Gary....I would say you have a bright future there with great dog and gun! I have a 20 month old Gordon setter that goes to P.A. on wensday to start our fall grouse hunting. My good friend in potter county tells me there are good number of birds this year...(-: Ruby was just a pup last season and will be mutch better this year...less puppy play. Im will be shooting a light 1903 Dh 16 with open chokes...(-: SXS ohio

Young dogs and first grouse, what a great combo for sure. My first dog could pick up a uncooked egg and carry it around without cracking it.:) My second dog can put bite marks in rolled steel. :(

Never seen a setter with a hard mouth. I'm guessing that one was in a position where the pup couldn't get a good grip on the body and thus the tail was the only area she could reach. PS. Nice wood on that repro.

My seven year old Wirehair puppy's first retrieve seems like yesterday. A friend and I were training on McKee- Beshers, a public hunting and training area in Poolesville, MD. We got a good point on a couple of quail and I killed one with my little 28 VH. I sent Eva out to pick up. She went about twenty five yards, coming past my hunting partner on her way back. When she came to me, she didn't have any sign of a bird. I asked my friend if she had a bird in her mouth when she went past him. He said she had a good looking whole quail when he saw her last. Every good bird dog deserves to eat the first quail of a long career. We never did see any sign of that bird. Sorry I couldn't get my 28 Repro into this story. (After thinking about it, I have to edit this post. I did not shoot Eva's first bird. I was handling and I believe my friend was shooting.)

You've gotta be kidding Bill... She's seven already?? Seems like just yesterday...

some first retrieves are more work than others :)

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...IMGP0217-1.jpg

And Tom - love the egg trick - I had a friend many years ago that raised a hunting line of Golden Retrievers. He used to give one dog a raw egg, and Trieve would jump up on the kitchen counter and go out the window, then run around to the back door up a few steps and give the egg back. I had one of that dog's double grandaughters, my kids would give her glass Christmas ornament with the hook on it and she would take it across the livingroom and deliver it to another kid to hang on the tree. She never cracked one.

with my current pair of setters - the older one is a very reliable retriever but he doesn't want the younger one to steal his retrieve so he can somehow get a very firm grip on a bird with out leaving a tooth mark.

I remember Gunner's first retrieve. It was at the Haymarsh Hunt Club and it was his first season, he was 7 months old. I killed a Quail that fell into a pond. gunner looked at it, tested the water and with some encouragement dove right in and brought the bird back. I should have had it mounted.

from the sound of it you did - just in your head instead of on a wall.

I have a lot of those "memory mounts" of Gunner.

water retrieve by a non retriever
 

It wasn't Ringo's first, but it was the first I got a pic of.

Just Could Not Resist
 

First, thanks to all the interest and comment on the original post. Glad to see so many enjoyed it. It seems that many of you place a good deal of importance on retrieving. I, on the other hand, prefer to train hard on bird finding and handling. So, here is a shot of today's training exercise on my homing pigeons.

Jake, the originator of this thread is on the left, Willie(6 yrs old) and Jake's uncle is on the right, and Trapper(12 yrs old) is in the center.

The caption: Trapper says, "see Jake this is how you do it. You squeeze the birds between you and Willie until the old fart with the gun can get here. That way they won't run into the next county before he manages to find us."

Cannot wait to see the comments on my choice of training cover, etc. Enjoy!