Buck and I went goose hunting with my cousin over the weekend, the day after his third birthday. Didn't get to take the shotgun safety off even once, as we were hunting some very shy birds. The consolation prize was Buck being very well behaved on his first couple of waterfowling excursions, as he usually isn't a fan of being told to sit still and be quiet. However he kept it together and despite him not getting to retrieve anything we all had a good time. All things considered, I have a lot more confidence in my dog after this weekend and to me that matters more than bringing home a goose or two.

On Saturday morning we hunted the Minnesota River and it was unbelievably foggy... 10 ft visibility in the dark made boating to our spot lots of "fun." The scenery we enjoyed after the sun started to rise made up for that. At one point we had three geese come around the trees to the left in this photo and towards us, flying low and looking committed, but as soon as my cousin clucked once on his call they scattered. Some other small flocks were nearby but didn't want to have anything to do with us.



We sat on the muddy river bank, hidden among some willow saplings. He found a spot next to me, tucked under the branches. A couple times he had to check and make sure the decoys weren't in fact alive but that was the worst of it. Here he is watching for birds (and sitting still in his spot like he should):



Letting off some steam while we were picking up decoys:



On Sunday we parked the boat in some reeds along a small puddle lake and had a couple birds fly overhead just beyond shooting range, but they didn't circle back around. This was much more challenging for Buck as he only had a small spot to sit at on the front of the boat and had no room to stretch his legs or use the bathroom. However he eventually settled down and spent his time watching for fish in the water or looking for birds.



This is the look I get after telling him he can't go in the water for the billionth time.



There was very little shooting around us on both days. Oh well. We're switching gears for this weekend and are headed up to the Duluth, MN area for some grouse hunting and land scouting. Buck will get to run around as much as he wants then.

Bottom line, this dog is doing the things I very much hoped he could do when I adopted him and this makes me very happy. Can't wait to turn him loose in the woods and watch him work again.

Good outing for you and Buck. Experience is great for younger dogs---even if you don't kill any birds. Keep it up! My girl has her first real hunt of the year this Friday. IF there are a lot of birds, I may just work her and let someone else shoot. Great work if you can get it.

Thanks TK and good luck to you and your girl on Friday.

I wish we could run into lots of birds like that but hey it's called hunting and not shooting for a reason, and it's still very early in the hunting seasons too. Some day. I'm hoping we've got lots of days afield ahead of us this fall.

My takeaway from the weekend is knowing that Buck can handle these waterfowling days, or at least I have a lot more confidence for when he does get some action with the birds.

When he gets more experience, you will marvel at his ability. It got to the point that when I duck hunted w/ my male I did not even reach for my gun until he locked on birds. I swear and have witnesses that he could tell the difference between ducks and seagulls or shorebirds. I've seen times when a group of 5 hunters swore we had 5 birds down in one volley. My dog fetched 5 ducks and then left the blind. All of us were looking and wondering where he was going. He even ignored my come in whistle. At a/b 140 yds we found out why. We actually had 6 ducks on the water. He was the only one that saw #6 go down.
Cherish your time w/ Buck and spend as much time w/ him as you can. It WILL go by quickly !

Poor Buck! Looks like you took him goose watching instead of goose hunting.

465H&H

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Killartist:
When he gets more experience, you will marvel at his ability. It got to the point that when I duck hunted w/ my male I did not even reach for my gun until he locked on birds. I swear and have witnesses that he could tell the difference between ducks and seagulls or shorebirds. I've seen times when a group of 5 hunters swore we had 5 birds down in one volley. My dog fetched 5 ducks and then left the blind. All of us were looking and wondering where he was going. He even ignored my come in whistle. At a/b 140 yds we found out why. We actually had 6 ducks on the water. He was the only one that saw #6 go down.
Cherish your time w/ Buck and spend as much time w/ him as you can. It WILL go by quickly !

I was really happy to see him actively watching and looking for birds- something he hasn't had much of an opportunity to do before. It took him a bit to figure out multiple retrieves in training but now he's got that down pretty well. We're having lots of fun no matter what.

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
Poor Buck! Looks like you took him goose watching instead of goose hunting.

465H&H

Ha! Terrible, right? I just call it "aggressive bird watching" when we don't take anything home.

Beautifull dog .

Evan, Buck is maturing into a handsome boy.
Cherish your time w/ him.
Insist on good manners when hunting.
As he ages you will see your training, efforts and time invested pay off.

Thanks Juan!

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Killartist:
Evan, Buck is maturing into a handsome boy.
Cherish your time w/ him.
Insist on good manners when hunting.
As he ages you will see your training, efforts and time invested pay off.

Thanks, I've definitely noticed his self control and listening improving but as usual the training is never done right?

This past weekend I was out of town for a wedding but the weekend before that, I brought Buck out to some woods for a grouse hunt after a birdless morning turkey hunt. He didn't wander off too far in the leafy brush and ended up flushing two grouse for me. A good afternoon.