Little Orphan Annie arrives.

[simcgunner]

She's a beauty Tom

[vaturkey]

Trainer sent this to me yesterday. In this one she is learning to back. We head to Michigan to hunt the Northern Lower next month.

[Rbishop]

Beautiful point! You must be excited!

[vaturkey]

Beautiful point! You must be excited!

Indeed I am. I have to keep reminding myself that she is a pup and pups need time to be really good. That said, she appears to have all the tools. The big question always with a young dog is whether they can apply what they have learned once they are after the real thing. As the old saying goes, birds make the dogs. Hopefully we will get into a good many Woodcock in Michigan as they are wonderful to get a pup experience.

[vaturkey]

BTW, Annie has received her FDSB and AKC registrations. Her official name is "Dream Boat Annie". She was named that after the group Heart as that was the name of their first album. I was in college at the time and rock music was the way we got through things. Course this was before TV. I think many a college guy felt these were some pretty hot chicks and they sure could sing.

[vaturkey]

Got an update from the trainer today. Now shooting some birds over her and somewhat amazed that she seems to have a knack for retrieving. Seems to be sort of a lost skill these days with anything out of field trial stock, which she certainly is. She likes it so much, that she was retrieving one bird and stopped to pick up another one and tried to bring them both back.

[vaturkey]

Picked her up yesterday. Shot a couple Quail over her and I think she is ready to head north to hunt. Will post a few pics while there. She is a pocket rocket at 31 lbs right now. PS. That is my hunting buddy walking in to the point with his Merkel 28 gauge.

[DarylC]

Nice pic Tom. I've read that the only sure way to break a dog is to shoot birds over them with a Fox smallbore. Good luck up north and please keep us posted.

[Foxnut]

Annie is looking good! Nice to see her retrieving naturally! Keep us posted on the MI hunt. I’ll be hunting the lower Northern some next week. Good reports thus far.