Friday, December 2, 2011

FROM PRACTICE SQUAD TO JUNIOR VARSITY

If you have been following this blog you know of the journey that my puppy Molly has been on. From being banished to Utah and then back again; to having issues during training; to getting her first "live fire" hunt a couple weeks ago.

She was doing fine on marked retrieves on the river but was having issues with blind retrieves. I knew what she needed was to have success on the blinds. This past Wednesday may have been her breakthrough.

I had two clients and we were targeting geese. Molly was named to the starting lineup. You are on your own girl. No back up today.

It was quite warm in the morning and the geese started coming off the roost shortly after shooting time. The first bunch was six Canadas. They dropped into the pocket at 20 yards. Shortly after I called the shot, four geese hit the ground. Molly was sitting outside the pit in the decoys. She remained rock steady just like we had done hundreds of times in training.

Ken - Molly - Nate

Three were dead and we had one walker. I assumed Molly had marked all of the geese, but I wanted to get her on the live one first.  I walked her to the side of the decoy spread. Heeled her up and gave her a line. She fired out like a 1500 fps shot shell. She was at slightly less than warp speed when she ran over the goose. She wheeled and picked up the goose and brought it to heel and delivered to hand. Maybe all that practice is finally paying off. She nailed the three other geese in similar fashion. Proud Papa indeed.

As I took her back to her assigned location in the decoys, she kept looking to the north of the spread. When I told her to sit she came around to heel and it was obvious she was locked in on something. Then I saw it. A fifth goose had fallen and she marked them all. I gave her the command and she retrieved the fifth goose. The last three geese for our limit were retrieved in the same manner.

Proud Papa and Labrador Retriever
Limit by 8:30 and a Labrador Retriever that may have grasped the play book.

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