No apology necessary, the quality of our lives in some most honest ways can be measured by the good dogs we've had. A decent Lab & a copy of Wolters 'Water Dog' actually followed is a hard combo to beat.. matter o' fact, dam near impossible in my experience. Having an older well trained dog around as a teacher can speed the learning process faster than anything for a young dog, but Wolters understood dogs as well as any man, and Labs in particular.
Chuck, its the heat you need to be concerned about when dove shooting. I used to sometimes 'park' a lab that I had back in the 60's in a tank [pond to those used to more 'refined' English]just to keep her cool. Absent a tank, take a gallon milk jug of water w/you to the field and the bottom from another jug cut & taped to the first one for a light weight 'pan' for your dog. A big plastic bag takes all the trash back out from the field, yours plus what you pick up from storms and others less courteous. Gotta pay attention, a lab can kill itself in hot weather w/o enough water. That's what you gotta pay attention to, not dove feathers. Some Labs are reluctant to pick them up, but if so, its exactly what Big Al said;-) BTW, that's one fine looking dog you have ... my own last companion gave it up last Dec. 1 and extraneous hubbub of one sort or another has yet to let me get around to doing a thing about it. I intend to remedy that .. soon.
