Happy New Year! I got out a few times over the holidays. Picked up a few birds on a river hunt in very cold weather. Ruby did well to make the double retrieve in heavy current with limited time to get them before they drifted down along unsafe (ice) shoreline. We then took 5 birds out in Fundy on the 30th. I brought my boat in case the ice was too heavy for her but she was positively fearless! She retrieved them all with gusto! It probably helped that it was a beautiful warm day in the blind, although we did lots of work last winter in very cold water with ice around. The last retrieve was a lightly crippled bird that ran all over the top of the opposite mud flat so that she had to slop around after it for quite a while after having made a 70 yard swim in strong current to get there. It was an easy mark but surely her most athletic retrieve of the year because the duck was able to skim on top while she was up to her belly in mud! As she swam back across with that one it had its head held high with a distinctly “What the HELL?” look on its face! The current brought her way down by the time she crossed back to me so I was so glad that I trained “Hold” so that she brought that lively duck to hand without dropping it and having to chase it again. A great way to finish the season! Here are a few pictures.
Cheers,
-Dave
