German Retriever...A New Breed?

As the story of this amazing dog begins to circulate in the outdoor industry I thought I should provide people with the "how the story actually began version", of the German Shepherd that retrieves ducks.
About a year and a half ago my daughter gave me this dog as an eight week old pup. She knows I have always liked black German shepherds so she located on and brought it to my house. She insist this dog came from a littler of black and tan GSD's, that were advertised as German Shepherds.
Last fall I told my doubting brothers I thought he was smart enough to learn the art of waterfowl retrieval even though he wasn't actually a waterfowl dog. As you might expect, they of course fell backwards out of their chairs laughing. When they finally picked themselves up off the floor they said; "there is no way that dog is ever going to retrieve even a single duck".
Now everyone knows I love a challenge, especially when it comes from my older brothers, but I was beginning to wonder if I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew this time, since I have never trained a retriever of any kind. Determination took over and I worked with my dog Rocket throughout the summer, just taking it one slow step at a time. When duck season arrived this fall I nervously ventured out to put his training to the real test. .
When the first duck hit the water he was out of the blind and on him with a classic retrieve that would have made any black lab in the country jealous with envy. As a matter of fact he is now running 100% on retrieves. Not only has he picked up every duck he's been asked to, but he stepped it up a notch with a double retrieve on Canada geese, getting the wounded one first mind you!
The question often comes up is he 100% German Shepherd? I don't know the answer to that because my daughter didn't get the papers on him at the time and I have no way of locating the breeders. He is obviously not a retriever but I don't tell him that, because he certainly thinks that he is.

Steve Matt/G3 Sportsman Field Staff

Bullwinkle Isnt So Friendly

It wasn't the bears that almost did me in this time, as it has been in years past. It was a bull moose that almost cleaned my clock this year. To those of you who actually know me, you are quite aware that I will do almost anything to get that quote; "one perfect photo". This years Alaska trip was going along very smoothly and although I got some great bear shots, we were never really in "extreme danger” from the brown bears this time. Each year I learn just a bit more about bears, I take a bigger gun and I am way more careful than I was the year before when it comes to hanging out with my big brown brothers.  I have recently learned there is another creature out there who has my number and wants to do me great bodily harm. During the trip I had the opportunity to get some up-close and personal photos of a big bull moose feeding on some leaves, so I jumped on it as usual. He really didn't seem to care about my presence so I slowly crept to within 20 yards and started banging away with my camera. The light was extremely poor at dusk so I set up my trusty tripod and I began working the settings on my camera from what I thought was a hidden location in a wooded ditch, that's when things went to Hell on me very quickly. He turned around and immediately charged at full speed once he figured out I was there. I dove out of the way just in time (screaming, losing my hat and breaking my tripod in my attempt to flee like scared cat). Fellow team member Aric Hein was shooting video from a much farther, but not necessarily safer distance at the same time. I figured he probably got some great video of this interesting incident, but when we reviewed the videotape all you can really see at the moment of the charge is Aric's camera pointing at the ground and a ton of turf going by under his feet. It seems, at that exact moment in time he was also fleeing for his life as well. Be sure to watch the G3 Sportsman this coming year and you'll get a look at one scared and stupid hillbilly right before he takes off running for the Ozarks just as fast as his little legs can carry him.

Steve Matt/G3 Sportsman Field Staff