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<blockquote data-quote="SmokinCrow" data-source="post: 2004387" data-attributes="member: 62139"><p>This is my Chocolate Lab Duke. In this picture he was only 10 or 11 months old. He's the first bird dog I've trained. Had a few bird dogs as a kid, but they were Dad's dogs. Duke's an awesome bird dog, and amazing family dog. Last year he made huge strides from our first outing in September for sharptail where he would only range out about 10 feet from me to the last hunt of the season where he was tracking down wild roosters like a veteran. </p><p>One of my favorite outings with Duke so far was last year's opening day for pheasants. My best friend who had a litter mate of Duke's and I went hunting together. The two dogs started the day just wanting to play and not focused on hunting if we were hunting close. So we separated and started hunting. Conditions were pretty tough for pheasant hunting. Cover wasn't great, and fresh snow smashed a lot of the cover. But Duke and I gave it a shot. We were walking and hunting a cross wind, and Duke turns on a dime and works up to this small clump of grass. He noses up to it and kind of locks on point, and then backs off a touch and then goes back on point on this clump of grass, and then a rooster jumps up, and I shot it. He made a good retrieve. Pretty awesome. Well we kept hunting and made a hike after finding some better cover with my buddy. Well while we're hiking my buddy sees a few pheasants running ahead, and he's trying to get his dog into position to smell them and try to get them up. Well his pup was oblivious and the two pheasants jump up and he shoots them. Duke saw the first one and ran after it and made about a 125 yard retrieve bringing me the one rooster. My buddy had to work pretty hard to get his pup on the second rooster to be retrieved. Duke's retrieve was pretty impressive for such a young pup. We kept walking and again while walking I watch Duke turn on a time into the wind and his gate changed, and I look and see rooster hunkering down in some cover and Duke points it and then I flush it and shoot it. Good retrieve again. We walked about another 200 yards, and Duke smells a pheasant and it starts running. Duke runs after it and almost caught it before it flew. I shot it and he brought it to me. After that my buddies dog and Duke's litter mate kept wanting to play, and Duke never again gave him the attention. His nose kept to the ground and he hunted hard. It was as if the a switch was flipped, and he knew and understood the game. So fun to see that change. </p><p></p><p></p><p>On one of our last hunts of the season he lead me to some roosters and I took one shot and dropped a rooster. He came back to me from a completely different direction from where I was shooting at the rooster. I was trying to figure out why he made such a loop to bring me this rooster. Well I grab the rooster and its head is up and I ring its neck. Well Duke then runs towards where I shot, and brings me back the rooster I actually shot. I hunted the rest of the day thinking he'd brought me a bird someone else lost, but when I started cleaning the birds later that day the one rooster had no bb's. No broken wings, no broken legs or any issues. He'd caught this rooster I was pretty impressed that he caught this rooster. </p><p></p><p>This year our first outing was for Sage Grouse in Western Wyoming, and he was a stud. Kept finding birds that we would have walked right past had he not been there. My dad, sister, and my cousin all walked around and didn't see any birds. My cousin's dog wasn't able to get on any birds and would get discouraged when he wasn't having success. Duke kept hunting hard even when times were tough. Made me proud. Definitely makes me look like a better trainer than I am. </p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]220545[/ATTACH]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SmokinCrow, post: 2004387, member: 62139"] This is my Chocolate Lab Duke. In this picture he was only 10 or 11 months old. He's the first bird dog I've trained. Had a few bird dogs as a kid, but they were Dad's dogs. Duke's an awesome bird dog, and amazing family dog. Last year he made huge strides from our first outing in September for sharptail where he would only range out about 10 feet from me to the last hunt of the season where he was tracking down wild roosters like a veteran. One of my favorite outings with Duke so far was last year's opening day for pheasants. My best friend who had a litter mate of Duke's and I went hunting together. The two dogs started the day just wanting to play and not focused on hunting if we were hunting close. So we separated and started hunting. Conditions were pretty tough for pheasant hunting. Cover wasn't great, and fresh snow smashed a lot of the cover. But Duke and I gave it a shot. We were walking and hunting a cross wind, and Duke turns on a dime and works up to this small clump of grass. He noses up to it and kind of locks on point, and then backs off a touch and then goes back on point on this clump of grass, and then a rooster jumps up, and I shot it. He made a good retrieve. Pretty awesome. Well we kept hunting and made a hike after finding some better cover with my buddy. Well while we're hiking my buddy sees a few pheasants running ahead, and he's trying to get his dog into position to smell them and try to get them up. Well his pup was oblivious and the two pheasants jump up and he shoots them. Duke saw the first one and ran after it and made about a 125 yard retrieve bringing me the one rooster. My buddy had to work pretty hard to get his pup on the second rooster to be retrieved. Duke's retrieve was pretty impressive for such a young pup. We kept walking and again while walking I watch Duke turn on a time into the wind and his gate changed, and I look and see rooster hunkering down in some cover and Duke points it and then I flush it and shoot it. Good retrieve again. We walked about another 200 yards, and Duke smells a pheasant and it starts running. Duke runs after it and almost caught it before it flew. I shot it and he brought it to me. After that my buddies dog and Duke's litter mate kept wanting to play, and Duke never again gave him the attention. His nose kept to the ground and he hunted hard. It was as if the a switch was flipped, and he knew and understood the game. So fun to see that change. On one of our last hunts of the season he lead me to some roosters and I took one shot and dropped a rooster. He came back to me from a completely different direction from where I was shooting at the rooster. I was trying to figure out why he made such a loop to bring me this rooster. Well I grab the rooster and its head is up and I ring its neck. Well Duke then runs towards where I shot, and brings me back the rooster I actually shot. I hunted the rest of the day thinking he'd brought me a bird someone else lost, but when I started cleaning the birds later that day the one rooster had no bb's. No broken wings, no broken legs or any issues. He'd caught this rooster I was pretty impressed that he caught this rooster. This year our first outing was for Sage Grouse in Western Wyoming, and he was a stud. Kept finding birds that we would have walked right past had he not been there. My dad, sister, and my cousin all walked around and didn't see any birds. My cousin's dog wasn't able to get on any birds and would get discouraged when he wasn't having success. Duke kept hunting hard even when times were tough. Made me proud. Definitely makes me look like a better trainer than I am. [ATTACH type="full"]220545[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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