Hope that all is well with you. I never managed to fool another pheasant for the last day of the season, but I’ve been having some success ducking over near Canning. I was doing very well until Ruby seemed to hit her limit with retrieves. I am not sure if the cold just got to her or if something else happened to scare her but she flat out refused even very short retrieves. She would run down to the water and then when I gave her the fetch command she would get scared and run away from the water. I tried calm reassurance and encouragement but she was having no part of it. I brought a decoy retriever pole and used that to hook the ducks closer until all that she had to do was put her front paws in, but we were losing too many ducks when the tide came up to continue this method (once I could not reach across the channel with the hook we started losing birds). I think it may be the ice/slush in the water that freaked her out (one day she crossed to get a cripple running of the far bank and then had a bit of a hard time getting back to me in the current/ice). I will train there a lot next year in good conditions and also work her more in cold salt water on this side to try to get this resolved for next years. I’m hoping to get her used to all sorts of currents and more cold water so that she can make consistent retrieves there next year – very productive spot but we were just losing too many birds to keep shooting. Still, we’ve had some muddy fun! Here are some photos.
Hope you had a good holiday. We’re off to NB to go skiing for New Years. Happy New Year!
Cheers,
-Dave
