Ruby has been looking good with some high activity play/fetch sessions lately and it's been 8 weeks, so following Don Rushton's advice I took her for a short hunt to see how she holds up. So today I took the afternoon off and drove out to a tiny little patch of cover that I have been saving untouched just in case I got the OK to give her a go before the end of the season. Well, we hunted 34 minutes and got a limit. I shot twice, and one of those shots was a MISS! I am so proud of this dog! We headed down into the cover and I reminded her of a few whistle sits, whoas, come-arounds and our other standard commands. I was thrilled that she was hunting perfectly, and basically thought to myself that if my last day for '09 ended like this I'd be satisfied and excited for 2010. Not long into the hunt a rooster flushed wild, but just went to the edge of the cover, not across the river. I heeled Ruby and after checking that the river was ice-free we circled downwind and I kept her at heel until we were 30 yards from the tip of the cover (inside bend of the river). I released her and the rooster flushed IMMEDIATELY across the river. I fired once behind him and then swung out front with my second shot and he went down on the far side of the river. The bank is high there so I could not see how hard he went down or where he went etc... I knew that he wasn't hit very hard though. Two hens and another rooster had also flushed and Ruby was distracted by those and didn't see the fall of the rooster. I cast her across and told her to Find It Fetch Him Up. She went to work. I could hear her panting as she quartered back and forth, so I knew that she didn't have the bird in her mouth. Each time she came to the bank to look at me I cast her Back Find Him Fetch Him up. Finally I heard her coming back. She was not panting. She was snorting like a Mac truck with the jake brake on! She swam across the river with a very annoyed looking rooster in her mouth.
After congratulating her enthusiastically I laughed when I noticed that she'd plucked every feather out of that poor rooster when she was trying to get hold of him - his bum looked like a chicken at the grocery store - plucked clean!
Pleased as punch we headed back to the car, deciding not to push our luck on her first hunt in two months. A couple hundred yards from the car she got birdy again. SUPER birdy. I got ready to shoot and let her do her work. This pheasant was holding like CRAZY. She started to "pounce" with both forelimbs locked in the snow-flattened mats of yellow grass. I kept waiting for the pheasant to come up. Well, it came up allright - in her mouth! I took it from her and contemplated throwing it up in the air and shooting it, but figured knowing me I'd miss. She has a soft mouth, but he still looked like he was not doing so well, so I opted to take him out of the gene pool instead. Won't be surprised if he's got a few of someone's late-season long-shot pellets in him somewhere when I clean him. Still, I could not be more proud of Ruby. There is quite simply no better way to finish the 2009 season.
Don, I know you've got some decent dogs in that kennel, but let's face it, none of them can hold a candle to my Ruby! Haha! All the best,
-Dave
