Well, deer season isnt over after all ...

It turns out that my friend up in Virginia has an extended muzzle loader season that runs through Saturday. So its up to Va for me, and let me tell you, we always see deer up there, lots of them. I cannot wait, who cares if it is really cold. Lookout deer, its freezer fillin time. I am gonna take the video camera too. Hopefully I will have some good footage to post for yall by Saturday night. The amazing Brewer has performed yet another feat. This afternoon I had him out running through the woods by a big lake.There were geese at the lake, so I sat him and pointed to the geese. When he finally saw them (250 yards across the water), he jumped in and off he went. Generally he is very obedient to my whistle in the water, I guess there were too many geese. He swam clear to the other side of the lake, took a right turn after the geese and went another hundred yards. After several minutes of swimming, he finally listened to me and swam the whole way back. By this time I was undressed and ready to jump in after him, but he never faltered and made it back to shore just fine. I still cannot believe how far he swam, you had to see it to appreciate it. Part of me was really scared and mad because he disobeyed me, but part of me was so proud of how far he swam chasing those birds. I let him know how I felt, he said he was sorry and we went on. This could have been bad, and it would have been all my fault for being slack on his training. He knew better, but it has been a while since we worked on the basics SIT STAY COME in the water( we do it everyday on dry land). It should be the same to him, but the water just throws him off a bit. This is an unacceptable error on my part, and I will fix it ASAP. A bird dog(in retriever mode) must be obedient in any situation the moment you command him. If this is not the case you are asking for trouble as I was today. On the other hand, I will not hesitate to send Brewer on a super long retrieve after seeing what he is capable of. Lets keep in mind he just turned 8 months old, and has never been waterfowl hunting. He doesnt flinch around guns, he loves to retrieve and he loves birds. What I was trying to do today was get him more exposure to ducks and geese. I want him to want the birds, which he does. He just hasnt learned exactly how it all fits together yet, but that is coming soon. He has pointed and retrieved quail to my hand, so he wont have too much trouble. All in all, he is doing great in his training, I just need to devote more time to him. This week is going by slow, partly due to the weather I think, isnt it cold. This makes for long (but manageable) days at work. All we need now is the snow. Will we get it or not? That is all I got for today. Stay tuned, tomorrow or the next day I am going to do a write up on alternative or nontraditional strategies for deer hunting.... Should be good
-Andrew

Brewer at 10 weeks