Maggie was our first dog. She was a happy accident as we found her totally by chance one day while out shopping. Her breeder was a back yard breeder and had left flyers in various locations. We saw the flyer, called the guy and the rest is history. You will notice her tail was docked shorter than the rest of our dogs. I think that was because the breeder was not a pro and she was not from championship lines.
Maggie had a number of benefits that the rest of our dogs never had. First I was healthy and young when we got her, so I had lots of energy to devote to training her. I trained her myself, and she was terribly stubborn. It was a battle of wills between her and I to see who was more dominant and which one of us would be the alpha dog. But I persevered and won that battle. Second, I worked from home when we got her, and I had a lot of flexibility in my schedule around what hours of the day I would work. So, she got a LOT of attention. Third, because we were living in an apartment complex when we got her, she was VERY well socialized. Unfortunately this is not a formula I have been able to replicate since then.
Maggie turned into an AWESOME bird dog. I mean, she had the best nose, and the strongest prey drive of any dog I have ever seen. And she was rugged. There was no patch of brambles or briars that she would not bust through to find a bird. She was fearless. She also had an AMAZING nose. I loved when we would go hunting, and encounter other hunters who were leaving as we were on our way in. There would often be an exchange to the effect of “Good luck, there’s no birds left in there. Our dog didn’t put up any birds.” I would say thank you and keep on going. Invariably it often took less than 10 minutes for Maggie to flush a bird. I don’t think I ever went hunting with her and got “skunked” where she wouldn’t at least flush one bird. And she was a multi-species dog. I have successfully hunted pheasant, quail, ruffed grouse, rabbits, woodcock and snipe over her. She really was the SUV of hunting dogs. Maggie passed away in 2012 from a brain tumor. She was 11 years old. She was definitely the gold standard of bird dogs in my experience. Oh, and just so there’s no doubt about this: She was the fastest dog in the dog park. I know my friend David liked to think his dog, Booter, was the fastest, but we objectively put that assertion to rest. LOL
