Due to the warm weather, duck hunting last year was slow in most of the Rocky Mountain states. Bob Farris (pudelpointer breeder and owner of Cedarwood Kennels), Jeff Funke (German wirehaired breeder and owner of Three Devils Kennel), and I had planned a duck-hunting trip for late last year, and thankfully by the end of December the weather finally turned cold and the ducks started coming down into southwest Idaho.
The place we were hunting was one that had been specifically managed for water- fowling. the owner had flooded several grain fields, providing ideal habitat and there were also a number of small ponds on the property with dick blinds spread throughout the property.
Bob brought Dusty Rose, his female pudelpointer, and Jeff had Jake his big, male wirehair.
After having flushed several hundred ducks while walking to the blinds, we settled into two concrete blinds situated on one of the small ponds. Since there was still a few minutes before legal shooting, I decided to kill some time by asking Bob how he started breeding and training pudelpointers.