Al Hansen
Well-known member
Back on August 10th, 2013, the first thing I thought about when I left the house at 3:30AM was “By golly it is the 1st day of Dall sheep season in Alaska.” Well, that used to be the opening date when I lived up there in the 1960s. On this day I happened to be heading up into the northern part of Colorado to pick up our new boy pup that had just turned 49 days old.
Little did I know what was in store for me when the two of us headed home for Socorro, NM late that afternoon. It was a long trip, well worth it and if I had to do it over I would have found a place to go to sleep. Making that 1334 mile trip in 29 hours was not a smart thing to do, but I sure was glad to be home.
As I walked into the house, Bev reached out to hold this cute little bundle of joy just so she could say that she had a chance to spoil Chipotle aka Chip. It was right then that she went and got him a new toy she had purchased. The boy pup went for it immediately and was playing with it from then on.
The following day I watched the two of them as Chip looked to be quite content in Bev’s lap. That made me feel good. Bev then picked up his toy, put Chip on the floor and tossed it over by the kitchen door. Off he went like a shot, grabbed the toy and brought it back to her. She tossed it again and the game was on! I was beaming with pride already dreaming of him picking up ducks and bringing them to me.
Before I knew it the little tyke was now over 9 weeks old and loving his new toy that we bought him which was a duck. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him go after it, then bringing it to me.
It was about this time that I began to play games with him in the office when I would get up early in the morning. I would bring a handful of his puppy food and then get him to “Sit”. With each “Sit” he then got to chase one piece of food, which he did eagerly. Then the game started with two pieces food being tossed. As he grew older I stretched that game to 5 different pieces of food for him to go get with them being spread all about the room—my way of seeing if his memory was on track.
All the while he did this we worked on “Stay” when I filled up his dog dish with food. As we practiced and practiced this I would keep on stretching out this distance between his dish and himself. By the way, the command I gave him so that he could eat was “dead bird”. Finally when he had no problem with “Stay” at 20 feet, we then went outside and continued to work on some more retrieving.
During our teal season this past fall, Chip was not quite 12 weeks old when I tossed him his first duck to go retrieve.
One day shortly after our main duck season began, Bev and I were talking about Chip and she asked when I might take him hunting? Well, that thought had crossed my mind but I was a little hesitant because he would only be 7 months old at the end of the season in January. Bev kept on talking about this so I gave in and brought him along with Habi back in the beginning of January. She is the one that quickly taught him how to sit in the blind and not move. I continued to take him along on every hunt I went on.
Then I switched dogs and brought along Pepper to see how he would react to that change. Pepper also sits like a bump on a stump so once again Chip was only doing what the older dogs were showing him what to do in a blind.
It was the second week in January when he picked up his first duck. I put down a widgeon and he hightailed it over, picked it up and brought it right to me. Later that morning, he found a teal that we tried valiantly to recover. Everything I saw in this young boy was continuing to make me smile.
Finally on the last week of our duck season I decided to bring only Chip along on the hunts. I wanted to see how he was developing and if he had any major issues. First of all, he found all the ducks that I shot, however there weren’t really that many to retrieve. On the 1st day no ducks were shot, however he stayed in the blind and did what he was taught to do. When Tuesday rolled around I took two ducks and he made those retrieves. Wednesday was a touch better when I shot 3 ducks. The first one I had to help out a little but from then on no problems occurred.
That now brings us full circle to, Friday, January 24th, 2014. Chip was now 7 months and one day old. As we headed towards the pond at the ranch, I knew there would be ice down there but didn’t know how thick it would be. It was very cold—when I left the house it was 11F and I’m sure down next to the Rio Grande it most likely was at least several degrees colder.
