PheasantWhisperer
Member
So this weekend hunting with my dad, father-in-law, and one of father-in-laws buddies and we were hunting at his place. Got into 3 coveys of quail. had a few in the bag, everyone got to shoot their guns, good hunt so far. It was getting to be about noon and we were on our way back to the house to grab a bite. Dogs go on point. My 7-year old vizsla and one year old pup backing. The friend of my father-in-law has two brittany's. One is pretty good, the other is a diver. Dives in on points and will jump ahead of other dogs. The guy spent the whole day yelling to his dogs, constant whistles, just plain making alot of noise. Not that big of a deal, I was just taught differently. My dad and grandpa operate through mostly hand signals and game sounding whistles. Especially in the pheasant field. But we were quail hunting so not as big of a deal. Anyways, dogs on point, two vizslas and his brittany, when his other brittany comes bounding in there and flushes the bird out across this lake. I hold up and dont shoot because the ice is paper thin. Three dogs stay put at the bank and watch the bird fly because they hear no shot, what do you think the other dog did? The brown colored brittany takes off across the ice, his owner screaming and yelling for him to retreat, I think he bumped him with the collar a couple of times. Right when the dog gets to about the middle...SPLASH!! In he goes! The hole it falls in is about 10 feet in diameter. His owner called for him to swim back but the ice kept breaking. The lake is about 3-4 acres. First, I took off my hunting coat and jacket underneath. Dont know what I was thinking, first instinct is to go in and get em I guess. I saw boats on the opposite side of the lake so I took off running. There was a john boat, froze to the ground with no plug in it, and a paddle boat. Well, the only choice is the paddle boat so I get in and I cant pedal!! Pull the boat back out of the water and its froze underneath. So I kick the ice loose, put it back in the water(which is frozen), grabbed a metal stake to break ice and took off pedaling. It was a horrible ride, breaking ice in front of the boat then paddling inches, break ice, paddle a few inches...As I get closer to the dog I can tell he's starting to really struggle. He quit trying to get on top of the ice and just leveled out to a slow tread. After about 20 minutes I finally get to him, grabbed him by his collar and just pulled him on top of me in the boat. You've never seen a dog lick a human as much as that dog licked me in that boat!! As I was pedaling back out the ice was already starting to freeze where I made the path to the dog. So we got the dog in to the heated concrete building, got him dried off, fed and checked him over really well. The funny part is, that dog has never seen me before that day and all through lunch and at the end of the day he would not leave me alone. Trying to climb in my lap, licking me constantly! He was really, truly, thankful. Tried to jump in my dogbox when we left. Wouldnt go to his owner or his wife when called. Dog definitely had human like feelings. And what does my dad say when we leave? "Damn Brittany's"!
