[gundog]

Lots of unintentional humor in a confrontation between a young retriever and a wounded and angry mallard.

My dogs have always been unconventional breeds, if mutt is a breed. The current one's first retrieve consisted of swimming to a cripple, getting pecked on the nose, and swimming back.

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL! At my dog's very first Junior test, the dog ahead of her in line drew a big fat mallard hen, and all three gunners missed her completely. She was waddling up and down in the drop zone, and she was quacking mad. This dog - a big husky Chocolate Lab, probably went 85 pounds easy - ran up to the hen and she pecked him right on the nose. He ki-yi'ed all the way back down the hill and hid behind his handler. "That wasn't in the contract boss!" (He got a do-over and did just fine, and has gone on to get his JH and HR).

The judge went out and "spoke" to the gunners, and they filled the next poor bird so full of lead that it's a wonder my dog could carry it.

My experience is that the girls stand a lot less nonsense from cripples than the boys. I have seen my oldest Lab, a cagey character, leap up in the air over a wounded bird to get behind it and grab it by the scruff. Then if they flap and quack too much she gives them a quick shake, "That's enough out of YOU, my fine fellow!" and they settle right down. A friend's little bitch will actually LIE DOWN on them until they quit fighting.

We use her to run down escapes from the crates because she is extremely soft-mouthed and won't muss a feather on a live bird.