One thing that I find truly unique about duck hunting is the time in which we can begin or end the hunt. If you decide to say one or two minutes is close enough for me and begin banging away, you are only cheating yourself and playing the numbers game. For years and years now I have adhered to those limitations. As far as I am concerned this part of the hunt becomes almost some of that mystique about our sport that makes you want to get up and go out again and again. For example this morning our opening time was exactly 6:40AM. At 6:37AM, I had 4 mallards fly right over the decoys but I only watched and silently cussed my luck. My cell phone was in my hand when it said, 6:39AM and that is when I watched a pair of gadwalls begin to back pedal. Chip was glued on them but I didn’t shoot. They left for some reason and when the cell phone read 6:40AM, I looked at my partner and said, “OK, Chip, now we can shoot at them.” By the way, cell phones give you the exact time.
First ducks in were two greenwing teal. I was able to take both of them and now my question was going to get answered. One of the teal hit a tree and bounced on the ground. He got that easily. The other teal was out on the ice and it was right then when I watched him hurl his body into mid-air and begin breaking ice, that I thought of “Ice-breaker”. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I remembered how much Habi hated ice and would tip toe around it. Chili put up with it and learned how to doggy paddle and break the ice with her front paws. Now I was looking at a true “Lake Superior 1st Class Ice Breaker that goes by the name of Chip. He proudly carried that little drake back and once again took his place in the blind ready for more action. It was about 15 minutes later when a lone widgeon came boiling in and I put her down. Chip headed out for that bird with a full burst of energy. As I watched him lunge into the ice, break it down, then lunge again and again, I couldn’t believe the amount of stamina that this pup had.
Well, all I can say is that I sure wished it had been light enough for me to have taken some pictures, but alas, it was too dark. I was feeling pretty good about things now because I was 3 for 3 and my pup was handling everything like he had been doing this for some time now. Once again I began to let my mind drift and I thought about his pedigree. I then ran through all that I have read about labs and finally my mind had drifted back to Labrador, which was on the mainland above Nova Scotia and west of Newfoundland. I thought about the Canadian fisherman who trained that first “Lab” to go retrieve fish. Lord, I was having all kinds of fun until out of the dark background of several trees to the south of me, came two more widgeons, almost ready to sit down. I missed the first shot, then with the next shell the duck hit the ice. The second duck headed for the channel and after the shot, it landed on the other side almost directly across from me.
Now I was ready and had my camera in hand as my boy pup made his way out to that first duck. For the life of me, I don’t where or how he did what he did. When he was in the shallower water he would leap up high into the air and come crashing down on the ice, then as the water got deeper he somehow would force his body up on the ice and with his weight just break it down. Where this knowledge came from I don’t know. It was amazing how quickly he got both birds. My little Ice-breaker seemed to be in his element.
After he had them in the blind, he once again took his place and didn’t move. The wind began to pick up from north and it was me who was beginning to “whimp” out, not Chip. I put my hood up to break the cold on the back of my neck and decided to tough it out. I’m glad I did. It was 9:34AM when a pair of gadwalls saw my spread and came in. I grabbed my Benelli Nova and swung on that beautiful drake. He came down in an instant when that Dove load hit him. I guess this will be the year of the gadwall for me. The vast majority of my ducks have been them. Since I don’t like to hunt on weekends, Chip made the final retrieve of the 2013/2014 season when he went out and got that drake.
I hauled everything but the blind material to the Mule then came back to begin dismantling it. As I grabbed one piece, I stood and glanced at Chip who was now on full alert. Just to the east of us came a pair of mallards who flew right over the decoys and began to swing up the channel. I looked up at that beautiful greenhead and his mate who were about 25 yards from me and thought, “I hope you make it up north for breeding season. Maybe we will see you down here next year.”
What a day, what a dog—what else can I say? As I drove home, I glanced over to see my pup all curled up on the front seat. The heater was doing what it was made for and both of us enjoyed that comfort zone. I walked into the kitchen, with Chip at my side, and Bev asked, “How many ducks did you get and how many shells did you shoot?” I answered quickly by saying, “Hon, I got my limit of 6 ducks and only took 7 shots.” “What, you wasted one shell,” she exclaimed! I saw that smile in her eyes. I can’t begin to tell you how lucky I am. This has been one very enjoyable season. I can hardly wait for next year's duck season to roll around. Now to get those birds cleaned and the wings into the envelopes.
Al
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