Hunting Dog Memories

[barryk]

Ridgewalker's post about losing Rosco was a tough pill to swallow if you ever had to put a dog down....doesn't ever get easier. Through the years, I have gone through that emotion several times, as have many in this forum. In particular, if you are a young hunter, it pays to take the time to take pictures of your hunting buddy in the field....today's phones make it much easier than when I used an instamatic camera held together with scotch tape....kept it in my hunting coat. I trained all my labs....nothing fancy....but picked them up at 7 weeks of age and used Richard Wolter's "Hunting Dog" as my intial guide...breaking to gun, making retrieves fun, and giving them lots of attention and experience in the field. Attaching pictures of my first lab, Jep making her 1st retrieve in 1983; Jackie at 11 in 2005, Odie 9 in 2014; Sheba in 2019 is currently my 5 year old lab......she will be my last hunting dog. Take time, take pictures, the memories warm your heart as you get older.