The best days afield include a shotgun and a dog

[ShotgunDave]

ROGER THAT! they say that you only get one good DOG, but all of them are our friends!

I've been lucky to have two exceptional dogs in my day. One was the Llewellyn above, and the other was a Springer named Toby. I doubt I'll ever have another dog as good as either of them were.

[mazo kid]

Our closest neighbor, just down the road and around the corner, raises and trains Beagles. He is the secretary of the Beagle Club in Wisconsin. He is also the guy who gave me 25# of bear fat (didn't use a Beagle to get the bear!).

[Retreever]

I've been very fortunate in my life , I've bred, raised, trained , hunted and showed Labrador Retrievers for 45 years. In that time I have had a lot of great dogs - usually with my guys we would finish their show careers fairly quickly getting their Championship title , we'd then move on to compete in Hunt Tests and Field Trials. Most of the dogs liked showing, they all loved hunt tests but their very first opening day in a real blind was always the most amazing.

I have a lot of stories about opening day but the one I tell most often is about Tucson, he was a black Lab , a big lad but very athletic - he's the one in the goose hunt picture and in the painting. His opening day story starts at 5am on a cold , crisp September morning - we had driven as far as we could to the back of a cut over corn field then walked in to a blind we had set up the weekend before in a hedgerow on the far side of the field.

The ducks and geese had been lifting off early in the mornings from a lake about 10 miles away and they would fly in to this field for 'breakfast'. We had our decoys scattered out in front of us and we were expecting the birds to fly in to us. We'd been settled in for about a half hour when we started hearing then coming, I set Tuscon outside the blind in a sit/stay and my buddy started calling for all he was worth.

Suddenly from behind us we hear ducks call they are flying low and coming in from behind the blind , they go right over top of us - bam , bam, bam, bam - we brought down (4) wood ducks , I look over at Tucson and he is just vibrating , waiting to be sent to pick up the birds - I gave him his back command and didn't that dog pick up all four birds, one after another and deliver to my hand at the blind. When I took the last bird from him him the look on his face was one of pure unadulterated joy - his whole body was just vibrating with excitement. When he passed 11 years later I wrote this poem for him.

For Tucson

One More Day by Roger Bannister

Coat black
Once brilliantine
Now dull

Kind eyes
Once bright
Now clouded

Deep sleep
Now holds
Tight

Then, limbs twitch
Long strides
Running?

Breath deepens
Low voiced
Grumble, whine

Does he dream?
Bright, cold fall day
Grass crunching

Nose questing
Hot, red scent
As flyer rises

Breath slows
Limbs still
Sleep holds again

I think
Selfishly
We’ve won
One more day!

[ShotgunDave]

That is awesome Retreever!

  Here's to you, and Tucson.