Chenil de la RiviereBlanche

Bill Burkett

Bill Burkett

Active member
Has anyone else seen the sea-duck video posted on "Field Notes" by the Chenil de la RiviereBlanche in Quebec?
It generated a storm of controversy on that site from duck hunters concerned about the featured dog's safety.
Evidently the kennel posted th video as a promotion of the courage and toughness of its dogs,and I have to admit I've never seen a braver yellow Lab. They were sea-duck shooting on a lee shore (which seems stupid in the first place, all the decoys were tangled in a mess at the base of the boulders they hid behind) with big waves crashing repeatedly over the rocky shoreline. When a flight came through they blasted away and sent the dog, sans any kind of vest, into that maelstrom. He went repeatedly, with no hesitation, rounded up each heavy-bodied diver and headed back--I actually believed he tried to time the heavy wave action to body-surf up onto the slanting, streaming rocks upon which the surf was breaking. He seemed in control of his environment,even gettingdunked repeatedly--never turned loose his prey. But he seemed to be tiring and the last bit of the video was harrowing to a man who has spent most of his life with Labs. He got a grip on the rocks--a wave sucked him back and under. He came up swimmng hard and tried again. Same result.Finally a larger way swept him completely away and under--I could feel myself leaning toward the computer screen and know if had been there I would have been down there on those rocks trying to grab him and pull him to safety. His head was under water a LOT until he found a lower spot on the rocks and crawled out--duck still firmly in his jaws. As he trotted back to the gunners, they didn't seem to consider his heroics--one may have mentioned good dog but that was it.
I am curious about the reactions of my fellow duck hunters here to such an extreme video. Those who viewed it were all over the board--from where can I buy one of those dogs to those guys should be horsewhipped. My reaction was slightly different: I wanted to to Quebec and find that one dog and take him away from them--and if the taking broke a few of their heads,so be it--and bring him home with me and look after him and make much of him. Like the Marines on Guadalcanal, he served his time in hell. Of course I am old and crippled up and could never accomplish such a mission--but I wanted to.
What do you guys think? The kennel has this on Facebook too, I believe. Entitlted "the toughest duck dog."
 
I haven't seen the video but you described a disregard for the dog's safety. Although my dog would go into what you described, I probably would not allow her to. When we hunt our primary concern is our safety, closely followed by our dog's safety. Unfortunately some hunters only view their dog as a tool.
 
I saw it Bill, and was distressed by the dog handler's irresponsible (in my opinion) behavior. I was also distressed by the positive internet responses to the video by several of our fellow duck hunters. Your post is the first that I have seen questioning the responsibility of the handler's actions.

I'll admit, the footage was impressive and oh what heart that big yellow male had. However, I would never, ever expose my retriever to such a threat of death by drowning as shown in that video, and I wonder if the movie makers/dog handlers were lured to such risks by the opportunity to create "Awesome" U-tube footage.

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion.

Matt
 
Has anyone else seen the sea-duck video posted on "Field Notes" by the Chenil de la RiviereBlanche in Quebec?
It generated a storm of controversy on that site from duck hunters concerned about the featured dog's safety.
Evidently the kennel posted th video as a promotion of the courage and toughness of its dogs,and I have to admit I've never seen a braver yellow Lab. They were sea-duck shooting on a lee shore (which seems stupid in the first place, all the decoys were tangled in a mess at the base of the boulders they hid behind) with big waves crashing repeatedly over the rocky shoreline. When a flight came through they blasted away and sent the dog, sans any kind of vest, into that maelstrom. He went repeatedly, with no hesitation, rounded up each heavy-bodied diver and headed back--I actually believed he tried to time the heavy wave action to body-surf up onto the slanting, streaming rocks upon which the surf was breaking. He seemed in control of his environment,even gettingdunked repeatedly--never turned loose his prey. But he seemed to be tiring and the last bit of the video was harrowing to a man who has spent most of his life with Labs. He got a grip on the rocks--a wave sucked him back and under. He came up swimmng hard and tried again. Same result.Finally a larger way swept him completely away and under--I could feel myself leaning toward the computer screen and know if had been there I would have been down there on those rocks trying to grab him and pull him to safety. His head was under water a LOT until he found a lower spot on the rocks and crawled out--duck still firmly in his jaws. As he trotted back to the gunners, they didn't seem to consider his heroics--one may have mentioned good dog but that was it.
I am curious about the reactions of my fellow duck hunters here to such an extreme video. Those who viewed it were all over the board--from where can I buy one of those dogs to those guys should be horsewhipped. My reaction was slightly different: I wanted to to Quebec and find that one dog and take him away from them--and if the taking broke a few of their heads,so be it--and bring him home with me and look after him and make much of him. Like the Marines on Guadalcanal, he served his time in hell. Of course I am old and crippled up and could never accomplish such a mission--but I wanted to.
What do you guys think? The kennel has this on Facebook too, I believe. Entitlted "the toughest duck dog."
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I haven't seen the video, but it isn't very difficult to get a lab to do something dangerous. Smash around some hamburger in the middle of the street and the dog will stand in the street until the street is shiny clean and then come back and to lick any of his spit that still remains.

It is our job to judge the situation and manage the danger. I cringe at a lot of things I see people's dog's doing in pictures, but also have seen my dogs do some amazingly dangerous/stupid things that I didn't anticipate before they did them. Things like leaping off sheer cliffs, running through barbwire or leaping into very fast dangerous water. In all cases I now manage them around those dangers, but know they when confronted with new dangers they are open to getting hurt.

T
 
Tod,
I know what you mean about leaping off sheer cliffs--once on vacation in Oregon we took the camper up to Crater Lake on a hot dry day. In the tourist overlook, my Lab Summer was doing her ladylike business when her ears perked and her eyes locked on the lake, hundreds of feet below. Water! It's hot! I could read her little Bugs Bunny brain, fortunately, and said "Stay!" She drooped her ears but she was well trained. Kept staring at the water. I leashed her--not going to let her see if she could fly. She scared me; thought dogs had better depth perception than that.
Bill
 
I saw that video quite a while ago. one of the things I noticed is there are several yellow labs on the rocks with the hunters. I always assumed more then one dog was being used. Video's only show what you choose to post so I guess I would not judge based on the video. Every dog is different each had different experience levels. I know dogs I would send in those conditions of the video and I certainly know dogs I would not send.

I don't know any labs I would send in those conditions though. Yes that is a joke although I actually don't know any labs I would send in those conditions mostly because I don't know many labs.
 
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