Yesterday I shot a goose that glided down into a field about 100 yards from the blind we had set up. Since there were very few birds around I wasn't worried about missing a shot so I took Sako over to the area so she could find the downed bird. She covered an area of at least 75 yds by 75 yds pretty well I thought and was surprised that the bird wasn't there so it was obviously a runner.
She obviously got the scent of it at some point and started moving quickly in that direction. I followed her for about 150 yards and when I got to a 15' wide ditch, I stopped. On the other side I could see Sako coming back through the partially flattened out marsh grass carrying this 10+ pound cripple, struggling with it like a drunken sailor in that tougher terrain. These geese are pretty heavy for my 48 pound griff but she wouldn't give up on it. lol
She swam it across the channel of water and I took it from her. Sako has done tons of blind retrieves since she can't see well out of the blinds we set up. She rarely sees the birds go down but she always recovers them. That being said, I really haven't done a lot of tracking with her so to see her do her thing was a real treat.
I figure that bird ended up being a good 300 yards from the blind. It was a good find! It just goes to show you how much natural ability griffs have and how important it is to "Trust your dog!"
Yesterday I only got to take 2 shots, Hail Marys at that, so when you do drop one you hate like hell to lose it. Sako definitely made her pappy proud recovering that one!