re: When is it safe to hunt your pup? (Gator Related)

I did have an odd encounter with a gator sunday. Went to spillway to work dog 1 and dog 2. Was letting puppy air out and fetch first ... once she got a little wound down and launcher threw one too far for her scope for now... Wanted to give older dog 3 open water blinds to start - so I chunked out two more and switched hounds....


send him out on 2 pretty long ones.. and.. as I am lining him up for dummy number 3.. I see him about a 9 footer that popped up out of nowhere about 40 yards from dummy. wind was favorable for dummy recovery later... so we just switched to another pond across the road(with cleaner more visible shorelines..LOL

the reptile in question then swam on the surface about 3/4 of a mile away and vanished in some canes......


made it a good teaching moment went from lining him up to NO BIRD NO BIRD.... thankfully he did not break......