My old girl (13 yo YLF) was only ever used as a meat dog, and being the genius I was at 17, I trained her all myself with a homegrown program and some guidance from an experienced amateur. She's never been very stylish, but she sure got the job done. Every time a bird fell, it showed up back at my side. She stared at the sky with anticipation and often saw the birds before I did. I shoot, it falls, bird comes back, lather, rinse, repeat. Heaven help me if I missed. I would get these looks from her like she was embarrassed to be in the blind with me. If we were hunting on land, she would take off and hide in the cover behind me and refuse to return until the next bird went down. All was forgiven at that point. Does anyone else get chastised by their dawgs?
Not looking for training tips, just funny stories.
I loved the one where the dog ripped the head off the rooster. That sounds like something my first Golden would have done. She was a very independent girl. After missing a few pheasants one day, she ran over to a rock wall, pulled a pheasant out, brought in over and dropped it about 10 yds in front of me. I think she was saying I might be able to hit one if it was that close. Another time a mallard was shot but only crippled. It landed in shallow water. The duck was hissing and snapping at her as she tired to grab it. She finally stopped, whacked it with her paw in the head then carried it back and dropped it behind me.
My male golden loved pheasant hunting, but if I missed several in a row, he would start walking behind me, basically stepping on my heels. It was very annoying, which I think was his point.
My current dog gets all excited when the birds come in. She can turn a complete circle watching geese and never move from her spot. When I shoot and miss she continues to stare out at the field as if she can't believe nothing fell, then go lay down and start ripping up a stick or corn stalk. When the geese are cripples and being nasty, she will pounce on them and shake the hell out of them before she drags them back. She weighs about 50 lbs and often looks smaller than the geese she is bring in.
<< (avatar dog) Totally full of attitude, and she has these huge, bright yellow expressive eyes so it's pretty easy to know what she's thinking. Since she hasn't seen a duck in ages, she decided to take matters into her own "jaws" and killed a rabbit a few days ago. Here's the perfect example of her "stink eye". (yes she did give it up, after she thought about it!)
Talk about attitude, Buddy (RIP '97-'10) my yeller dog. When birds were slow he would go off and find things to kill. Ie. nutria, pigs, anything he could find.
Great dog and great attitude.
Ruh-roh. Saint was at it again last night. A couple months ago, my pup tore up a corner of Saint's bed. Now that Z is off to the pro, my fiance stitched the bed back up. At first, she was ecstatic, and plopped down on it with a sense of entitlement. As we were getting ready for bed, she settled in on it near the foot of the bed. As soon as my fiance left the room, she jumped up on the bed with me and sprawled out. She decided to ignore any direction to return to her spot on the floor and finally, my fiance decided to try and pick her up and set her back on her spot. Instead, Saint just rolled out of her arms and did her best "dead weight" impression (think stubborn toddler). Its a good thing she's deaf, because I was laughing my tail off for about ten minutes.
Apparently, I am a magnet for dogs with attitude. Last weekend, on our final water series, Z drilled both birds, and after bringing the second one back, lined right back up on the first station and did her best stubborn mule impression when I tried to take her from the line. Evidently, she was not done retrieving and felt she had more to show the judges.
One experience that sticks with me is the time my son and I went duck hunting on a local refuge. it had been raining hard and you had to get a ride from the refuge staff in and out of the refuge, if you missed the "truck" you would have to walk, that's a long walk with decoys, guns and everything else.
We had my hunting dog Sable with us, we figured on an afternoon hunt since we did not have a ressi. it was a slow afternoon with not much in the way of opportunities. After a couple of hours we figured we'd better pick up and catch the next ride out to avoid the walk. On the way out Sable starts quarting with a mission , my son tells me to get control of her and hurry up or we're going to miss the truck. I say leave her alone and let's see what she's after. After a few minutes she heads straight into a field sticks her head into a big bush and produces a big fat wounded hen mallard. I looked at my son, I didn't need to say anything. We get on the truck for the ride out , most hunters were empty handed, I heard " nice bird" everytime we stopped to pick up another group of hunters. Yep it's a nice bird and I didn't even have to fire a shot.
That routine became pretty common for Sable, she would heal like a good girl on the way to the blind but on the way out I'd tell her"huntem up" I ended up with a lot of nice ducks that I never shot.
My girl Lucy and I like to pick up pheasants for tower shoots in Va. She will sit there and watch the birds fly over, especially if the men really can't shoot. She will behave for the first one but if a second flies over and is not hit she will start to moan and talk, basically saying, "Seriously mom!" I giggle to myself and usually the men will laugh too and they will apologize to her which makes it even funnier.
Attitude...all morning in the rain for 1 measly teal. Yeah, the boy had an attitude and that was @ 9 mos.
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