I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post, and for that I apologize. Enough random things occupied my mind that I just didn’t get back to it. On the plus side, the house I’m building is well underway! The walls are going up and framing started last week, so it’s quickly gone from a dug-up spot of land to something resembling a house!

OK, back to South Dakota. My last post talked about Ricky, and ended with the promise of getting to Jack and Eleanor soon.

So. about Jack.

He’s a little crazy, he’s stubborn, he’s got a mind of his own, but he’s a helluva bird dog. He’s been slowing down over the past year, but I knew he’d still have enough gas left in the tank to handle South Dakota. And I was not wrong. He was pretty sore at the end of each day, but undoubtedly he was also a very tired, happy dog.

Jack’s thing is retrieving, and over the course of this trip it certainly was NOT being broke. We didn’t see many points out of him – the birds were flying usually before he had a chance to stop – but once they were in the air nobody pursued them with more determination to bring them back. He loves his retrieving!

One key moment from the trip sticks out about Jack. We’re hunting this thick treeline, Jack is working in my general area when a bird pops in front of us. It gets high and is making its escape along the tops of the trees as 3 of us are taking shots at it. Someone ultimately got it and it glided down and hit the ground probably 70-80 yards behind us. Jack had witnessed all of this and was in hot pursuit. We walk back trying to find him and the bird. He had found it alright. We came upon him and he had the bird in his mouth – but it wasn’t quite dead yet. So rather than risk it getting away, Jack got it in his mouth and pinned it to the ground until either one of us could get it from him, or he could get a good enough grasp on it to kill it.

He is not a dumb dog, Jack. He’s definitely one of those dogs that, if you send him to retrieve, he’s not coming back empty-handed.

Well, unless you piss him off. Like I said, he isn’t dumb. If he feels slighted by you in any way, he will let you know about it.

Anyway – Jack had a helluva time. His hardest day was the first day, when he and Ricky spent the most time in the field. After that, he was pretty sore each of the other days, so Eleanor and Ricky shouldered a bit more of the load than he did. Totally worth bringing the old man out. He enjoyed himself, I enjoyed watching him, and that’s what it’s all about.

I wish I had more action shots of Jack in the field on this trip – well, of all of them for that matter – but the focus was working dogs and shooting birds, so pictures took a back seat.

Either way, the best pictures I have of this trip aren’t on my phone but instead are burnt into my brain as memories of a wonderful trip, and I’ll take those over cell phone pics any day.

This is a short post today, but I needed to get something out there. I’ll follow up with Eleanor shortly. She had a TON of fun.

Until next time…