SO I posted a few times last year about my first season hunting ducks, and doing so with a new dog, Chloe. Last year she amazed me at 1.5 years and little to no training how naturally she took to retrieving and working ducks. I was a little worried this year when we started hunting again that she may have forgotten what to do, but boy was I surprised! This picture is from Christmas Eve, me and buddy limited in about an hour at our secret spot (I know there is only 13 there, we got the last one moments after the picture). When we first got to the spot we were a few minutes late and the ducks were already there. We jumped the spot and managed to get 7 in the first jump! Chloe began retrieving like a pro and retrieved all 7 ducks without a single command. We managed to shoot 4 more while we were trying to get the decoys out leaving us only a couple to shoot over decs, no problem though.
Chloe has been an indispensable hunting partner, (while a pain in the ass sometimes when she won't sit still) chasing down winged ducks in blackberry thickets, devils club and inpenetrable forest thickets, she has yet to not track one down. Just thought I'd brag a little bit about her. Hope everyones season is going well and thank god we finally got some weather! Happy Holidays!