doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What gun and dog are going with you Sept. 1?

I guess I am lucky with my Black Lab, Mandy. She loves retrieving doves!
Jim

Our English Wood Pigeon are very loose feathered. After taking the retrieve the dogs know the word 'feathers' and they come to have them removed from around their mouths. It is surprising how quickly they learn this word. There's no close season here for either woodpigeon or collared doves but I do most of my shooting from February through to April shooting as they come in to roost. There is some winter decoying over crops but that can only really take place if the land isn't used for pheasant shooting. After pheasant close season on 1st. February then that's when I really get going. Lagopus.....

Jim,

My Labs grew to like it too, but they were very reluctant the first few times. As I said, wanting to please you is their greatest goal, and it usually overrides their distaste for doves.

How old is Mandy, now?

SRH

Mark,

Great picture of you and the llewellen.

Vernal

Jim I am lucky too. My Molly and Ginger are joyful retrievers of dove. Molly is an especially exuberant dove retriever when she can snatch it up just before someone else's dog gets it.

Lagopus I will try teaching my dogs the "feathers" command. Never heard of it till your post. I clean the feathers out of their mouths but have never given the command.

Stan, Mandy was 12 years old June 2nd. I am currently throwing bumpers into the water for her to retrieve to get her in shape for all the upcoming hunting seasons.

I wish dove shooters would trouble themselves to condition their retrievers to the heat that is to come when dove season opens here. Sadly, many do not, and the poor dogs suffer greatly in the heat and humidity. I would always take mine out for a run alongside my golf cart in the early evenings for about a month before the season. Many dogs die each year in the South during the early season due to their misfortune at having dumb and lazy owners. When the dog becomes inanimate and dies from heat exhaustion they always claim rattlesnake bite.

SRH

I wish each of you a safe and productive season and for your dogs, as well.

I will have to sit this one out and be content in handling my dogs for friends, for water retrieves as after they pass shoot over some of the sloughs around here.

If I could gun the opener, I would use one of the hammer guns. I acquired a little Thomas Wild a while back that would be fun to take afield.

One thing we rarely have to worry about in England is the heat. Anywhere near 80 degrees is considered very hot. My two are lucky in that they get a minimum of five miles a day plus swimming throughout the year. Two very fit Chesapeakes. Lagopus.....

Well Bob, it does look like you'll have to watch the balloon go up from the confines of that recliner, but we would rather see you sit this one out and have some more to enjoy. So I will miss a few (OK, so maybe not a few) of the gray rockets in your honor, and we shall re-spin our yarns of halcyon days of young legs and young dogs, hammerguns and home.

This Sept. 1 will find me afield again with Cocoa, now five, and my Manufrance Ideal 16, tossing 3/4 oz reloads at the feathered fighters on afterburner.