A Couple Of Dog Stories

[Mike Ormsby]

I know this is a fly fishing forum but Spinner's story about Nasty got me to thinking about the dogs in our lives. And how special they can be. But I also thought about some of the funny things that happen to us when we share our lives with dogs. In my case I spent several years involved in training/handling/breeding Labs for hunting and retriever field trials (I'd like to say I owned a few Labs -- but I'm really not sure who owned who -- anybody who has had a Lab in their life will understand that statement). So I thought I might share some of those experiences with you, although I can't be expected to tell a tale as heartwarming as Spinner's about Nasty. But I hope they might at least tickle your funny bone just a little.

I was training near Kansas City Missouri with Dave Rorem, a well known retriever pro (I had my first yellow female with Dave and later other dogs) and Billy Eckett (another great pro trainer). I had a yellow pup out of my yellow female and NFTCH NAFTCH FC AFC The Marathon Man. The pup was named Marty's Get Going or Marty for short. It was about March and Marty had been born in September -- so I wanted to introduce him to water and get him swimming. He was about 6 months of age. I asked Dave and Billy where I could best do this. Billy pointed to a pond in the middle of the cow pasture we were training in. While they took a break I drove down to this pond -- and getting my waders on I put a long check cord on Marty -- and waded out from shore with several bumpers in my hand while Marty ran around on shore attached to this long cord. I got out several feet and suddenly realized my left foot had got stuck in very thick mud. I couldn't get out so I reached down with both hands and pulled on my left leg as hard as I could. I pulled so hard I fell over. As quickly as I got back up, Marty jumped into the water and began swimming (I guess he thought he needed to save me). I tried to back up again and found that my right foot was now stuck in the mud. So I grabbed my right leg with my arms and pulled so hard.... yes, I fell in again. Well, now Marty was circling me swimming like a real pro. I finally got back to shore -- took off my waders which were full of water by now -- but my pup was swimming. I looked back up on the hill and saw Dave and Billy rolling around in the grass laughing so hard at my exploits. Billy finally came up to me later and said "if you ever want to introduce any of my pups to water I'll pay you but you have to do it just the same way as you just did".

I was at a field trial near Sudbury, Ontario. There was a gentleman from Georgia named Rusty Mead running his young yellow Lab in the Qualifying Stake on a water blind, the last series of the day (a blind is when the dog doesn't know where the bird is but the handler does -- so you handle the dog by voice, whistle, and hand signals to where the bird is). His dog was taking a real nice straight line to the bird (on a floating board in the water just off shore); he'd had no whistles or hand signals. In the corner of this pond happened to be a beaver which saw the dog and slapped its tail (a sign of alarm for other beavers). The dog saw the splash and swung off line heading toward what I guess he thought was a mark (having seen the splash he thought it was a bird thrown into the water and "marked" the fall). Rusty got his dog back on line with one whistle and a hand signal -- however it cost him the first place ribbon. That night at the tailgate, Rusty and several of us sat around sharing a bottle of Jack Daniels talking dogs. Rusty in a very Southern accent said, "We don't got beavers down south. But we got gators; they don't slaps their tails, they just eat the damn dog."

I was visiting a training buddy of mine. It was Friday night and we were talking dogs until the wee hours of the morning. We got up Saturday to go training when my buddy realized he'd forgotten to take the pigeons out of the freezer the night before, So they were still frozen. Now his wife had just bought a new microwave oven -- but my buddy really didn't know anything about it except that you could defrost food in them quickly. So he threw in a frozen pigeon, turned it up high, and then there was sound like "puff" -- the pigeon had literally blown up. My buddy grabbed the rest of the birds and headed for the door. I said "don't you think we should clean up the mess"; there was feathers and bits of pigeon everywhere inside the microwave oven. He replied "no it's OK the wife will get it". They're still married to this day so miracles do occur.

I do miss my old (OK maybe three years old isn’t that old LOL LOL) dog Maxx – even though I know he’s better off where he he is (I’m just not able to have a dog right now). He’s with a great trainer and owner, in a loving home with kids to play with – and birds to retrieve regularly. But being dogless now, I do miss the company of my former buddy now and then. Labs, actually all dogs, are amazing animals. They never judge you, merely accepting you for who you are. They don’t care if they win blue ribbons or wear diamond studded collars or even fancy coats (can you imagine a Lab in a fancy coat with a diamond studded collar?!?!?). With a Lab, everything is upfront, straight ahead, sometimes goofy when they act the clown; but always there wanting to please, always open and honest. Dogs want nothing much more than a pat on the head, to be fed on a regular basis, and to go for a good walk (oh yeah, Labs might want to get out for a swim now and then; or retrieve a bird or a frisbee or a ball!!!!). In return they don’t judge us humans ever, accepting us with unconditional love – and a wag of their tails. Maybe some of our world’s leaders could learn a few things from a Lab.