how to pick up a duck

As promised, here are a few notes about how Mom taught me to pick up a dead duck. You probably think that's pretty easy for a Lab to do, since that's what we were intended to do, go pick up dead ducks and bring them to our parents. But have YOU ever had a dead duck in your mouth? No? Well, then, don't judge how hard it is!

In this first video, I'm pretty suspicious about the whole dead duck thing. I mean, I've followed them around some when they are alive, but a dead duck looks different, and smells different, and even acts different. (Well, it doesn't act like anything. Other than a dead duck.) Anyway, here's what I did when I saw my very first dead duck. (By the way, a weasel killed this particular duck the night before, no ducks were killed just for me for this lesson.)

Mom let me mess around this way for a little bit until I got quieter about it. (It took awhile!) I did eventually settle down and get less scared of it, and sniffed it and checked it out a bit:

Then she started picking the duck up by a wing and walking in a big circle. I was really curious so I followed behind her, then she dropped it back down again to see what I would do. After doing it a few times, I decided that maybe I wanted to try to carry it too, and in order to do that, I would have to touch it with my mouth:

It was a little icky at first, the feathers stuck in my mouth and were hard to get back out. But I started to get used to it. And when I started putting my mouth on it whenever Mom dropped it, she started throwing it instead. That got me more excited about doing something with it:

I figured out I could drag it around a little if I grabbed a wing good and tight:

I was really starting to get the hang of wanting to pick up that duck, but there's no way to pick up a heavy duck by the wing. So Mom kept working with me until I gave up on the wings and tried grabbing it by the body. Then she whooped it up and tossed it for me again. All I need now is to either get a little bigger so I can actually get that duck up off the ground all the way, or get a smaller duck!

I hope you enjoyed the videos! I'm off to see if I can't find me a smaller duck....

See ya!