re: Hunting Dog Stories

I lost my lab, Zoey, back about 4 years ago.
Her first real retrieve was back in 2003. My dad, LSUCouyon, had made the trip up. We were headed to the LSU-Ole Miss game. I wanted to show off my fancy trained Lab.
One of our group had knocked down a big green head. She marked perfectly and with a nervous "Zoey!" I sent her on her way. She bolted out of the blind like a shot, me with a proud grin on my face. Just as she was about to pick up the bird, he decided he wasn't quite done. He flapped and kicked and she balked at the idea that I wanted her to actually pick this thing up. "Fetch" I said. I got the very definition of a "WTF? look" from her. I yelled "Fetch!" a couple of more times, getting madder with each command. I finally had to ring his neck and throw it for her but she performed flawlessly the rest of the day.
She was a good one that always wanted to please.
Good ones are hard to replace and I still can't make myself get another.