Just thought it was cool and wanted to share an experience I had with my 4 year old lab Chloe.
So I was out fishing on a west side river about 2 weeks ago, right before the blow out. I always take my lab with me when I bank it so she can dig holes in the sand, and throw sticks around and otherwise, be a dog. So we are walking down this gravel bar that has a thick blackberry strip between it and a farmers field. The dog is racing up and down the bar doing her thing when she screeches to a halt about 40 yards in front of me, noses up to the blackberries and freezes tail straight out, essentially on point. I've only seen her do this once before. So I creep to her and look into the brush can't see anything. I grab a rock and chuck it in there and about 40 quail bust out and disburse. At this point the dog is gonzo tearing through the brush and doing her best to find them again.
This would be normal business for a lot of guys and their labs but my dog has NEVER seen, smelled or been around a quail in her life. She has only duck hunted with me. She has gotten "birdy" on left over pheasants around release sites here on the west side, but I never imagined she would know that quail are a good thing and she needs to pay attention to them. She amazes me constantly at the natural intuition she has and drive to hunt, considering I've done little to no training with her whatsoever, she just knows what to do. Pretty excited at the idea of taking her east next year to hunt a little bit now.
I've also never seen quail on the west side before. I know they are around but just never run into them I guess. Kind of cool.
