doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Incredible hunting dog feats.

This is an incredible feat that my female Black Labrador, Mandy, performed while dove hunting. Mandy and I went dove hunting at a state public hunting area. We set up along side a deep water canal to pass shoot doves. There were not many doves flying that day, but I killed a few and Mandy retrieved. One dove went down on the other side of the canal and got lodged in the upper part of a blackberry tangle. Mandy had marked the bird down and swam over to get the dove. Well she could smell the dove, but couldn't get to it and she finally came back without the dove. A week later we went back to the same spot. Mandy immediately swam over to the spot where the dove went down the previous week. The dove had decayed enough that it fell to the ground under the blackberry bush. Mandy picked up that dove and brought it back to me. I call that incredible.

Let's hear about the incredible feats your hunting dog has performed.

Don't know about amazing feats but I had a dog who could count and got mad if you shot and did not kill birds. If you shot twice from the duck blind you better have a bird down or he would growl at you. Miss again and he was known to bark or nip your waders. With his reputation guest did not like to make him grumpy by missing.

His son was worse. Hunted him so long alone, by myself, he knew three shots meant three birds at absolute best, often just one or two. One day I knocked down four teal with two shots. Just freak luck at work. Hitting two teal when they buzzed the decoys is a major feat. Out he went for the first bird, goes back out for the second and returns to the blind knowing he was done. It took effort to get him do a blind retrieve on the third. He flat out refused to go for the fourth. Not to be outdone by a dog I waited until he got comfortable and shot over the decoys. Out he goes for the fourth bird on a difficult blind retrieve. Swear when he came back with the bird his look was I told you that there was no bird. You had to shoot another bird and pretend it was the same bird. I miss those dogs.

Pointing a bird while retrieving one just shot. Running past hen pheasants to point a rooster. Working a field that has just been finished by other hunters, with, or, without dogs, and coming up with birds.

Did you keep/eat the dove the dog found that was, er, past it's due date? That would be sorta' incredible, too.

I have heard of people "aging" or "hanging" birds, but, haven't tried same.

Doubt I will.


Best,
Ted

My next to the last Lab, Suwannee often retrieved two wood ducks at once, to save the extra swim, I guess. The most incredible feat my dogs have pulled off though was when my all time best pointer, Sugar pointed on the edge of a pond.

There was no bird but she would not give up the point. I noticed a small dry ground island out mid pond, and threw a stick out to it. That flushed the resourceful quail which was hiding there and I shot the bird.

Sugar, who had never ever given any indication that she even knew how to swim made the water retrieve. I happened to be on a plantation when that occured and the owner offered me two grand for her on the spot.

Turned him down of course and on the ride home my older and wiser law/hunting partner observed that he'd just seen two of the biggest fools ever. The plantation owner for offering that much money for a plug bird dog, and me for turning it down!...Geo

A co-worker asked me if he could go goose hunting with me sometime and I told him the next weekend would be good for me. He said that he would drive and showed up on a Friday night at my house in a P/U truck and cab over camper. I had bags of decoys in my driveway along with a shotgun, ammo and my Lab.

He said, �What�s with the dog?�
I told him the dog will retrieve our birds and he said that the dog would have to ride at my feet, because he didn�t want him on his seats. The Lab didn�t mind because he got his head and ears massaged during the 1 � hour drive to the marsh.

We were hunting Canada Geese in a wet, muddy field and every step that you took made you taller. My co-worker shot at and wing tipped Honker. The bird sailed over a barbed fence, across a full irrigation canal, over another barbed wire fence and disappeared from sight.


Zack, my Lab watched as the bird went out of sight and I sent him. We watched Zack sail over the fences, swim the canal and disappear from sight.

15 minutes later a black dog could be seen coming our way with a mouth full of very live goose. He sailed over the fence, swam the canal and sailed over the second fence, delivering the goose to hand with a very happy tail.

Zack continued to retrieve our birds until we each had a limit and my co-worker was impressed.

On the way home, my wet muddy dog rode in the camper on my co-workers bed. I told him that wasn�t necessary and as before the dog could ride on the floor between my legs. He said, �Zack worked hard and deserves a comfortable bed, and the bedding can be washed.�

I remember a Pointer drifting out of sight and not responding. I was steamed. Covered a lot of ground and time looking for her, when I finally noticed another hunter off in the distance. I figured I should go over and ask if he had seen her. As I was getting closer, I noticed my pup was hunting with his two dogs.

Nice old timer, wish I had bothered to appreciate the nice small bore side by side he was carrying, but I wanted to strangle my dog. He had a good game bag of bobwhites and his dogs were nicely finished.

He says hi, this must be your dog. I'm not real chatty, but he adds in, she's good little dog, knows what she's doing. Too bad it has to hit almost like a freight train, but it's probably me not the dog. We have a regular chat for a minute, then down the road, I let the pup teach me how to hunt birds.

What impressed me the most was Mandy's memory. Dogs really do have good memories. That dove was aged a little too much for me, Ted!

once had a setter that would range far...once he got on point he was like stone...he went on point the end of october...could not find him...came back in may and found his skeleton...still on point...grouse skeleton was there as well, still crouched low with wing bones set to fly...

Great stories. I once had a setter that hunted close and would find birds that others walked over. Sometimes I would try and hide on her and watch what she would do. She would stop hunting and start looking for me.
Her mother was a pretty good dog and on running pheasants she would break and make a long arc to intercept them. That made them hold until we got there.

Those were the days when there were birds around.

Jim, this is a fun subject. Your thought on memory stirred mine. In the 80s I had a German Wirehair female. She had been given to me as a pup by an old hunting friend in Neb.. I lived in Alaska. My friend's old male was slowing down and my friend wanted a pup out of him. I left my female in Neb. with him after the fall season for breeding. Spring came and went and she did not get pregnant. My friend still wanted a pup from his male, so I said just keep her for the next "season". That next summer , after almost 2 years, she had a litter. At the end of the summer on a late night flight, she came back to Alaska. In the morning she was in the house, and I wanted the newspaper. Two years ago, she would bolt the door and fetch the paper down 50 yards of driveway. I opened the door and said fetch it up, and she ran down the driveway, grabbed the paper along the road, and brought it back. I was amazed that she still remembered.