Memorable moments

[Sharon]

Any memorable gundog experiences you'd like to share?

Best moment: Beat my pro dog training friend at a shooting dog trial. Had to hide my smile.

Bad moment: Didn't trust my dog. Called him off of a point at a trial as I couldn't see a bird to flush. Seconds later the bird crawled out from under a log. Yes we lost that trial.

Second worst moment was when while in a trialing situation my dog was doing great. The course circled a pond at the end. Then he saw those Canada geese; he'd never seen Canada geese before. You guessed it , she was gone. Swam that pond for an hour and had a wonderful time.

Very worst moment: Someone stole my dog from my car when I was out shooting skeet. You don't really recover from that.

[ckirsch]

One of my favorite moments was when my then-ten-year-old daughter ran her pointer pup in a NAVHDA NA test. When she released him for the field portion of the test, her pup took off on a cast considerably wider than I suspect most NAVHDA judges care to see. She made no attempt to reel him in, but the dog quickly returned closer to her on it's own accord, and hunted at mid-range for the remainder of it's time in the field. When she returned to the truck I mentioned that I was surprised she didn't call Pete back when he embarked on his opening lap of the field. Her reply was that "I figured he needed to burn off a little stink, after being in his box all morning, and was thinking that if I called him and he didn't return right away I might get dinged on obedience." Had it been me, I'd have probably hollered at the dog.

She and her pup took home a 112 pz 1 than morning.

[deseeker]

One of my most memorable & satisfying moments was hunting on the Indian reservation north of us. We just started hunting a field and 3 guys jumped in front of us and stayed about 250 yards in front of us the whole way thru the field. At the end of the field, they hadn't fired a shot over their 3 dogs and our 2 brits pointed and retrieved 3 roosters following behind them. We didn't say one word to them when we finished the field, but I'm sure they saw the big smiles on our faces when we drove by their truck That one hunt made my year

[RayGubernat]

Over the years I have had quite a few...most really good and a few ...not so terrific.
One of the worst was when my first dog Jack was chasing a flying pheasant and went off a railroad embankment that was about 20 ft. straight down. I ran to the edge, saw him laying there, dropped my gun and got down to him. He had the wind knocked out of him and was dinged up pretty good He couldn't put weight on one back leg, so I carried him up the embankment on my shoulder. Jack was about 50# but I was young and limber back then. Turns out he chipped a bone in his knee and a simple cleanup and chip removal procedure was all that was needed. He was done for the season, but he had many more good years of hunting. Had to put him down at 18 and that still hurts. I still remember hunting and hangin' around with him and that was over fifty years ago.

One other hairy, scary moment was when a young dog was running by a shallow pond in winter. I was training on foot at the C&R center here in Delaware. She was on the right side of the pond and I and another trainer were on the left side. Breeze decided to come across the pond to me. About halfway across she hit some rotten ice and it caved in. She wasn't making headway, so I took my wallet, keys and stuff out of my pockets, peeled off my coat and walked in to the pond breaking the rotten ice in front of me with my legs and then, as it got deeper, with my arms and chest. I was not going to stand there and watch her drown. When I got out her, I was up to about my shoulders and was starting to bob up and down to break ice and make headway. I got her by the collar, turned, threw her in front of me and walked back out. She was fine. I was wet, but I was so wound up I wasn't even cold until I got back to the truck and sat in the cab and started to think about what an incredibly stupid thing I had just done.

One of the most thrilling and memorable field trial braces I can remember was at an amateur all age stake down at the Cloverdale farm In southern VA. I cut Blue loose and he screamed to the front, One of the spectators called out "Ray!! He is blowing out the front!!... as he went over the third rise and disappeared. I rode forward, sang to him a couple of times and after about ten minutes he showed, far to the front, coming back in for me. Once he saw me, he broke to the left and went up a steep sidehill. Near the top about 150 feet up there, he locked up on point. He was high and tight and standing sideways on that hillside...in full view of the entire field trial gallery. It took us about five minutes to ride up there to him and he stood there, tall and proud all the while... didn't move so much as a toenail. It is a picture I will carry in my mind forever.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. RayG

[Vonzeppelinkennels]

Me & a friend were training on a game farm on the back part of the property there was a shed that had fallen down only leaving the gable roof standing. My friend hollered at me & said hey Ted your dog is standing on top of the roof what is she doing? I looked & said looks like she's on point what is she pointing I climbed up on part of the lumber & saw 4 or 5 quail inside on the rafters she was on the very top of the roof & she some how scented them ran up the roof & pointed. The sad part is I never had a camera with me to get a pic & was before cell phones so no pic but I never will forget that as long as I live. That friend passed a yr or so ago from covid but I still remember the fun we had hunting training & fishing together. Friends like him don't come along much anymore at my age.

[cjhills]

When the dog I was running in hunt tests points a bird while making a retrieve.
There is no way to get out of that situation without breaking the rules.....Cj

[Sharon]

When the dog I was running in hunt tests points a bird while making a retrieve.
There is no way to get out of that situation without breaking the rules.....Cj

Some rules need to be broken. Always annoyed me in trials that a dog couldn't relocate after pointing a bird but the bird moved on. I guess the dog is suppose to stare at a blank bush until I got there and gave her permission to relocate. Rules should be more attuned to good hunting practices imo.

Sorry to take this off topic

[RayGubernat]

When the dog I was running in hunt tests points a bird while making a retrieve.
There is no way to get out of that situation without breaking the rules.....Cj

cJ-
Don't know what the right thing to do is in that situation. It sucks when the dog does everything right and the rules make it wrong.
Closest to that scenario was a couple times I had it happen while hunting. I didn't know what to do...should I go and take the dead bird from the dog and hope that the pointed bird will stay. or go in for the flush. First time it happened I went in for the flush, mostly because it was a pheasant. Second time I went for the retrieved bird first because it was a quail. Missed the pointed bird both times.

[gonehuntin']

I guess there's been so many I won't ever try. Some from Field Trial dog's, some from hunting dog's. Very few things can match the brilliant performance and win of a field trial dog though.

[Chemist]

Me & a friend were training on a game farm on the back part of the property there was a shed that had fallen down only leaving the gable roof standing. My friend hollered at me & said hey Ted your dog is standing on top of the roof what is she doing? I looked & said looks like she's on point what is she pointing I climbed up on part of the lumber & saw 4 or 5 quail inside on the rafters she was on the very top of the roof & she some how scented them ran up the roof & pointed. The sad part is I never had a camera with me to get a pic & was before cell phones so no pic but I never will forget that as long as I live. That friend passed a yr or so ago from covid but I still remember the fun we had hunting training & fishing together. Friends like him don't come along much anymore at my age.

I had a simalarish incident. I was hunting after a snowfall. I had busted a covey of quail earlier in the day and was making my way back to the truck. The dog crawls on top of some matted reeds that were chest height. Due to the snow it probably just looked like a hill to the dog. Then he goes on point with his head sticking straight down between his legs. I flushed a single quail 3' directly below him.

[Max2]

Driving down to NJ to pick up my fisrt GSP - Now on my third and almost 30 yrs later ! Wow ! These athelets have been a joy to be around ! Each in their own ! Really enjoy reading everyones "tails" ~ Good stuff !