Lucky
Lucky backing Dolly
Lucky
Lucky was born May, 31, 2004. He was a left over pup. At the end of 10 weeks I had 2 pups left. Lucky and a female. In September I got a call from Vince Dye. He worked with my neighbors, Dave and Debbie Hatton. He was looking for a puppy and bought the female, Katie. He really liked Katie and called several times to thank me for selling her to him. We got together to work pups then started hunting together.
I had worked both pups on pigeons and had started whoa breaking them. Both pups were pointing pigeons but Lucky thought after pointing he should do something else. I would walk in and he would circle the release trap and point from the other side. He did this over and over. I would pick him up and put him back in the original spot. I don’t know how many times I put him back but it was a lot. Finally, he figured out all he was supposed to do was stand still after he pointed.
They were 5 months old when quail season opened. I had several dogs and Lucky didn’t get to point the first part of the season then Vince invited me to go with him on some private land he had permission to hunt. He had a short hair female, Roxy, that was a real good bird dog and Katie. Katie had already pointed some wild quail but Lucky just hadn’t been in the right place, yet.
Vince had some really good places to hunt and we were in a lot of quail. All of our dogs would back and after several backs Lucky pointed a quail. He liked that even better than honoring. He really started hitting the brush looking for birds. When we killed a bird in front of Lucky or Katie they retrieved to hand.
We were hunting close to a gravel road and Roxy crossed the road and went on point about 5 yards off of the gravel. Katie and Lucky both honored. Vince and I were about 150 yards from the road. I took a series of pictures as we got closer. Before we got close a truck drove down the road between us and the dogs. Not a dog moved. Vince went in front of Roxie and a single quail flushed.
Lucky became a big runner but with the Garmin GPS I knew where he was. He pointed a lot of birds and most of the time he found them quite a ways from me. I knew, if the birds held he would hold. When he was young he had lots of style but as he aged his tail wasn’t as high and if it took me a long time to get there he would sometimes be lying down.
One time I was hunting walk-in in Kansas and his GPS collar quit just a little ways from the truck. He came by me and then he was lost. I made a big circle in the walk-in property calling him as I went. I hadn’t seen him in 30 to 45 minutes and was getting really concerned. I came back close to where I saw him last and he was about 20 yards farther on point. He had a covey of quail in front of him. I may be wrong but I believe that he was on point the whole time.
Each time I have hunted him this season I wondered if it was the last. He still runs good and finds birds but an eleven year old dog that has worked as hard as he has is on borrowed time. He’s still one of the dogs I take to guide with. I know he’s not going to get excited and run through the field flushing all of the birds.
I guided with him 2 days in a row and that was too much. I guided on a Friday morning, for about 3 hours, then came back Saturday afternoon and he made it for about 2 1/2 hours. He pointed a covey of quail and when the hunters shot one he retrieved it then laid down. I thought I could lead him out of the field but he wouldn’t even stand. Roy Branson and I carried him to the truck.
Last Saturday I guided again and it was 75 degrees when I turned Dolly and Lucky loose. They only had to work for about an hour and I had a lot of water with me. We also hunted along a creek with water in it but he was really tired when we finished.
That was my last guiding trip of the season and I wanted him to get as many trips as he could. But he is finally retired. May be semi-retired. That was his last guiding trip although I will still use him for short hunts. Nothing longer than an hour and it will have to be cool. He has been a good one and I’m going to miss having him to use as I have in the past.
Lucky
Lucky
Lucky pointing a pigeon.