Sorry guys I couldn't help myself. I do have a pointer that refused to retrieve birds for the first year while I trained her. Hard as I tried she just refused to pick up a dead bird. One morning while training she pointed a bird, I flushed it and shot at the bird and only dropped a leg. Bell watched the bird as it flew out of sight about a hundred yards. I released her and off she went. I told my partner, little good that's going to do she refuses to retrieve. We stood there yacking for a bit when I spotted Bell coming over a rise. As she got closer I realized she had the bird in her mouth and it was still alive. She brought it directly to me and I took it from her. From the moment forward she retrieves birds like she was force broke, and is one of the best retriving dog I have owned. Dogs are a lot smarter than the owner sometimes. We just need to figure out how to communicate what we are asking them to do.
