September Hunting Season and Jasper

I received this note from Jasper's owner this evening and wanted to share it with you. I am so proud of the hunter he has become and appreciate all the training his owners have done with him.

Jasper had a great 4 days of hunting last week - 3 days of dove hunting and 1 day of teal (duck) hunting. We brought home about 40 doves and Jasper retrieved about 30 of those (the others fell close enough to John or me so that we could just pick them up).  He did a great job out there - including two water retrieves where he had to swim across a canal and bring back a downed bird.

The biggest difference that I noticed is that unlike last year he showed very little hesitation in picking up the downed birds and bringing them back to us. The two times when he did hesitate it was because the bird was pretty shot up and bloody; I've seen other dogs balk at those situations too. 

Our first evening of dove hunting last Tuesday was really tough because it was very hot (still 90 degrees at 7pm) and dry and no breeze. I think we lost about 4 birds then because Jasper just couldn't get a scent. The next morning we had some light rain and there was a steady breeze so Jasper had no problem; he found everything.  John and I were positioned about 30 yards apart on either side of a shallow ravine. Jasper decided to position himself midway between the two of us and sat there with his tail steadily thumping the ground waiting to see where the action would happen next.  Whenever one of us would shoot, Jasper would be there to find the bird. 

When we went teal hunting on Saturday most of the finds were easy for him but he made one that was really exceptional.  We took two birds out of an incoming flock. The one fell close by in the pond and Jasper retrieved that and brought it to John's friend. The other one which I had shot nosedived into some thick cover about 75 yards away. It was tough to see exactly where it went down because of the viewing angle I had so I asked some other guys walking out if they had seen it come down. They told me they thought it was on their side of the canal so I had Jasper begin his search there but with no success.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought it had fallen on our side of the canal so I took Jasper back over there to look.  In less than a minute Jasper had found the downed duck. John's friend, who had come over to help in the search commented, "Wow. He retrieved my duck and then he comes over here and finds this one. I have to get a dog like that!"

He's earned his rest this week. We probably won't do any more real hunting until pheasant season starts later this fall. 

Take care,

Brian