IVy’s Story
a true winged retriever
Background/Intro:
I’ve always been fascinated with Labrador retrievers and duck hunting. It’s almost as if you can’t have one without the other. My first duck hunt was at the ripe old age of 12 on Grand Lake St Mary’s in a blind on the “Firing Line,” which is a row of several blinds adjacent to the refuge area. What I do remember about the hunt, was my first shot with a single-shot 20 guage H&R…at a diving duck that seemed like it was going 80 miles an hour and several yards away straight over the blind. Even though it was freezing that morning, I had been infected with a passion for one of the greatest and most arduous pursuits….of hunting waterfowl that goes back in time 100’s of years.
The first duck hunt was without a retriever, but over the next few years I would come to experience the monumental difference of hunting ducks with Labrador retrievers that I helped my father train in our side yard. It wasn’t just them retrieving the ducks and geese, it was there presence in…and around our duck blind; watching them follow the birds in the air or making retrieves as though it was there job, because they wanted to.
Our first lab my Dad got was a Black Labrador Retriever, and his name was Champ. What a really cool name, but did not end up being a great duck dog. He was the first of several Black Labs that we would hunt over in the next few decades. Then came Cindy who was like a “Pit bull” when she locked in on a downed bird. When I say “Locked IN,” she made a retrieve on a Drake Mallard my father had shot on the Great Miami river….and got caught in the current…and we lost sight of her, not knowing if we would ever see her again. After several gut wrenching minutes, my Dad had taken off down the bank after her….here comes Cindy with this crippled Drake Mallard in her mouth after climbing the river bank that was about 70 degrees straight up through huge chunk rock, then releasing that bird to my father. After we thanked God for watching over her and getting her out of the frigid river safely, we looked at each other and said, “Oh My Gosh, WHAT A RETRIEVE!!”
You see, when you spend several hours of your life training a duck dog….then see them perform tasks that you had hoped they would, and knew they could….it’s like seeing your son or daughter do something great and makes your heart swell with an extremely healthy pride. Then came Sam, another black lab…who also had that nature of being dialed in, when a bird hit the water…and was such a loyal companion and duck dog.
My wife had always wanted a Chocolate Labrador Retriever, before we got married. Being an avid duck hunter who preferred Black Labs, this was a little bit of a challenge. But guys, you know the Federal Law when your married….yes, the wife usually gets her way. So we ended up with Luke, or you could say with great confidence… my wife picked him out and brought him home with her brother one day. Since he was already 1 years old, trying to train him to be a duck dog never did happen….but he became a great family dog.
Brutus was the next in the Abner family lineage of black labs. My wife actually picked the right color this time….as he was a beautiful black male. The only problem was, he was not cut out to be a duck dog. Example number one, with two not being necessary. On our first outing to shoot some doves in a cornfield, he thought it would be a great decision to enter a cattle yard that had roughly 25 head of cattle in it…and play “Russian Roulet” with these extremely large animals that could have squashed him like a bug. Luckily, he was extremely fast and intelligent enough to get out of there way…but it was a nightmare of an experience with my 10 year old son with me… who thought our newest member of the family was going to be trampled right in front of his eyes by these cattle.
Then, Ivy Jo crashed into our world….you could say. After spending hours and weeks, doing my due diligence of my first “Duck Dog” that I would train myself….with some professional help on the obedience side. I was told from several folks who were more knowledgeable about retrievers than myself, to pick the puppy out of a litter that is the most rambunctious and outgoing pup there. Well, you could say she fit that bill…with bells on and a touch of rocket fuel she was packing somewhere! On the way home, she literally curled up in my wife’s lap as if it were her new home and went into a deep sleep a few seconds later.
After numerous hours of frustration and training, even with professional help….who said, “Never seen one like her before” in one of our early training sessions. It was a bumpy road for sure that first 8-10 months. To say she is strong-willed is an understatement with several exclamation points behind it. She was, is, and will ever be flat-stubborn. However I’ve learned that stubbornness and a downright shear “Will to Win” is something that makes a Phenomenal Duck Dog when honed together. And she has that drive and fire inside her, that is untrainable or unteachable.
