Chuck, I'm just in from a great morning with Jake, my just-three Lab, and all the above was confirmed when my buddy and I knocked down nine blacks and a mallard that wheeled outside our tollers at about 30 yards. Three shots-- two from my SKB o/u 20 ga IC/M; my buddy's 12ga 311 misfired on the second shot---and they were all on the water. But in a flash there were only seven; the others had disappeared in a couple acres of cattails and the high spiky swamp grasses. I believe (old age, not wisdom kicking in here) in keeping a whistle out of your mouth and your mouth shut except for a little whispering "Where's the bird, where's the bird?" Watching a dog learning by the minute, doing his own thinking, working it out, is the spice of the hunt for me. I wouldn't go for ducks without a dog.
