Hello! 

Well, Casey and I joined the "Edmonton Pointing Dog Club" and did some live bird training with a brilliant Brittany named LEO. The owner is Lance Ulmer. Wow could that dog ever find Hungarian Partridge. We found about 5 wild coveys containing about 15 birds each. His nose was unbelievable. When he pointed we would place Casey behind him, so that Casey could see what was happening. I am not sure if he figured it out because he could not find birds on his own. Later in the morning, we released live Pigeons from special launchers after they were located. Casey had no trouble with that and was so excited he would not settle down. I had a difficult time getting Casey in the truck after that.

Casey's daily walks take two main routes. I measured the distance and determined they are 7 and 10km respectively and take from 2 to 3 hours to walk. In order to burn up some of Caseys energy, I make him drag a 75ft nylon rope. After the walk, he is relaxed for the rest of the day. My wife often walks him for an additional hour in the evenings. In the morning before the walk, the dog almost bounces off the walls he is so hyper. He begs for the walk until we go. His first hunting season is just a few weeks away. Much learning is on the horizon for both of us.   -  Greg - Aug 19 2006

September 25th 2006 - Casey’s first Duck hunting trip

 We just completed Casey’s first duck hunting trip. For a dog that is just 7 ½ months old, he performed splendidly. I did not lose a single cripple......the first time in my life. I dropped 8 ducks and thanks to Casey, recovered 100%. By comparison, I watched the old fellow next to me, who was about 200 meters away drop 8 ducks and return to the vehicle at dusk with only 3 ducks recovered. Another fellow in my group, on the other side of the slough, dropped 2 geese and lost both. By the time I found out about the lost ducks, it was already too dark for Casey to go back.

For 35 years I hunted without a dog and lost countless birds. I learned a great lesson yesterday. Never again will I hunt birds without a dog. A hunter has an obligation to recover every bird downed. I cannot believe how much benefit a well trained dog is to the hunter.

I was not sure what to expect of Casey. When I fired the shotgun and saw the first duck fold, I shouted out "dead bird". Casey, who had been drilled by me to start sniffing when I gave the command jumped up like a dog "possessed" and started hunting for the bird. After the shot, I mistakenly took my eyes off the duck as it was falling and looked at Casey so I was not exactly sure where the duck had fallen. I suspected the bird had fallen about 40 meters away and commanded the dog to head off in that direction. I crossed a ditch, a road, another ditch, crossed a barbed wire fence and headed toward an "chicken wire" fence bordering a field with long, dense grass where I believed the duck had fallen. I knew I would have to lift the dog over that "chicken wire" fence and turned to call to him. Casey was about 10 meters behind me at the first barbed wire fence on his elbows, head down, butt in the air with tail wagging intensely. I called him several times but he did not respond, This was out of character, so I walked over to him. When I arrived, I discovered Casey had the duck pinned down in some long grass on the fence line. The duck was dead. I picked it up and carried it back to our blind. Strangely, when I put the duck down, Casey picked it up, walked across the road with it and dropped it about 10 meters away and sat down beside it. He then started to lick the blood off of it. I laughed, retrieved the bird from him and placed it away from him.

The next bird I shot had a broken wing. It was a green-winged teal. The small bird fell in deep grass and had tunneled under a dense clump of foliage. Casey found it in less than a minute. When I walked up, I could not even see the bird and had to search for it to find it. There is no way I would have ever found that bird without the dogs nose. Again Casey picked up the bird and walked away from me with it. He went about 10 meters away, dropped it and again sat down and started to lick the blood off of it. I again took it away from him. For the rest of the day, Casey refused to pick-up or retrieve any more birds for me. He did however, still locate every further bird downed. I will have to resolve that "retrieve" issue with Casey in the immediate future.

The other eventful locate happened when I downed my 6th Mallard on the edge of a slough. There was about 25 meters of cattails between my position and open water. The duck fell in the water among the cattails. At the sight of the bird folding, I again yelled "dead bird" which caused Casey to dart off in the direction of the plummeting bird. By now, Casey had already learned to watch my shooting. I heard Casey and the duck thrashing in the water as they chased through the cattails. There was quacking and barking.

 Based on his earlier behavior, I did not think Casey would make the retrieve and so I headed into the swamp with my leather boots, soaking my feet. When I reached Casey, he had the duck pinned down, which I grabbed and dispatched forthwith.

After I shot my limit of birds, I took Casey to help two other hunters locate their birds. Casey loved the hunt. Everyone was impressed with him. Never in their life had any of these 4 other hunters, all between the ages of 67 and 75, seen a 7 ½ month pup hunt like that.

They said that Casey was certain to become the greatest hunting dog they had ever seen.....a champion hunting dog. Not one of these hunters, who cumulatively had over 240 years of hunting experience, had ever hunted with a Brittany before. They all had hunted with Labs, GSP’s, and Springer's. Casey had opened their eyes to the virtues of the Brittany .