…she possesses a quiet confidence that has fire intertwined with it…and this combination produces a will that demands victory
The Diagnosis You Never Want to Hear
Roughly six weeks prior to her 2nd Opening Day of Duck season in Ohio, she started getting red and extremely irritation in both of her eyes. We assumed it was likely allergies of some kind….being in the Ohio River Valley region in early fall. We took her to our local vet and they prescribed her with allergy medication. A few days later, her eyes looked the same or worse. At that point, I told my wife we’re going to have to take her to the Eye Institute in Cincinnati. We were both more than concerned about her vision and if there was any damage already done or not?? The doctor confirmed our greatest fear, she had lost complete vision in her right eye. For some strange reason, I had a calm in this diagnosis. It was certainly not what we had in mind dealing with a major fungal infection on our newest member of the family…call “Blastomycosis” (Or known as Blasto in larger dogs). This tiny, little fungal infection that is air-borne… can cause blindness, or much worse than that…causing heart or lung failure in a very short time period. This calm I felt deep inside after the diagnosis was an assurance the Eye doctor gave me…”stating that she will not really be phased by the loss of her vision in that right eye…..AND she’ll be able to hunt once the medication kicks in and she starts feeling better.
Well, let’s just say….it didn’t phase her ferocity to catch frisbees, or do multiple retrieves on dummy toss’s….or hunting ducks on Youth season opening day. Let’s just say this for the record, my son shot 3 wood ducks…a single and a double to finish the morning out. Each of these 3 Woodies were successful retrieves by Ivy, and each bird was delivered to my hand. You could say, I was a Proud papa….for my son and duck dog who had passed her first test with flying colors
This blind eye didn’t phase her on the Ohio official Opening Day season opener either. Making 2 retrieves diving for wood ducks….literally submerging her head multiple times for the one bird, and a couple more for the other bird. She would make a total of 6 retrieves that morning, with 4 of the 6 birds being wounded. One of her last retrieves, she literally dug through some very thick matted grass on the edge of a canal… after catching wind of the bird and dug her head underneath this grass…partially disappearing and then pulled the wood duck out, bringing it to my hand alive still.
We still had some work to do….with working on breaking and making complete blind retrieves, which she was still trying to get this final part of being a great duck dog. After several more hours and days of training leading up to our big trip to North Dakota….I was quite confident she was going to step into her own rhythm of retrieving, making blind retrieves that I had hoped for my whole life as an avid duck hunter since she was a pup. As I mentioned earlier, I had helped my dad train several Black Labs….but none of them were able to make blind retrieves or be able to be casted once out on a retrieve.
Finally, we arrived in the prairie pothole region, and I was stoked to say the least…having hunted several times in North Dakota before. You could say, Ivy was slightly excited. The first hunt the following morning was a field hunt….that didn’t work out the way we had hoped. She did make a retrieve, but was nothing to write home about.
First Blind Retrieve on Land:
The second morning would be a morning that I’ll never forget. As we sat on the edge of a hillside hunting big water, a mallard went down about 15-20 yards behind us in very high grass. It would be her first blind retrieve on land. As I steadied her, and sent her….she went on a good line and the next thing I know she brings me a Hen mallard to hand.
IVY’s Short Documentary
Coming Soon
First Blind Retrieve in Water:
A close friend of mine and his brother had knocked a few birds down on the lake we were hunting. He came and got me to let me know they needed a dog to get these birds. Her first blind retrieve on water was about 25-30 yards out…and would be a Northern Shoveler after navigating some huge boulders to get in and out of the water.
Her next blind retrieve would be much more difficult. A drake mallard with white caps around it, making it IMPOSSIBLE to actually see this bird that was roughly 40-50 yards out from the bank. I steadied her and sent her….she stopped in the water because she could not see the bird still, then I signaled back…after following my command for a second time, she caught wind and then actually got close enough after picking her head above the water to see it. This mallard would dive numerous times with her swimming in the white caps, until she said your time is up and grabbed the bird. I whistled her back and she brought the bird to my hand…still alive.
That moment will forever be etched in my mind, where she went from a good duck dog, to a great duck dog. And she’s just getting better with every retrieve. We’re still making tweaks that always need to be made with any duck dog, who is driven to hunt ducks…whatever the costs. She’s not a field trial dog, but I have no doubt she could and may be a Grand Champion someday. Even if that never happens….she has reached the “GRAND CHAMPION” status in our eyes, because she has surpassed any of our Labrador duck dog’s that have been in our family for 40 years on 100’s of hunts….doing it with just one eye. And this one eye has drive, determination, and a overwhelming desire to be a Great Duck dog and companion… in our family’s deep-rooted love for duck hunting and labrador retrievers.
The best way I can describe her,….is she possesses a quiet confidence that has fire intertwined with it…and this combination produces a will that demands victory when it comes to making a retrieve on a winged bird. Flat out, it’s an instinct that all great duck dogs have in their DNA that other retrievers do not.
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