Although my dog Mossy enjoys pheasant hunting, nothing flips her switch on more than going waterfowl hunting. She is such a water dog that I really have to stay on her to keep her out of the water when we’re duck hunting. Mossy was bred to be a retrieving dog. She retrieved her first duck when she was 6 months old. I didn’t really train her to be a retriever. She just saw the duck hit the water, jumped in the water, got the duck in her mouth, brought the bird back and dropped it at my feet.
What’s really nifty is that Mossy can hear ducks coming often before we see the ducks. When she hears the ducks, she starts making a high-pitched whimper. When the ducks hits the water, she gets so excited. She can hardly wait until I tell her to go. When we hunt in the fields, I don’t take Mossy with me duck hunting or goose hunting. I haven’t trained her to sit still in a blind yet. I've taken her goose hunting before, but the geese we shoot are usually almost as big as Mossy. So, I just take Mossy when we’re hunting ducks over water. Then she sits in the reeds with me, while we wait on the ducks to come.
I live in Lincoln, North Dakota, and often we hunt sloughs, ponds and other small bodies of water near Steele, about 40 miles from my home. When we’re hunting ducks over water, my dad, Cory Wolfe, my brother, Logan Wolfe, and a couple of neighbors usually all go together. We throw out duck decoys and sit in the reeds on the sides of the ponds or the sloughs we’re hunting. Mossy isn’t particular about whose ducks she retrieves. When a duck falls, Mossy hits the water and starts making her own pile of ducks. Logan does the calling; we all do the shooting; and Mossy picks up everybody’s ducks.
Mossy weighs about 50-60 pounds, and she’s short and stocky. British Labs are usually shorter and more muscular than other breeds of labs. I like the British Labs because they're smaller than most other labs, and they’re bred to hunt. I guess these are the same reasons that the folks at Mossy Oak decided to start a breeding and training program for the British Labs.
Day 4: Samantha Wolfe’s Philanthropy Work for Mossy Oak and Her British Lab Mossy
