Written by Russel Porter – Maggie was born June 21 2007 out of a litter of ten; she was a black Labrador retriever. Some of her brothers and sisters were chocolate like her grandmother Nikita. Maggie’s full AKC name was RR Magnum Margaret. The RR was for Rocky River ranch and Magnum was the sire.
Friends and family ask me how I picked Maggie out of a litter of 10. I knew she had the correct blood lines because we owned her mother Maxine, her grandmother Nikita and her great grandmother Jasmine. She was fourth generation of great hunting dogs for dove, quail, pheasants, ducks and most important blood tracker for deer. I played with the pups everyday, when I would opened the kennel door they all came running except Maggie, she would just sit down and look me straight in the eye. We would go on walks up to the barn and one day I climbed over the woven wire fence. All the pups except Maggie were crying and jumping on the fence. She just sits down and looked at me. Then I walked up the fence where there was a hole in the wire. Stuck my hand in the hole and called them over, they all scrambled through. Three days later I climbed over the fence about 20 yards from the hole. They all started crying and jumping, not Maggie, she went straight to the hole. I advertised the pups for sale and put a red collar on Maggie. After all the pups were sold, I started working with Maggie, throwing balls and sticks for her to retrieve and saying “Bird” each time. When she got good at that, we worked on water retrieving, she didn’t hesitant a second, loved the water.
When the dove season came in Maggie was 3 months old, I took her and mother Maxine. I had Maggie on a leash and told her to watch her mother. First bird I hit, Maxine went out picked it up and brought it back to me. I let Maggie smell it and gave her some of the feathers and said “Bird.” I repeated this 2 more times, then put Maxine on the leach and turned Maggie loose. A fast dove came by and I missed, Maggie ran after the bird and I was saying “No No,” so she came back and sat down. Next dove tried to land in the decoys and I dropped it about 20 yards out. Maggie had that bird in an instant but wouldn’t give it to me, I had treats in my pocket, so traded her treat for the bird. Second time she brought the bird back and wanted a treat. From that day forward she has retrieved all birds that I bag. When Maggie was two years old, Maxine showed her how to track a wounded deer. My hunters had hit a young buck but couldn’t find it so I turned both dogs loose on a small spot of blood. They circled a little then went west out of sight. Shortly I hear them baying about a quarter mile away. Maxine does not bay a dead deer so I told my hunter to bring his rifle. When we got there Maxine was on one side and Maggie on the other. My hunter finished the deer and while it was still kicking Maggie jumped in and grabbed it by the neck.
Maxine got hit by a truck a year later so now Maggie is the head tracker and retriever. She got a chance to track a wounded deer that next November when a friend of mine hit a buck a little two far back and he couldn’t find it. Maggie picked up the trail and took off north, then crossed a fence onto my neighbor’s property which was waist high weeds and thick cedar trees. Finally I heard her baying about 500 yards ahead. When I found her the buck was still alive in the middle of a small pond, I finished it off and when my friend got there I made him wade out and get it. I never did see any blood but Maggie could smell it.
Spring rolled around and the bucks started shedding their antlers. I decided to train Maggie to find sheds. She picked them up every time, and then I would hide them. They have a scent for sale that makes old dry antlers smell like fresh sheds, so I used that. First time I took her she found a fresh brown antler but also 3 bones. I didn’t say anything about the bones. The next time we went she come dragging in an Aoudad ram head with beautiful 25 inch horns. This gives her something to hunt in the off season.
Maggie is not a pointing dog but gets real birdie when she smells quail. My two uncles came to the ranch to hunt quail and I wanted to impress them so we went to a friend ranch that I knew had quail. We spread out in a line about 50 yards apart all wearing orange hats for safety. Maggie was about 20 yards if front of us looking for quail. Pretty soon she started wagging her tail fast and tracking birds. I told my two uncles to get ready and just as I said it, up went a covey and we all fired. Maggie picked up one quail and brought it back to me. Uncle Jack said he had one down and so did Uncle Chuck. I told Maggie bird and she started looking where Jack said it went down, Maggie soon found that bird also. Chuck said his was way out near a large clump of prickly pear cactus. Maggie circled the cactus patch and finally stopped and almost pointed into the center. When I walked up I could see the dead quail and had to get a long stick to fish it out. An hour later we had a covey flush wild about 100 yards ahead of us but we saw where it landed and started walking that way, when we got in the area there was a large pond in front of where the quail landed. We got on each end of the pond and I sent Maggie around to flush them back our way. My uncles said, “She can’t do that, they will go the other way. “ Well sure enough Maggie made a wide circle and the covey came right back over us. We all got a shot and two birds when down in the water. Maggie came out of the under brush and up on the tank dam, looking at me like, “Ok anyone hit a bird?” I motioned out in the water and said bird. Maggie dove in and got the first one, then looked at me. I motioned again and said bird, she swam out in the middle then looked back at me and I pointed to the right in some cattails, she soon found the quail also.
The next November we went on a pheasant hunt in South Dakota. The group I was hunting with said they didn’t have a dog the year before and lost 8 birds that were wounded and ran off. Big cock pheasants are hard to kill and a broken wing means a foot chase or lost bird. The first day Maggie tracked and caught 4 wounded birds, grabbing them by the neck or wing due to their large size. I heard a lot of, “Good dog” that day and the next two days when she caught 5 more. On the way back to the ranch house, we saw a pheasant run across the road that had a broken wing.
“Turn Maggie Loose” everybody said at once. But the bird went into a head high thick weed patch and she was gone out of sight for 30 minutes. Everybody was hungry for lunch and wanted to leave but I said, “I’m waiting”. Finally after 45 minutes she came out and the bird was still alive. When she dropped it I didn’t grab it quick enough and it took off again. She gave me a look like, darn boss what the heck. But she soon caught it again. One spring day a few years ago, I heard something at the back door, when I opened the door in shot Maggie, looking at me whining. Maggie had never been in the house before, “What’s wrong girl”? I went outside to look around and saw a big black cloud in the northwest, and could hear a noise like a train coming. I have a trap door in the floor that goes to a crawl space under the house. When I opened the door Maggie jumped in and I joined her. About 30 minutes later it hit hard. After it calmed down, we went outside and several trees were down. My yard fence was a total wreck, as well as a camper and dog kennel. The main funnel cloud had crossed my property to the north.
In December 2013 my girl friend Linda shot a spike buck, she hit it behind the front leg but it turned and the bullet did not hit a vital area. She sent me a text that she could not find the deer or any blood. I got Maggie and headed to the river. We searched the area where it was standing when she shot; no blood or hair was found. Maggie was going back and forth but didn’t seem to be finding anything. I was beginning to think she must have missed it but Linda insisted she had a hit. About this time Maggie disappeared, next we hear her baying about 200 yards up river from us. “Bring your rifle it’s still alive”, we had to go down a deep 100 foot ravine and back up the other side. When we get there Maggie is sitting on the bank watching the deer swimming across to the other side. The spike buck can’t get up the steep bank on the other side and catches its antlers in some grape vines. Linda shoots it in the neck to finish it off. When Maggie hears the shot, she jumps in the river and swims across, grabs it by the neck and starts jerking it out of the grape vines. Because of gas in its stomach it is buoyant and floats. She finally gets it untangled and swims back to us. Maggie has found a lot of deer but that’s the first time she ever retrieved one.
