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  1. #1
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Bottom

    Training, trialing, hunting a retriever is a very earthy endeavor. Sometimes, you see a dog and handler really reach deep and bring it on. Few retrieves are simple affairs. There are a million ways, small and large, that a dog can give in to the challenges of wind, terrain, cover and other adverse conditions... even when they still "bring home the chicken" (as the saying goes.) Nine times out of ten... maybe 99 times out of 100... that's fine. They get the job done and it's all good.

    But it is an honor and a thrill to watch a dog meet every challenge head on because he wants it that bad. There are dogs you watch run and when the last bird has been delivered you simply know, you'll never forget what you just saw. When athletes, whether human, equine, or canine display those heroic performances, it's called BOTTOM. You train for those tough moments. But when they come, only the athlete can decide how bad he/she wants it.

    I think about the dogs at the Twin Towers, the ones they had to haul off the wreckage and bandage their feet and plug them into IV's because the dogs were literally working themselves to death. You have to see Secretariat run the stretch of the Belmont when he was picking up speed and running harder and harder, opening a 31 length lead on the second place horse. How do you MAKE a dog or a horse or a person do that kind of thing?

    I was at a Hunt Test a couple of years ago. There was a 12 year old MH... running her last ever event. She was missing her left front leg. She'd been injured many years previously and wouldn't let her owner leave her home when he went hunting or training. I don't think she knew she was missing that leg. When the owner blew a sit whistle, she spun so hard and planted her butt so fast, she always fell over. I don't think she even recognized that was a problem. She came to the line every time convinced she would bring home every bird.

    Her last series (ever) was a land-water triple. The flier on land provided a lot of suction for the middle bird which required the dog to parallel the shore. She was a savvy old dog and that didn't mess her up at all. But the memory bird was WAY across the water, landed in cover on land. She swam over there like a swan with her three legs... but wouldn't you know it, that duck was a monster. Biggest duck I've ever seen. So she scooped up this duck and re-entered the water. She was tired. And every time she needed that missing front leg to help pull her through the water, her head went under. She wouldn't let go of that duck. She wouldn't quit. She was breathing hard, having to suck air around the duck, and it wasn't easy for her to draw in enough on those brief moments when her head was above water. But on she swam.

    I can tell you, every person at the line, at each gun station and in the gallery was going to jump in to help her if she floundered. But she just kept coming. She had found her rhythm and she knew she could bring the duck to hand. When she came out of the water and walked to her handler, sat down breathing hard and wagging her tail slowly, looking up at him... damn. There was not a dry eye anywhere.

    Courage. Devotion. Bottom. If you have ever seen it, you know you've experienced a rare blessing. And when it's your dog... you're doubly blessed.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog IRISHWISTLER's Avatar
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    TuMicks,
    AWESOME POST! Here's to "BOTTOM"!

    Slainte,
    Irishwhistler
    TEAM TRAD PRO STAFF
    DUBLIN DUCK DYNASTY

    Joanie Madden, Mary Bergin, Adrea Coor, and Nuala Kennedy, each an Irish whistle goddess in her own right.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog
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    A great story Tumicks. I had to smile when I saw your title. A friend has a fire breathing chocolate that when Don was training him he would say Henry has lots of bottom but not to much on top. The dog is just crazy to retrieve and nothing ever stops him but he sure does not slow down to think about what he is doing.

 



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