Zenhunting

My kids went to college locally, though there was a semester at a university in Spain (an exchange program) and a year-long master’s at Columbia for my oldest. So I never really experienced sending a kid away to school for four years. But if it’s anything like the feeling of sending my lab Schatzie off to retriever school at Stonewall Retrievers for two months, then it must be hell.

Oh I’m sure she’s in good hands. Trainer Jan Burkholder will be keeping closer tabs on her than a college dean with two thousand sexting, jello-shot slurping undergrads can.

It’s just the deafening silence. The collar-jingling shake and slow grunting stretch when she gets up wasn’t there this morning. Those toe-nails clackity-clacking on the hardwood floors all day long – gone. No woofing when the mail lady came by. And just the cats’ two tiny food bowls in the sink, the pup’s big steel bowl still on the floor. Sparkling clean. Empty.

And during cocktail time on the deck last night; no dog with a ball in her mouth, trying to get our attention, pleading with us to put those glasses down and play with me!

I imagine she’s getting plenty of retrieving in now. Maybe not so much on her terms, but with some new rules and procedures to follow. A little more business, a little less fun, but that will make her an even better dog this season in the blind. And I know she’ll learn her lessons well, because I’d put her eagerness to learn and attention span up against pretty much any human student.

But still, sixty days of the silence of an empty nest is a long, long time. It’s going to be a difficult couple of months, for her and her mom and dad.

“Two months at Retriever School?! Uh, can we discuss this?”

~ by SpeakingZenaphorically on August 24, 2013.

Posted in hunting, Hunting Dogs, Labrador retrievers, Retrievers, Waterfowl
Tags: American Labrador Retriever, duck hunting, retriever training, Waterfowl, zenhunter, Zenhunting