The guarding of the duck

[Goldeneye]

A buddy and I took my girls out today on the shore in the North Sound.  The old pup is 13, The young one is just over a 1 1/2.  The pup is doing very good, even got in a 200 yard retrieve today.  She is still learning the trade though when it comes to duck hunting.  There were 3 birds today that the pup needed help on.  At that time I sent in the old hunter and she got all three of those birds.  There is no substitution for experience in a lab.  Anyways, I had the birds piled up while we were picking up decoys and looked over.  The girls were guarding the ducks and had pretty serious faces on.  It made me smile.  Makes me think they were proud of their work...

[waoutdoorsman]

Great looking dogs ya got there! Very cool! I love love those sprigs

[WCTaxidermy]

That pic is awesome!  I sure miss my 13 year old yellow lab.  The new pup at 10 months old is coming along very well.  He has a look of a very experienced dog in him.  Great job with them Goldeneye.

[bagmNtagm]

good lookin dogs, and looks like a good duck day too    cant wait until the day im training my bird dog

[Goldeneye]

Yea, bringing up a pup to learn to hunt is very rewarding.  One thing I loved about this trip was on the long retrieve the pup was taking hand signals and you could see her winding the duck while swimming.  Very cool to watch.   The old dog pretty much comes along for moral support and sits in the blind unless the young one can't get the job done for one reason or another.  She only comes along on blind hunts.  The old dog may be deaf and have one wheel that is not the best, but she still knows exactly what to do.  It's kind of funny.  Sometimes after she cleans up a bird that the pup didn't get she packs it over to the pup and almost gives her a look that seems to say "see this is what you are supposed to do".  Then she hands it to me.  The old dog is also a teacher. 

[singleshot12]

That's what it's all about and like you say there is no substitution for experience in a lab  

[lokidog]

Nice hunt/pic, looks like the old dog is smoking a shotgun shell.