Well, I think I just may have a winner! Maddie has been a real fast learner and has a great nose! After training in the yard and local park on retrieves and some general commands (come, work close, heel…)for the summer with no expectation that she would be ready to hunt this season (she was born in June)I heard about a new public area where the state releases Pheasants to hunt. Seeing that it was fairly close to me, I decided in late October (in 70 degree weather!) to go on a “walk with a purpose”. We went to the hunting area and found great cover. We walked in the grassy fields and quartered back and forth. It didn’t take her long to figure out what I wanted her to do and she began doing it on her own in front of me. We had just made a turn and began quartering the other way when she spun around and with tail wagging, began to root around in the grass. Well having had labs for years, my first thought was she found something “stinky and/or dead” to eat! I hustled up to her to see what she had and up popped her head with a mouth full of feathers! she had found the remnants of a hawk kill…with her nose! “well”, I thought, “thats a good sign, she is using her nose”! She did this twice more that day (once on the same pile of feathers she found originally but on the return trip through the field)! A couple weeks later, A buddy called and asked if I wanted to go hunting. I hesitated taking Maddie because she was so young and I really had not planned to hunt her this year, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to be around another “seasoned” dog while he was hunting. Since she had been shot over and there was no question in my mind that she would only react positivly to gun fire, We went along. Well the first “hunt” was a good day. She didn’t flush anything but she was really using her nose and seemed to be “working” well. She kept up with the “big dog” even though she was still VERY young! When the other dog flushed a bird, and we shot it she was right there for the retrieve! Of course, the older dog did all the retrieving but Maddie was right along side of him, honoring his retrieves! The second picture is from that hunt. We went again a couple weeks later and obviously Maddie had paid attention! It had snowed that morning so we knew by the fresh tracks that the birds were near by. Cooper (my buddies dog) got all birdy and was hot on the scent. Maddie was not far behind when she came to an abrupt stop, swung around and dove into a clump of grass. Whoosh..up comes a pheasant! Her first flush! After downing the bird, she was on it like she had been doing this all her life! She had a little trouble picking it up (she was still pretty small… less than 30 pounds)but she grabbed the head and half carried, half dragged it back to me ( I think I met her half way, I was just so excited!)It was her only flush of the day but she did find 2 other dead, and frozen (they were wounded by some one else and buried themselves in the grass and were never found until they froze and Maddie found them!) The first picture (the one inside)is from that hunt. One of those birds was the one she flushed, the other two were flushed by Cooper. It was a great day and a great first season considering I wasn’t even going to go hunting this year!
Thanks for listening to my rambles, I am just so proud, I had to share!
Labman
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