show me a few feathers on the ground where the bird piled in...they told me it was hit real hard and has to be right here. She starts to cross over the two track road about 50 yards away, I whoa her, then sit her, then cast her to my right...she took my command and disappears into the cover. The guys and I start talking hunting, dogs and being in SD. A couple of minutes goes by and the guys start giving up on Mesa...I tell em to just wait. About that time she comes running back down the road with a rooster in her mouth. I tell her to heel beside me and release the bird to my hand. I then ask the guys if this looks like the bird they shot at...a few chuckles, I hand the bird over and they say, Boy we have to get one of those dogs. Her and I jump into the truck and drive off into sunset, both grinning ear to ear.
Click to expand...

Dude...Love it!! :10sign::cheers:

I had the same thing happen years ago with my old yellow lab Conan while duck hunting. Guy shoots a duck, his dog won't retrieve it, so I send Conan out on like a 75 yard blind retrieve. He comes back with his bird and the guy is like "man how did you get him to do that?"....I said, alot of hard work, time, sweat, money, and training.

Then one time while duck hunting DOW came over and asked me if I could use my dogs to find a cripple that some guys shot and that they didn't make any attempt to find it. Well that is a big No, No....you have to at least make an attempt. So took Conan and my chocolate Ruby and told them to "find it" and sure enough they found their duck and a crippled speckled belly goose....

I would never, ever, ever, upland or waterfowl hunt without a dog.....

Greg
 
Hey Greg,
I couldn't agree with you more. Watching a dog work and making great retreives is most enjoyable part of hunting.

Pete
 
Ok... Since I started this my Dog has once again amazed me....

I know this story is fairly common with Pheasants... but Saturday I was Duck hunting with my lab. She ran ahead... came back a minute later with a alive, flapping and kicking Mallard Drake in her mouth. No clue how she got it... we had not shot at a duck yet that day.

Jerk of a dog beat me that trip as I got skunked!
 
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