(upbeat music) - [Bret] In the hunting world, dogs rule but they just don't live long enough.

After a lifetime of working hard in the field for us, today is all about them.

♪ Old dogs ♪ ♪ Are the best ♪ ♪ Flushers, pointers ♪ ♪ And all the rest ♪ ♪ They wait at the door ♪ ♪ On a crisp fall day ♪ - [Bret] There's a reason they're called man's best friend.

For those of us who live to hunt, having a four-legged partner in the field is priceless.

♪ They whine and whimper as the ducks drop in ♪ ♪ And wait for the signal to go for swim ♪ - Well, it's a blustery day here in December and we're about an hour north of the Twin Cities at Wings North.

Now this is a hunting preserve or a hunting club, but we're here today to chase some birds around.

We got some pheasants out here and we got a group of guys with some old veteran bird dogs, and this is a chance to give them one last hunt or one of their last hunts, but let them go out there and just be a bird dog with no pressure, have a little bit of fun and stay warm.

♪ If a dog could tell ya what it likes to do ♪ - [Bret] Somebody gave me this idea, they get a group of friends with dogs that are at least 10 years old and bring 'em to a game farm like this.

I thought it was a great idea and I was looking forward to seeing these old dogs in action.

♪ Old dogs are the best ♪ - The Boone-man!

He's definitely the first (soft music) wild man dog that I ever had.

He was our second dog as a family, He was our second dog as a family, an.. free puppy pop up on Facebook, a purebred lab.

I was like, "Yep, sure, take 'em.

Sounds good."

(laughing) So lined it up and then he got dropped off at Game Fair actually it was just a couple weeks later, got dropped off at Game Fair and oh, probably 12 weeks, 14 weeks old or something like that at the time.

(gun clicks) What is this hunting stuff?

Took a little seven year hiatus.

Now we're back at it.

(laughing) Mentally he's there.

1000% would be starting lineup every day, guaranteed if he had the health, so but.

(tongue clicks) - [Bret] What happened?

- Well, we were goose hunting and he was in an accident.

He was in the back of a Ranger and they were going way too fast.

I wasn't a part of that.

Hit something that was buried underneath the snow and he was in the back of the Ranger, his back, essentially his back broke.

(solemn music) Come on, buddy.

Come on buddy.

Come here.

Come here, buddy.

So he had huge surgery at the University of Minnesota to try and fix that.

And so there's a bone epoxy in there and screws and that didn't work.

And so we tried everything we possibly could to get 'em fixed up but didn't work out, so.

Go find 'em, hunt 'em up.

Get in there.

Go find 'em.

(wind rustling) - [Bret] He locked up on that bird right away today.

- Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, he hit scent and I don't think he realized that we were even hunting 'cause he hasn't hunted for so long.

So I don't think he even realized we were hunting for a little while, and then he's like, "Whoa, that smells like a bird.

I remember that."

And then he had a little bit of this pointing blo.. so I thought, in him, and he kind of had this natural point for the most part.

And so I sent him down to a trainer in Southern Minnesota and said, "Here, see what you can do with him."

He specialized in some pointing dogs.

So he got him to point and got put a pointing title on him in like 45 days or something like that.

So it was all pretty natural and pretty cool.

(gun firing) Oh!

(laughing) Yeah, locked up and it was pretty flush and pretty well point.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] Most of the guys today were hunting with guns at only shoot two shells - Right.

Traditional, upland guys.

Waterfowl dude.

Three bangs at that one.

Yeah.

Got him, dead bird.

(Bret and Cory laughing) Oh, there goes Boone.

(group laughing) - I love it.

- That one.

I was like, "I'm not gonna put the collar on him.

There's no way he's gonna get far enough away."

(group laughing) Oops.

- He going.

Is he on point right there?

Nope, he's pooping.

Oh, it's come back here now.

There it is.

(gun firing) Hey!

Dead bird.

There you go.

Nice shot, Ben.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

- We all chuckled as the dogs hobbled out after this bird.

(hunter laughing) - Oh.

Man.

- [Bret] But then something about Annie's back leg caught my eye.

- So Annie is a 10-year-old Deutsch Drahthaar.

She was really one of my, first dog of my own, first gun dog.

And she is a warrior still at 10 years old.

- Good job, Annie.

- Still wants it.

- [Hunter] Good job.

Oh, good girl.

- Just a great puppy to have because the nice thing about drive is that can help you overcome a lot of mistakes you make as a trainer just 'cause they want it so bad.

So she was the perfect kind of like first dog to really dig in and train and really learn from, because you could make mistakes with her and she was just happy that she would come out the other side of it and just be gung-ho about doing whatever it was.

♪ This could be the best thing that'll I ever know ♪ ♪ This could be the best thing that'll I ever know ♪ ♪ Hm ♪ - Find them.

- Annie at six years old, so four years ago now, had a spinal stroke.

so four years ago now, had a spinal stroke.

It's called an FCE, where essentially she was paralyzed in her back two legs for probably two months.

And it was in the summer just as I had moved back home to Minnesota and the doctor's like, "Well", or the vet said essentially like she could come out perfectly fine out the back end or she could never walk again.

(solemn music) We did all, we had done a bunch of rehab and different things and, yeah, I remember the first time she walked again.

Yeah, it was super emotional because you could just tell even to this day how much she loves it.

