Posted by Scott Baughman on September 11, 1999 at 10:44:34:
My name is Scott Baughman and I was born and raised in Boise, Idaho. I am 26 years of age and recently divorced. I grew up hunting mostly upland birds and big game. I have owned many different bird dogs through growing up but finally found one of the best breeds ever to work with. The Lab.
I own a 3 year old, 100lbs black lab who's name is Shad-o (AKC name: Scott's Shad-o). I have trained upland dogs but never a water dog. I Didn't exactly know how to go about training a water dog until one day I was interduced to a man named Tommy Gun (Tom Matus). Tommy gave me some of the best advice not only with training a water dog but advice on duck hunting. With the advice of Tommy, I set out to train my pup. Six months later, Shad-o was showing great progress with water retrieves so I decided to go duck hunting. I really didn't know how or where to go duck hunting so I hooked up with a good friend of both Tommy and myself (Rhett Moore) and he said that he would take us hunting. The next day, both Shad-o and myself set out for an adventure that both of us to this day will never forget. To make a long story short, a single Mallard flew through the decoys and was shot. Without hesitation, Shad-o jumped into the freezing cold water and retrieved his first bird. It wasn't until then did I experience the thrill and excitment of duck hunting!