Wash outs - rescues - success stories

What are your personal wash out, rescue success stories.

I've ended up with two over the years, the second one just recently. Both were originally in FT training, one was washed out and traded hands a couple of times before I ended up with her. She has some skeletons in her closets, but is a very sweet dog, loves to hunt and get marks, but had a bad time during her early blind training. I've had her for about two years after she was left in a pen for a year with no training. Yesterday she did her first cold water blind in a senior level set-up. We've worked on them in the past with everything from a no go to a run and get in the kennel, but yesterday she looked like she "understood" the process, she left the line, hit the water, took a couple cast, correctly and found the bird. It was a real breakthrough for her and I could tell she was almost as proud of herself as I was of her. Maybe she will get an SH title. Maybe all the blind drills are starting to sink in.

The second one, which I've only actually owned for 3 weeks, was living in a pen full of deer dogs for the last year or so. I saw him during our fall hunt test last year and liked something about him, not to mention wanting to get him out of that situation. When I finally worked out the deal and got him home a few weeks ago, he was covered in ticks and bone thin. A trip to the vet a couple hundred $ later, he was luckily clear of lymes and heartworms, full of worms and generally in disrepair, but still had a fire in his eye. I got him on good feed, clear of worms and ticks, his coat is starting to shine again, he thinks he's living in the taj mahal compared to his previous residence. I sent in the AKC stuff to change his ownership and name, also tracked down his breeder. This dog has changed hands at least 6 times including me, he went from an FT home, to a HT/trainer, to a hunting home X 2 or 3 and now me. When I got his papers and pedigree the other day I almost fell over. His entire pedigree, with the exception of his mom is FC, AFC, two different NAFC's and one NFC in three generations. He also has OFA hips.

I've been working with him for 3 weeks now, it's amazing how these dog come back. He's doing triples, blinds, he's steady, he honors, he was a cheating scoundrel when I got him, two sessions of attrition cheating drills, now he seems to be one of the most honest dogs I've seen, I think I get more excited when I take him out of the truck than he does. He's great around the other dogs, other people, so far I can't find what his problem is, if there is one, might just be bad luck. Hopefully for Oak the tide has turned. I've entered him in our clubs hunt test in a couple weeks, I can't wait to see how he does, I know either way he'll give me all he's got.

I didn't really purchase these dogs with the intention of keeping them, hell they are not even chocolate, but somewhere in the process, I was the one who got adopted. If they like it or not, for better or worse they are probably stuck with me for life.