♪ This could be the best thing that I'll ever know ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ - [Ben] There we go.

♪ They become family and they love ya ♪ ♪ They just don't live long enough ♪ (gun firing) ♪ Old dogs are the best ♪ ♪ Flushers, pointers ♪ ♪ And all the rest ♪ - She's just, (laughing) three legs going as fast she can three legs going as fast she.. and one just dragging behind her.

and one just dragging behind her.

And (laughing) you would never know, And (laughing) you would never know, li.. that she's only got three legs so yeah, pretty special, a lot.

so yeah, pretty special, a lot.

Tremendous amount of heart for dogs, right?

Like, gosh if I lose a leg I'm probably sitting on the couch and doing nothing.

But she acts like she is just one of the other do.. can do just as much as they can.

So it's pretty special.

♪ They'll go till they drop ♪ (soft music) ♪ There's no quit in 'em ♪ ♪ No matter how scratched up ♪ ♪ Or how much they're limping ♪ (soft music) - Oh, the old man?

Well, he's the only one that made it out of his litter.

Well, he's the.. All the other ones got ran over by tractors or mouse poison or the other things that take out farm dogs.

or mouse poison or the other things that take out farm dogs.

We actually bid on 'em at a Pheasants Forever auction, the old Hendricks chapter, and lo and behold we won.

the old Hendricks chapter, and lo and behold we won.

He's got a little in him still, which was cool.

It's hard, you know, like it's sad to watch, you know, he's been with the family.

Like we raised our kids with him, right.

You know?

He's 13 and that's tough, getting old.

(soft music continues) - Mika turns 14 in January and she doesn't do much hunting anymore.

Last season she actually retrieved the last bird of the season last year.

I had Tiny out too, she beat Tiny the bird, which I thought was pretty amazing and I've had her on a couple short walks this year, but she doesn't get around like she used to.

She can't hear anything so.

Good job.

Hey.

Not bad at all.

Gonna be 13 in a couple weeks.

She's an old dog.

She started hunting when she was about eight months old.

She's done a lot of pheasant hunting and she's reached that age where she kind of takes her time, goes at her own speed, does what she wants to do.

But you know what?

She's earned that.

She's got a lot of retrieves, spent a lot of time in the field, so.

(gun fires) What'd you think, Miks?

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

♪ From the moment that we met ♪ ♪ You were worth the wait ♪ - Oh yeah, oh yeah.

What's that?

Good.

♪ Oh ♪ ♪ This could be the best thing that I'll ever know ♪ - Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

♪ Mm ♪ (Bret laughing) - Being able to do this with her, you know, in this type of situation or any type of situation, it's tough to beat.

It's pretty awesome.

(soft upbeat music) - The cool thing about old dogs - The cool thing about old dogs and something I have.. and something I have to remind myself, it's like it's always fun to go run the,.. the young dogs and a lot of potential, a lot of fun, fire, whatever.

But you know, you get those old dogs out, But you know, you get those old do.. it was fun watching 'em today and just the demeanor shifts, right?

It's not "let's find birds, let's get as many as we can."

It's just like everyone was just watching the dogs l.. like nobody was yelling, there was no ego involved.

Right?

It's like, hey, you look at all tho.. and it's like they don't owe you anything, right?

Like they have been there, done that.

So it was really cool just to see that ego completely go out the window.

- [Bret] They don't owe us anything but, and you don't ever want to hurt a dog of course, but we almost owe it to them to give 'em an opportunity like this, don't we?

- A dog might be a small part of your world, right?

- A dog might be a small part of your world, right?

We've got responsibilities, we've got jobs, we've got family, but to them we are everything, right?

we've got family, but to.. we've got family, but to them we are everything, right?

So as they get older, they've given their everything to us.

So yeah, for opportunities like that, to be able to get out and find birds and do what they love.

to be ab.. Yeah, like that is what they live for.

(soft upbeat music continues) - You know, they give you everything, everything.

- You know, they give you everything, everything.

And you just want to try and give them back a little bit of your time, and just watching that amount of drive and just watching that amount of .. and love and determination and you know, just kind of wither away and just be a little bit less able than they were last year or yesterday or last month, it really, (clearing throat) or yesterday or last month, .. it just kind of tears you up because you're so close to 'em for so long and they just give you so much.

(wind whooshing) - [Bret] Oh, right, here.

(gun firing) There you go.

Nice shot, Cory.

Nice job.

That away, Miks.

- That's really all there is.

You know?

Humans say it all the time, "Oh, I gave 100%."

It's like have you ever seen a bird dog hunt?

Like that's what 100% looks like.

Like not what you just did out there on the soccer field or on your math test.

That's not 100%.

Like this is a bird dog.

This is a 100%.

(upbeat music) - [Hunter] Good.

- Oh!

He got him.

- Good job.

Good.

- [Bret] Cory put a nice shot on that bird.

Annie pointed it, Cory shot it, Mika retrieved it.

- [Bret] As we put our dogs away- - Good job.

- I had to wonder if this would be the last time Mika would get to hunt.

♪ Old dog ♪ - [Bret] I do know that if she gets the chance- ♪ Are the best ♪ - [Brett] There's no way she'll let me leave her at home.

♪ Flushers, pointers ♪ ♪ And all the rest ♪