Case in point:
I was working a dog Wednesday that is fairly well broke and I hope to be Trialing come Fall. I had actually been focusing on his honor where he needs improvement and decided to reward him for a respectable job with the clean up on a few Chukars. 1st bird he gives a nice point in some sedge, I put the bird up and I wiff with both barrels and watch it fly 300 yards across the field to the rivers edge. Figured I'd work him on down the fields edge, around the corner and back up the rivers edge to work the bird again. Tap him out and send him on, we work all the way down the edge, around and back up the river and can't relocate the bird.
Feeling like I've left him down, we continue on up the river, back around the next corner and on down the fence line when he locks up on point at a cluster of 20' Cedars.
This is where it starts to get fun. I kick around a bit, but can clearly see there is no bird on the ground, so I start looking up in the Cedars and sure enough, there sits a Chukar about 6' up. I go over and try to shake the bird out of the branches, all the while trying to figure out how I'm going to manage the shot when the bird goes. Welllll, this bird has no intention of flying and just hops up a few branches. So I call my Wife Jen over from the truck(50 yards away) and ask her to help, so I can at least try to be ready for a shot. Now mind you, the dog is still patiently standing and maintaining his style. She comes over and starts to poking at the bird with a branch and the bird just decides to go up another few branches. "I'll get that "bleep" out of there" she says and begins to climb up into the tree! As she goes up....so goes the bird. Finally, she manages to shake the branches out from under the bird near the top and it fluttered down to the ground at the base of the next tree. That tightens the boy up a bit and he begins to quake. "Just stay there" she says, as she fights her way down through the Cedar branches.... "I'm going to punt that bird if I have too"! So down she comes and the bird runs into a lil clump of Multiflora and she punts in behind it and the bird goes up....... right back up into the next Cedar! Now about this time, along comes a neighbor boy and he decides to get in on all the fun. Jen goes up the tree and persuades the bird to go back to the ground, but now we have a bit of extra help. The neighbor goes to flush and the bird starts to running around in the Multiflora, so Jen comes down and the two of them start trying to get this bird to fly.... reminded me of a greased pig catching contest! I've been watching the dog and he is still patiently standing, hasn't let down and I know we just gotta get this bird in the air! I get in on the chase and FINALLY, the bird gets up and flys straight at my dog about 15' off the ground. Now from my placement, I can see plenty of air and am shooting up and away from the dog and have a safe shot. I hit it with the first barrel and it hits the ground 5' in front of the dog and HE BROKE!
He fetched it up and delivered it to hand.... BUT HE BROKE! Now he withstood probably 20 minutes or more of this 3 ring circus for me to finally kill the bird for him and I just didn't have the heart to correct him. So just how much do you really expect of them?
I'm human and would have surely blown up after about 5 minutes, if not from anticipation, then from laughter!
Got any stories of some extremely ridiculous flushing attempts that your dog stood?
