Man's Best Friend

     I have always found this statement to be so true. Even more so starting nearly five years ago when I got my first dog, DUKE! =] I got Duke at the beginning  of my senior year in high school. About a week before duck season to be exact. Duke is my good looking, HUGE yellow lab. He has the classic block head and weighs a very lean 105 lbs.

                   Here are a few pictures and a video of Duke that I took a few weeks ago. 

Laying on the front porch with me while Kaci watered the flowers

 

He likes to sit with his legs crossed. haha

       When Duke was about a year old I took him to a professional trainer in Overbrook. It was worth every penny we spent to have him trained. He came back a new dog.  He went from maybe coming to me when I called his name to staying put until I tapped him on the head and released him. That is just one example of the extreme discipline he learned at training. I have tested him for over 30 minutes and he does not move. I have even gone inside and watched him through the window to see if he would disobey. Another thing I like to do for obedience training with Duke is make him heel. I have walked for over a mile making him heel. I would jog, stop, creep forward and go in all directions and he stays right on my side but never touching. It's amazing the more you work with the dog they begin to feel you getting ready to turn before you even do it. I would go from a walk to a jog and make a sharp turn in to him trying to trick him and have him bump in to me and he would amaze me every time and be one step ahead of me. 

        Now, does Duke always listen every time without question? Of course not.....he's a dog. One thing that some people don't wrap their heads around is that dogs have one owner or "master" if you will. Since I was with Duke during his training and I took care of him every day up until I moved to Kansas City, he sees me as his owner. So he tends to behave a lot differently when I tell him to do something compared to when others do. He is very smart that way and gets away with things he knows that he would not get away with if I were there. 

                  Here are the pictures of Duke as a puppy as well as some training pictures. 

Duke Soon after I got him

Waiting for me to throw the bird already!

Middle of December and Duke is going out in that cold water like a champ already

I know it's a nice outfit I have on, but try to focus on the dog. =] He really wanted to go get that bird

     Duke has had a pretty decent life I would say. He gets out most days to play or as I call it training. He has been on numerous hunting expeditions and brought back a lot of game. We went on a turtle dove hunt a couple of years ago on public ground and every time Duke went out to get my bird in this bean field he would find an extra that some other moron couldn't find and bring it back as well. I was impressed and disappointed all at the same time. For one thing, some of the birds were more than a day old and for another I didn't want a game warden seeing me throw dead birds back into the field. He would undoubtedly think that I had shot the birds and was throwing them back into the bean field so that I could shoot more.  

Here are some hunting pictures of Duke since the beginning. 

 Duke less than a week after I got him. He was born to be a hunting dog!

Duke was pretty good at posing in pictures. This was not set up by us. He just decided to lay on top of the geese like that all on his own.

Another picture that was not set up. What can I say, my dog is just very photogenic.

Ok, you got me.... We did strap the birds over his neck in this picture. 

Duke looking good with his vest on.

One of my favorite pictures of Duke and I

      As you can tell, Duke truly is a best friend to me. When my parents tell me stories like a new car pulled into the house and he starts barking I am very proud of my dog. He can't see our driveway from in his pen but by the sound of the vehicle he knows whether it's familiar or not and lets them know if it's not.                                                                                                               

     About a month ago Mindy my cousin was over at the house and wanted to see Duke. It was dark at the time and my Mom took her down to his pen to see him. Mindy had a hat on and pulled down low and Duke immediately started growling. Mom proceeded to open his pen and thankfully grab his collar because he was being very protective of my Mom to this person he didn't know and was trying to pull away from Mom. I know I know, who wants a mean dog like that right? ME!!! He made me very proud. Once he saw Mindy in the light and got a scent of her he decided that she was ok and put his guard down. If you ask me he was just being protective of one, his territory and two, my Mom. 

These are some of my favorite photos of Duke

This is Duke's hunting blind. It's very small but he does fit in there.

This is a picture I took of him while we were out training

Another picture of training. He stayed in the cover until I had him chase the bird down.

I was just out practicing my calling and my Dad thought that this could be a good picture. Turns out my Dad can take some decent photos. haha

My mom had this picture framed. It's at my house in KC.

Duke giving me some love, another photo my Dad took. 

        Oh and thanks for wishing me luck on having Kaci come up last Thursday. She did come up and see me! =] We went and watched Transformers 3. We recommend it, it's a good movie!

       I should quite possibly have another post up this week just as an FYI.