Joe Allegretti writes: Ammo completed his fourth hunting season. The season began in Westmorland with opening day of dove season. Ammo retrieved numerous doves for me and my daughter and other members of our hunting party. His marks were excellent. We didn't even bother with quail this year as the prospects were dismal.

We did manage to take our annual trip to North Dakota at the Cannonball Company. The weather was perfect for pheasant hunting (low 40's) and the birds were plentiful. As usual, all members of our party limited out every day.
		Remi (left) and Ammo (right)
Ammo and Remi flushed and retrieved numerous pheasants. Ammo worked in close, always flushing birds within shooting range. His marks were great and he found many birds that others had flushed and he hadn't seen fall.

Over Christmas vacation, I hunted at the Antelope Valley Sportsman's Club with my daughter, son, and father-in-law. Ammo flushed all of the planted birds and retrieved the ones we shot (and a couple that we missed). A late season duck hunt at the Kern Refuge yielded a few ducks, all of which were retrieved by Ammo and Remi.

We welcomed home another Longplain puppy, Longplain Peppered with Shot -- "Pepper" (Longplain Z-Sting ex Longplain Kanake) in March of 2002. Pepper was being trained by Gary Jones during the hunting season and we expect great things from her as well. Longplain dogs truly are great hunters and excellent family companions.

Ammo and his family

After the season ended, Joe had more news: The dogs are doing great. I took both Ammo and Pepper out on opening morning of dove season (along with my 13 year old daughter and 11 year old son-- it's a wonder I got any shots in myself). The shooting was so great I limited out by 6:15, my daughter limited out by 6:45 (her first limit), and my son had 5 birds by 7:15 (his first ever hunt).   Ammo did great as usual, but I was very impressed with Pepper. She was very methodical in retrieving doves-- if she saw them fall she was right on them; if she didn't see them, I'd send her out with little direction and she'd usually come back with the bird. Remi hunted with us as well and did great.

Joe continues: These dogs just LOVE to retrieve. Pepper is quite the backyard hunter as well. Birds and squirrels fear her as she is constantly on the prowl for them. She nearly jumped over a four foot high pool fence the other day to get to a squirrel. The other night, she was interested in something in a tree; I shook the tree and a dove took off out of it. I think she will be an excellent hunting dog once she mellows out a bit.

Check out the group's other hunting seasons too:
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007