By Steve Weisman

Curt and Avery with her “first” limit of pheasants.

In late July, I shared that my son Curt and his wife were sending their black Labrador puppy (Avery) back to TLC Labradors in Stanton, NE, the kennel from which they had purchased her. I encouraged them to do this because there is so much to learn that often times a “boot camp” with a trainer is the best thing that could happen.

The fact that Mark, the owner, had done a month “boot camp” for my last yellow Labrador, fine tuning her to be the best hunting dog I every possessed, was all the encouragement that Curt needed. It turned out to be discipline, gun conditioning, introduction to birds and actual hunting situations.

From day one, when Curt brought her home at eight weeks, Avery loved fetching the dummy in the garage, but out in the field – nope. She would have nothing to do with it! So, that was certainly something Curt wanted the trainer (Mark) to work on. A couple of weeks into her stay, in a phone conversation, Mark told Curt, “Nope, she sees no reason to retrieve the dummy, so I make her sit while I work the other dogs. Avery is really competitive, and when she sees the other dogs retrieving, then she’ll want to retrieve the dummy.”

When it came to working with live birds, she would retrieve just like she was supposed to. Mark noted that unless there was competition or a reason, Avery wasn’t really interested. Her competitive side came out when it came to “real” hunting.

Was “boot camp” worth it

When Curt and I picked Avery up the first week of September, Mark took her through her obedience commands and showed Curt how to continue to work with her with the same consistency Mark had given her. The first real test came in the early teal season. We hunted a drying up pond with only about a foot of water in it. We were able to sit on dry land in the cattails, and she could go out into the shallow water and retrieve the ducks without having to swim. We hunted teal three times and then the opener of regular duck season. In those trips, Avery found every duck we shot and retrieved around 20 ducks.

The next step was going with a friend to a bigger pond that was about three feet deep in the middle. This was the big test. If a duck dropped in the middle, would she swim out to get it? After all, she had never been actually swimming. Sure enough, after a few birds, we dropped a duck about 50 yards out in the water. We all held our breath as she ran out and then hit chest deep water and…she never missed a beat…she was so intent on retrieving the duck that I don’t think she even knew she was swimming. When it got too deep, she simply swam! Now how cool is that!

Finally, the pheasant season arrived. Curt had taken her out in the grass and worked her over the last month and they flushed a few pheasants, but it wasn’t because Avery had gotten them up. She simply was running around because she could. Except for the work Mark had done with her, she had no idea what she was doing.

So, on the opener Curt’s son-in-law Andrew brought his eight-year old pointer Ginger up from Des Moines to hunt with us. Ginger is an excellent pointer, but retrieving is not for her, so we knew they would not fight over which dog brought back a rooster.

Over the course of three hours, Avery would kind of follow Ginger around, and by the end of the morning was learning to quarter pretty well. We ended up bagging five roosters, and Avery retrieved every one of them. So, she kind of had things figured out, but she still wasn’t too sure what flushing a bird was all about.

Then came Sunday. Curt and I went out mid-afternoon when the wind had finally settled down. At my age, I don’t walk as much as I used too, so after walking a little, I let Curt and Avery head into the southwest corner of the grassland next to the picked cornfield. I went to block at the other end. Soon, I heard three shots ring out, and then Curt was yelling directions to Avery. About 10 minutes later they came over the hill. Curt told me that they had walked into a group of pheasants with roosters and hens exploding all around them. Avery retrieved both roosters. As the blocker, I, of course, missed my one swing shot.

Curt was pleased with her improvement from the first day, and I noted that Avery had passed both pre-school and kindergarten. With about 10 minutes left to hunt, Curt and Avery headed toward a good stand of Big Bluestem along the picked cornfield. This time Avery got birdy and was definitely on a scent, when she pounced into a clump of grass, and a rooster erupted out of the grass. They had their third bird.

When they got back to the pickup, I could tell that Curt was proud of his young retriever. I said with a laugh, “In two days, she has gone from pre-school and is already in middle school!”

Yes, I would definitely say that “boot camp” was definitely worth it, and Avery is on her way to being not only a great pet but also a great hunting dog!

(photo  by Steve Weisman) Andrew and Ginger  (L) and Avery and Curt with five roosters on opening day.