Greenies

Peat likes hunting even more than I do,  I feel that I have certain obligations to him.  He is a good dog due to training, which is something that happens everyday with every interaction.  I realized that in order for Peat to be a good bird dog he needs real practice with real birds, often.  This lead to a bit of a dilemma at first.

You see, Bob prefers to shoot exclusively at mallards, and most of the time he will skip on other species.  At first I thought this was the way for me, but it soon became apparent that neither Peat or I were going to get any better at hunting or retrieving unless we both got some real practice.  I decided to start hunting any ducks that committed to my spread regardless of species, and Peat started getting markedly better at dealing with birds.  On slow days I started taking walks through the sloughs to break up the monotony of empty an sky, occasionally I would jump shoot some of the divers that hang out in these smaller waters.  Throughout the winter my shooting got better and Peat's retrieving skills got way better.

I talked to Bob and he liked this idea enough to put in a post awhile back.  I would like to base the expert title for next year on just the number of drake mallards harvested, minus any NRs of course.  I realize this would have to be unanimous, but last seasons greenie numbers were close. Thoughts?