There is something that just hit me deep in the soul. He is my first hunting dog..I had been throwing birds for Red the 1st week that I got him at 4 months old... I immersed myself into training groups.. Throwing birds and doing whatever I could to get trained to train my pup.. We have had lots and lots of flyers.. Seems like 100s and 100s of dead birds have been thrown for him.. I did not ship him off to a pro.. I could not sleep without him on the side of the bed... But that one bird... The 1st one.. That I shot.. That he got.. That was wild.. That Mallard that just came in perfect... I just hits me deep.. I don't get all misty eyed.. I don't know what it is..

The Story; We where hunting in one of the ancestral birth places of the "Gunpowder River Duck Dog"..
This Year ,2006/7, was slow as we all know.. Anyhow, I have 2 new duck hunters with me.. We had not seen any birds under 80 yards all day.. 2 Black ducks land about 100 yards behind us in the water.. So the 2 newbes decided to sneak up on them thru 80 yards of 10 foot tall Phragmites, I tried to stop them for about a second then thought it will be fun to see the look on their faces when they get 2 yards from the blind and the birds take off. So I step out of the blind and release the 2 Indian Scouts.. They get 2 yards from the back of the blind and off go the birds.. They turn and looked at each other as if to say "What Happened?"..
I was kinda fun.. At this time I am off to the side of the blind... Red is always near me by choice, I think he has a touch of codependency.. Out of nowhere this Mallard Drake just glides over the decoys circles and sets his wings to drop in.. Red and I see this.. He is steady and focused.. As soon as the feet drop I put the gun to my shoulder and slap the trigger. The Birds flips over in the air.. Red is still siting at my feet about to come out of his skin.. The bird hits the water.. I send Red.. He runs 10 yards to the end of the marsh and gets a little air before he hits the water...Swimming past the decoys he grabs the bird and delivers it to hand...Straight out and Straight back.. Something is different about this one..It's was perfect... Just perfect... The bird is going on the wall..

What a great story!!! The bird will be a super 'trophy' to remember you and your pup's first wild bird..(make sure you take it to a good taxidermist!)

congratulations and if you have a pic, be sure to post it!

Juli

Funny how we spend all that time training and it's still almost startling the first time they put it all together "for real". Thanks for sharing.

Juli,
I got a Good guy for my birds..
Thanks..

Very neat story John... just need the photo to go with it! You must be proud of Red and glad to have "the dog" for hunting the homeplace.

I think the co-dependency runs in the lines. His half brother is the same way! But it has not extended to steadiness yet....

Great Story, Rick is right. You can do alot of training but you really don't what kind of dog you have until you get them out hunting.Then you see how they figure things out that you can't train for.

Tom Wilkins

John, I know you must of taken a picture of that first duck for Red! Anyway, that's what it is all about; making great memories. May you and Red make many more great memories together!