JKB, I knew Reba's owner (Dam of Cal and Dottie) I liked her from the moment I met her. Her drive and desire to please was phenominal. I knew he was having problems with her listening (she was too smart for her own good) but he ended up selling her to a guy in Utah (I think). Well, he finds out that he's not what he says he is, and he keeps the dogs in kennel boxes on his truck. He takes them out to the wooods/field 2x day to run, and go to the bathroom.
He got her back and I got her from him. Her problem (if you'd call it that) is that God put her on this earth to retrieve whatever you shot. Period. That was what made her happy, and that's what she lived for. Pheasants is what really turned her into a single minded machine with no "off" button.
Remember I said she was smart?
Well the reason why he got rid of her is that she wouldn’t retrieve for him. (I didn’t hear this story until a year after I had her, and not from him.) In a field trial, they are supposed to sit when the bird flushes, either on their own or by whistle command. She knew that she couldn’t be chastised in a trial, so she got into the habit of “breaking” or not sitting down when a bird flushed in a trial. She'd be letter perfect in training, or when out hunting. When they break in a trial, it’s “thank you for running your dog – next!” and you get booted out of the trial for that day.
Well, she broke in a trial and retrieved the bird. He took her off into the weeds and beat the living crap out of her. In her mind, she got beat because she retrieved a bird and wouldn’t retrieve for him after that.
To make a long story shot, I never had that problem with her, in fact, I had to stop playing “fetch” in the yard (with a concrete driveway) because she wore her nails down so far they were bleeding and she didn’t want to quit. A professional trainer that was at a trial took me off to the side after a long retrieve and said “I’ve seen her retrieve for the other owner and now with you. You have to watch where you send her, and make sure you have an e-collar on her when you are not in a trial. I don’t know what you did, but she’ll kill herself going on a retrieve for you.”
He was right. She’d dive under water for birds if they sunk, and I had to stop her from jumping off of a 30’ tall boulder/cliff when we were hunting in the desert and a quail sailed into the canyon that was hit. I had to have her put down due to Cancer in 2003, and I still tear up when I write about her.
She was a house dog like all my dogs.
