November - Who's picking up your birds

Wow, What a great bunch of hunting partners. I've been gunning with my Lab Belle for 12 seasons now. She may be a little slower, but still has great drive and a wonderful nose for the birds.


 
Great idea for a monthly thread.
Here's our crew at Pelee Island, on the left is Blue 2011 National Amateur Field Trial Champion, next is QAA Ripley winner of many Toronto Sportsman Shows (Basically a Cage match for hunting retrievers where the top dog wins), Then there my hound Limit a wannabe field trial dog And then QAA Casper an up and comming field trial dog.
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Here's Casper last week.
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This is my daghter Rhyan and Limit after yesterday's outing.
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I should have said he is the Canadaian NAFTCH. sorry. The Canadian Amateur National was hosted by the Mountian Valley Retriever Club in Ontario this year.
 
We have a new puppy this year, picked her up the end of April and have been hunting her since the start of the early goose season in September. It has been 10 years since I have had a puppy around and it is neat to see her learning something new every time out. (yesterday and today was her first real waves in open water and whistlers)

She spent 5 weeks this summer at the pro trainers for FF, CC and finishing up on the obedience and is doing real well. She still struggles a little with large Canadas in field hunts, but that is to be expected when she is only 44 pounds, but she really enjoys her water work. So far we have killed close to 100 birds over her, a grand feat considering how dismal the VT season has been, there is alot of work on boat manners this year!

Addison or "Addi"

First day home meeting the cat

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Getting a little bigger

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Artsy fartsy shot

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First goose band

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Youth weekend with my daughter

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First snow goose with my daughter

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First cold day of the year

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First duck band last week

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She's my dual purpose (upland and waterfowl, not show) dog even though her duck duties have been minimal this year. Here are some shots of my field-bred English cocker Lily in the uplands:

Prairie chicken

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She went through a fence and three cover changes for this sharpie on Friday...made me proud

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And my buddy's dog El handling the duck stuff:

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And she retrieves...though not waterfowl...I couldn't post dog photos without one of Belle:

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Deuce
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Manitoba about 5 weeks ago. Lake Manitoba about a mile and half behind him. Love this picture...

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We did a white spread with e-caller one day and ended up killing our dark geese and a bunch of mallards and finally a handful of snows.
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Deuce hid in the spread with his white vest. I made a little nest of barley straw for him. He got some needed rest between retrieves.

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Indiana...from my pit on the lake last winter. Running traffic.
 
Bill, my nine year old, had a good morning-Even brought back two blacks at the same time--I do not fault him his quirks, as he is getting up in years--Still lives to go when the season comes around--In spint of fog and no wind. He had four nice retrieves-even a spoonie who had fun diving on him.
Good problem solver, he just got ahead of the duck and ducked his head when he saw the bird coming. I've decided that he probably has a pretty good brain, considering the size of his head!
Those of you who have seen him can attest to that!!
 
View attachment DSC_0823 (Small).jpgMy Chessie Diesel on our once a year Black Bellie smackdown. Dont worry guys there were nine guys and four dogs on this hunt. These birds are really good eating, we shoot them over harvested rice fields. On some of them, the legs are almost as good as chicken legs, others they are quite tough. Im sure this has a lot to do with their age. I am a big Canvasback fan when it comes to duck eating, these run a close second on my dinner table. By the way they were all tagged! Rich
 
Cash needs a couple of days off, and you need to paint the hens to go with those drakes.....then there are these thirty unfinished Widgeon...whos idea was thirty, instead of eighteen????
 
Still working on the hens Tom- I think I'm going to need some help.
As for the Wigeon... You know you can never have too many decoys.
Lets get together for a carve & paint session soon.
 
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