Jim Cloninger
Active member
Five years ago my Black Lab, Mandy, died of cancer. This is a tribute to my once in a lifetime hunting dog. She was very intelligent and could perform everything a well trained retriever was required to do: marking downed birds, being steady to shot, taking hand signals, etc. She would retrieve everything I shot. We hunted waterfowl, wild pheasants, sharptail grouse, prairie chickens and doves. She was especially good at finding wild pheasants that took to thick cattail and tulle tangles because of extreme hunting pressure where we hunted on public land. A few examples of her at work:
1) Mandy and I would go dove shooting at a close by public hunting area. We would station ourselves along a 20 yard wide creek and shoot at doves flying along the creek. I shot a dove that fell on the other side of the creek on top of a large blackberry bush. She could not retrieve the dove because it was out of reach. A week later we went to the same spot to shoot some more doves. As soon as we got to the spot, Mandy swam across the creek looking for the dove I had shot the week before. In a weeks time the dove dropped to the ground. Mandy retrieved that dove and brought it to me!
2) A friend and I were pheasant hunting along an inland canal that was used by ocean going ships to take cargo to Sacramento. This canal was over 100 yards wide. My friend wing tipped a pheasant and it went down on the other side of the canal in thick brush. Mandy marked the pheasant down, swam across the canal, hunted up the live pheasant and swam back across the canal and delivered the bird to me still alive.
3) A partner and I were duck shooting in a blind in an immense flooded rice field. A flock of Pintail came in to the decoys. I shot one that fell about 35 yards to my right and my partner wing tipped another that flew 200 to 300 yards and landed. I did not see where that duck went down so I sent Mandy for the duck I shot and she retrieved it. Mandy wanted to go after the other duck, so I sent her. She had marked the downed Pintail, found it and retrieved it. Pintails are known for tenacity of getting away when crippled.
I miss Mandy every day. Jim
1) Mandy and I would go dove shooting at a close by public hunting area. We would station ourselves along a 20 yard wide creek and shoot at doves flying along the creek. I shot a dove that fell on the other side of the creek on top of a large blackberry bush. She could not retrieve the dove because it was out of reach. A week later we went to the same spot to shoot some more doves. As soon as we got to the spot, Mandy swam across the creek looking for the dove I had shot the week before. In a weeks time the dove dropped to the ground. Mandy retrieved that dove and brought it to me!
2) A friend and I were pheasant hunting along an inland canal that was used by ocean going ships to take cargo to Sacramento. This canal was over 100 yards wide. My friend wing tipped a pheasant and it went down on the other side of the canal in thick brush. Mandy marked the pheasant down, swam across the canal, hunted up the live pheasant and swam back across the canal and delivered the bird to me still alive.
3) A partner and I were duck shooting in a blind in an immense flooded rice field. A flock of Pintail came in to the decoys. I shot one that fell about 35 yards to my right and my partner wing tipped another that flew 200 to 300 yards and landed. I did not see where that duck went down so I sent Mandy for the duck I shot and she retrieved it. Mandy wanted to go after the other duck, so I sent her. She had marked the downed Pintail, found it and retrieved it. Pintails are known for tenacity of getting away when crippled.
I miss Mandy every day. Jim
