How It All Started

It all started on one hunt. In 2012, I went on my first duck hunt with a family friend to Lake Village, Arkansas. I did not have a clue of what to expect, but from the few TV shows like Fowl Life that gave you a depiction of what duck hunting was like, my anticipation was high. We pulled up to camp, and Keith was in the yard with steaks on the grill, and his black lab, Trixie. Now at the time, I knew little to nothing of a “trained dog”. A somewhat obedient dog to me was a dog that would follow you around on a ranger or come towards you after you’ve hollered for them 2 or 3 times. That's at least what I grew up with around coon hounds and cow dogs. Trixie, however, caught my eye before we ever began the hunt.

This dog, as we drove up, just walked around like a yard dog, and as we greeted Keith, he called Trixie up to heel, and she sat on command and stayed there for what seemed like hours as we caught up and discussed the plans for the next morning. In that moment I was astonished at how responsive that dog was and how compliant she was to every command Keith gave her. So, of course, I nagged him all night with hundreds of questions how, why, how….why………how? Dumbfounded I looked at the explanation he gave of how she was trained for months and months starting from a pup to at the time a 2-year-old dog, giving the step-by-step process of her training which was Chinese to my ears but I listened to every word like a preacher was giving a sermon at church, And I asked him “well, what else does she know?” and he replied, “you’ll see in the morning if you can shoot, haha.” All of that, left me sleepless that night and full of curiosity.

The next day, everyone was putting on waders, loading equipment, and we loaded the ATV and rode out to an open field, driving down a levy. At the time it was 14 degrees. The water in the ponds was frozen with two inches of ice. Everyone was hustling to break the ice and open a watery hole for the birds to land in. But I was too busy studying Trixie. There she sat, on the ATV never moving a muscle, finally the moment that we all have been preparing for. First light had come, the sky lit up with flocks of snows and speckle bellies flying over in giant V’s, and ducks began whizzing by at high speed.

Dad informed us to load our guns and prepare for birds to begin decoying into our fake duck floaters we laid out in the water. Out in front, he whispered as a wad of ducks approached, get ready he whispered. The windows of the pit flew open, gunshots rang across the field, and two ducks fell one landed in the water 25 yards from us and another glided down on the ice hundreds of yards away. I hollered I’ll get the close one, Dad said “Wait”. Out fired a black dog at mock 10 picking up the first bird bring it to Keith, she whipped around, he grabbed the bird, and lined her up on the long bird over the ice, I said “Is she going to….” Before I could get it out, Trixie fired off across the ice after the downed bird across a frozen lake, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like he was talking to this dog as if she could speak back, she responded with haste and love for the game. I knew that day in that field in 2012 what I wanted to do the rest of my life and I was hell-bent to find a way to make it happen.