Thanks again guys, she amazes me more each hunt, I guess that's what good dogs do. This is my first lab so I am not really sure what to expect on the "timeline of progress". I do know this though. We would not have found two wood ducks today if it had not been for Pearl. Two very alive cripples went up over the bank and into the woods, completly out of sight and across the way. I sent Pearl out and she headed off in the direction of the one I though had not been hit, trying to call her off did not work so I decided to let her work that area. To my amazement she came out of the woods holding a young drake wood duck in her mouth, I couldn't believe it. She swam across the water shed and delivered short of hand to my feet and then the bird flew off!!!!
After composing ourselves from what had just happened I took her over to the beaver dam where I had last seen the other wood duck, now 15 minutes after the shooting. She worked the bank and woodline and was gone for a couple minutes only to return with that wood duck! Simply amazing.
I had not done any search/trailing training to speak of this summer, this was all her, pure instinct, pure breeding.
I have only ever hunted over one very good chocolate that belonged to a friend of mine, after seeing Pearl work today, there is no doubt in my mind that she is going to be one of those dogs that makes you shake you head and say wow, how did she do that.
To top the day off...her 20th retrieve this season was a banded drake mallard. She has a great temperment and personality. My training is based from reading Milner's and Wolters's text and my reward to her has simply been praise. I have not used e-collars either. She really is a great dog. I try to let her figure some things out on her own, especially if we have not trained those areas much. I am strong on the obedience and do hold true to my expectations on those issues. It's tough though when your dog blows off your sit command only to come back with a duck in her mouth. Looks like we are both learning a lot each trip out.
