Hi I'm Eric. By day I work at a chemical manufacturing company in project and general business management.
I have a 10 year old Brittany who hunts with me at our local pheasant club and on the lesser-used state properties here in NJ. She's a little unpolished, but loves it so much she gets better every year. Unfortunately some of her club companions are way bigger and have less manners, so she gets knocked off her retrieves quite a bit.
This March we picked up our second hybrid retriever. The first was a breeder's "mistake" that I got for the right price of $150 many years ago. Sire (Chocolate Lab) and bitch (GSP) were both AKC, and I think this may have been a little side-action on the part of the fella I got him from, but it didn't matter to me at the time. That first dog was a natural, although I didn't have the time or $ to hunt him as much as I wanted. He died around 15 years ago, and I've been looking for a similar mix ever since. I came across Teveldal hybrid retrievers (
http://www.hybridretrievers.com) online last year, and I immediately called Kevin and Kristy and reserved a pup. We picked up Samson in March and he's showing real promise. I've shot over him a bit, and he definitely can find the birds, though it will take some time for him to learn what's what. Only wish he would go in water deeper than where he can stand. Plenty of time for that; he's part of the family now.
I'm 50, and I've been hunting birds in central/southern NJ for longer than I can remember. More recently I've been doing more waterfowl hunting, which is another reason to get a bigger retriever. I don't have plans or the time for extensive (like field trial) training, but I definitely want to make sure he doesn't turn into a bully like some of those mutts at the club. Manners matter.
Married with two girls (college kids now) and a boy (great to have a hunting buddy who will retrieve when the dog won't)
I'm looking forward to learning a lot from the forum!