And so the fun continues!!

[Southpaw]

Ya know Mike I don't doubt it a bit. Even when I was in school 30% of the people I knew there were from out of state, and I mean from way up north. It was fun and we had some great times with those carpetbaggers. BTW I also have a Saban signed football as well. Wife's family is from Louisiana and kid of recent next door neighbors to in laws wears the tiger mascot costume at the games. Boy I have had some fun with him the last few years. I live in Atlanta and sadly all my Georgia fan neighbors are still walking around like zombies, Kirby will get it done for them though sooner than later. If you want to be the man, you got to beat the man.

Last quick story because could ramble on for days about stuff. My coach told me when he played at Bama, they were behind late in a game they were supposed to win easily but everyone played Alabama tough even back then. It was fourth and goal and they run a play in from sideline, except it wasn't a play. The flanker that ran the play in said to quarterback, "Coach said he trusts you and just call the play that you think will work, by the way Coach also said that if we don't score we might not want to show up for next practice" They all knew what that meant and the running back could have walked in untouched.

[Mike of the Mountain]

That's a great story. Don't want to get on the bad side of Coach!! Maybe someday we'll meet at a shoot and you can ragale me with plenty of TIDE stories!! Until then, Roll on!!

[Southpaw]

Yep good times and btw Coach Bryant was a big time bird hunter in his day after the football season was over, but he would sneak in a few hunts between Thanksgiving and Christmas later on in his career.

Grew up with setters and brittanies and hope your new pup turns out to be a good one. You will have to believe me on this one but if I were you I would this early summer introduce that puppy to water and swimming. Was around a lot of good bird dogs like pointers and setters but best bird dog we ever had was an English setter that came from a breeder in Jasper, Alabama which was in coal country. He could find em and hold em better than any dog I have ever seen, and it was a trait that he passed to several litters he sired and we saw a lot of his offspring work over the years. Dog was a consummate bird pointing professional and very mild mannered and almost timid around others, but molest his point and he would light into an offending dog before you could get to him. I hate to say it but he had alot of Bryant qualities, he made other dogs around him better.

His only downfall was that he never learned to swim as a young dog and he also had a physiology problem for swimming. He was such an athlete that his muscle mass made him look like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of bird dogs but he only weighed about 50 lbs. Our hunting stomping ground was a around a big creek bottom with soybean fields with the hills above. We would walk the field edges and catch the coveys that always flew down into thick cover along the creek. We would hunt the singles and without fail a few times a year we would shoot one that land in the creek and old Rip would not hesitate and go charging after it. He always got the bird but as soon as he lost momentum in that deep creek that back end would sink and we would have to go get him if water was to deep for him to touch bottom and it seems to me that was always the case. That dang creek was deep and some places over 20 feet deep. Its hard to believe but all dogs can't swim but they can learn it if introduced at early age. Old Rip never did learn. He was good for about 20 feet in straight line but if he had to change direction back in deep water it was go time to go get him and that dang creek had all kind of strainers and dead falls in it. Btw which was great for wood ducks.

I used to think after about the umpteenth time we had to go wade in after him that he wanted us to get wet. Every time we hauled him out he either had this appreciative grin or shit eating grin and it was dang hard to tell, but that damn dog could not swim very good and never had a fear of the water. We made a point afterwards that every new puppy we got, that dog would know how to swim.

One day need to commission a painting of the day my dad had to crawl down a tree head first to snag Rip that got hung up in tree branches of that deep creek, we thought he was goner for sure for this time but dad crawled out there and was able to grab him by scruff of the neck and because his feet was above his head that was all he could do. A buddy of his had to crawl along the tree so dad could pass Rip to him. It was a sight and Rip never did let go of that bird and once they got Rip on the log he shook water on them walked over top of them and brought the bird to me that I just so happened to be walking up in time to see the spectacle. Gawd I wish we had cell phones with cameras back then.

[Pa SxS]

Boy, this thread sure went off topic!

[Southpaw]

Nah, it just took a temporary detour, but what is not to like talking about dealings with bird dogs and college football. I don't think we can get any safer topics than that. I think we are all in violent agreement that Parkers are the best sxs shotgun ever made on this side of the pond. A conversation on politics and what looks like a fumbling football drill on impending gun regulations and restrictions would be way to intense.

Btw Chuck just noticed where you hail from, sorry if treaded on your sensibilities. BTw Franklin is a great coach and will have Nittany Lions back. If he can make Vanderbilt competitive in the SEC, which is like boxing Ali with arm tied behind your back, he can have Penn State back in the hunt. This year was a good start and glad to see Penn State football roaring back.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Don't be nice to Chuck about PSU football. We go back and forth every fall!! It is amazing how dogs have such differing qualities even out of the same breed. We have ponds here and I always did tinker on the notion to get the Setters swimming in summer. Might just do that this year? Good idea Todd.

1 more day until Callie arrives. I'll have pics here probably Sunday. Stay tuned, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.

[Southpaw]

If you start her make sure its shallow and firm and not a steep drop off that she can wade easily back and forth until one day she will just swim. Don't push her or put her in a position where head can go under, that will just frighten em like little kids. Make it big fun if she has toy she likes to play with at first. We had setters and labs and once we got the setters going in the water they started liking it just as much as the lab.

Actually we had ulterior motives in training setters to swim when we are at lull between brittanies. Every now and again we would jump a woodie on that creek and we always worked on our setters to do basic retrieval while learning to swim and they would go get those woodies if we would down one. It only happened a few times but they did it pretty good.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Thanks for the tips. I am not a water fan. Don't like it wide or deep!! We can jump woodies here too but our creek is about 6' at the widest and 1 or 2 spots where it might be 24" deep.

[Southpaw]

Cheap rubber hip waders will do the trick to work with her and then you can use them to wade the branch. Heck I know plenty of birds dogs that have never needed to nor put into situation where they would ever need to swim in their whole life. We just happened to hunt terrain where it was needed and got to play mythbuster about how all dogs can swim.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Here she is!!