Not too bad for getting a late start in life

Dani

Dani

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I am pretty sure I told this story before, but if not...some history. I adopted Drake from Steve's nephew. Andy was a duck hunter and trained Drake so that he was able to hunt ducks his first year. After that though, he became a "GO LAY IN THE CORNER" dog. Andy made the decision to find Drake a new home and contacted Steve, who offered Drake to me. At the time Steve still lived in WA and for many reasons, it just wasn't "right" for him to take Drake. Plus I later found out that Steve knew Drake would always have a great home, even if he didn't end up hunting (Steve really wasn't sure whether Drake "had it" anymore due to the level of neglect). And Steve was absolutely right Drake would always have had a home with me even if he didn't hunt.

I got Drake when he was four years old, so he was five when he got to first hunt with me. He had some basics but we also had a lot to work on. The plus for me is that Drake is smart and he wanted to prove himself. Steve's dog Mike and Drake hunted together for ducks for two seasons before Mike suddenly died. That year Mike died, Drake had turned 7 and he got introduced to hunting upland in WA State. Since then he has hunted upland in WA, MT, NE, LA and FL. Drake has turned out to be an incredible hunter and Steve and I were thrilled to round out Drake's prairie grouse list this year. We managed within a few days for him to find us some sharptails, greater prairie chickens and sage grouse.

Not too bad for starting out late, but then when you are Da Bombdiggity (and he is) it all just comes naturally.

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Hopefully soon I will have more pictures and stories bragging on him and Steve's girl B...but Drake had quite the accomplishment this year and it needed bragging on

Dani
 
You got yourself quite a hunting buddy right there, you should be proud of him.
 
There was another black lab that competed in the King Buck era...I think his name was Panther. He was four or five when he was pulled by a trainer/owner combo. who recognized his game finding ability and began his formal training, principally to steady the dog at the line. His owner was not an eastern industrialist and lacked the pedigree to "play" with the top dog trainers at the time. Consequently, the dog's achievements were not lauded nationally. It's pretty hard to suppress decades of breeding that "produced" the Labrador Retriever breed traits we all love and cherish...even in bench (show) lines.
 
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