The morning began with me waking Pinder up from the bed at 5 AM. I woke her up, she was moping around, annoyed with me for getting her up, it wasn’t long until she saw the gun going into the truck, that’s when she started to get excited, whining out of excitement, tail wagging almost non-stop.
The next hour consisted of driving over Teton Pass, which connects Wyoming and Idaho. After entering the little town of Driggs, Idaho, I picked up a buddy who was staying at his family’s cabin there.
Following picking him up, we drove to the location of our hunt, which was a small property not far outside of Driggs. Pinder was whining with excitement in the back as we pulled up to a place that she was quite familiar with. As we pulled through the gate in the dark Pinder was looking around because she recognizes this pond that she loves. After driving around to where we park the truck to unload the decoys, we let Pinder out to run around and take in the scenery that she admires so much.
After finishing setting up the decoys using the truck’s headlights, it was starting to get light out, and we decided we must put the truck farther away and walk back to the spot so that the birds wouldn’t take any mind to it. On our walk back, Pinder stayed by my side, not running too fast and blowing ducks off the pond. We finally sat down in the reeds, Pinder at my left, and the next hour and a half was some of the best duck hunting I’ve ever had. Pinder was retrieving ducks left and right, with hardly a five minute break in between ducks coming in close. This pond where we were hunting is about 200 yards across, and one of the ducks I hit was swimming away. Pinder had to chase it as it was swimming furth
er and further away. She was out there for five minutes but was still able to chase the duck around and finally get it while it was diving under the water. My friend turned to me while Pinder was on her way in and exclaimed, “That was a long retrieve, she sure is one good duck dog!” Later that day, he went on and on about how impressed he was with how well she was retrieving and her ability to find the poorly hit birds.
By 9:30 in the morning we had reached our limits. Pinder had a great hunt that day. It was one of the best times we’ve had at that property ever, and I hope she will remember it just as I will!
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Written By Beckett Maher
Pinder Sprite is a Diamond R labrador; she was born on October 5th, 2015.