Buck Wild - How I Lost a Field Trial Champion

I'm glad to be back with you guys and doing a a different sort of style , but I'm doing it with one of my partners over at cornerstone gundog academy . This episode I'm going to have my friend josh parvin on here . However , the roles are going to be slightly reversed .

As some of you may have seen , there's been a big story on my social media about Runaway Dog and I've had a lot of people ask .

A lot of people ask to hear the story of what happened and rather than try to explain it in person or on Facebook comments , josh and I thought it would be a great idea to just knock it out in an episode and , rather than me just sit here and ramble on , we thought it would be better if Josh came and asked me a few questions about it so that he could

help us get through it without me lingering too long on one topic or just missing some key points . So I've invited my friend Josh here onto my podcast to interview me and then hopefully soon he'll come back on the podcast and I can interview him . So we've done several together .

I'm excited to have him here today and excited to tell you guys the story of what was almost like the most epic fail of my career .

We've kind of texted back and forth a little bit , but truth is , I mean , barton's been out of pocket for days chasing a dog , so I think we're all going to get to discover this together . So where , where do we begin , barton ? Let's just dive straight in , because this is going to be a media one .

There's a lot of details here I'm sure that we're going to cover , and it starts with a dog . There there's this dog named Buck , you know what . What's up with him ? There's this dog named Buck , you know what .

So you know , for those of you who don't follow along with my social media , every year , other than a couple of years during COVID , I go over to the UK and just try to attend some field trials , hang out with some friends new friends , old friends , try to make friends , and really it's just all about getting to know these dogs a little bit better and the

people who breed them and train them and trial them a little bit better . So I want to be bringing over the best that I can and improving my breeding program through these trips to the UK . And last year was an incredible trip and I got to do something I'd never done before . I got to actually shoot at a field trial last year , which was really fun .

And I went to a beautiful estate in Scotland called Bow Hill and pretty well known by trialers over there , owned by the Duke of something you know . It's a massive estate and beautiful grounds and I've got a lot of stories from being there . But I watched a 24-dog two-day open stake which is a qualifying stake for the IGL .

There are a bunch of those , but not as many as I think folks would like , because that's the main route . I think you can win one of those and you're immediately qualified to run the championships if you win a two-day stake .

Also , if you're trying to make a dog into a field trial champion , you can just win two two-day open stakes instead of having to win three trials . So it's two days , 24 dogs not easy to win . I saw some amazing retrieves on some incredible countryside . I'll post some pictures and videos with this podcast and these dogs .

I don't want to get too ahead of myself , but they had to go over some massive stone walls on this trial , some old , old walls , walls that look like they've been there since , like pre-war war ii . And uh , the dog that won .

It was a dog named buck and he belonged to a guy that I have spent more time talking to in the last two weeks than any time prior , named thomas bushby and gorgeous dog , lots of style , and the dog just really didn't miss a step the whole two days and I took a mental note of it , as I hope to do with any dogs I see over there that I really like ,

looked up his pedigree , looked up his health clearances . At that point in time he was not a field trial champion . That was his , I think , first open stake he had won out of novice and won several awards in his first four trials .

A couple of weeks after that , in November , he won another open stake two day , making him a field trial champion and double qualifying him for the IGL . He ran the championships and made it to the second day . I can't remember how many retrieves in , but had a good showing there . And yeah , that was Buck .

He was filed away in the back of my mind as a dog that somewhere down the road in the future would be a great potential dog to possibly either import some semen from or maybe even try to get my hands on .

I mean , I don't even have to say anything about it , but I mean , the truth is the way , the passion that you put into selecting your dogs is truly incredible , and I think that's what gets you as some of the best out there . So I just want to throw that out there . That's one thing I've always loved about Barton .

Just say this , too , for the people that are maybe tuning in for the first time just give a super brief rundown of what what you mean by 24 dogs in an open stake and what it actually takes to win one of those , just so people can understand the magnitude , especially if they're unfamiliar with that .

A handler can have two dogs in the trial , so you can have one guy with up to two dogs , but usually 24 guys or 22 people guys or girls and they start out with all the dogs in . If you want to know more about the actual trial itself , I would suggest the lab episode I did with Laura Hill .

But this one was walking a bunch of walk up and we're walking through some incredible terrain with four dogs at a time in line . We're shooting birds that are not . These are not thrown out of wingers , these are live birds that we're flushing up as we walk and we're sending dogs on retrieves .

And you've got to be clean , you've got to handle well , you've got to be crisp . This particular dog took some good credit on a bird that I shot down near a wall . When two dogs went down there trying to find it , the guy just couldn't get him . It was actually tucked right up next to a fence and that can be a very difficult retrieve .

Um , we've talked about that in several different episodes and talk about a lot on the zoom calls with clark . I mean , you got the bird just tucked right against a barrier like that and , uh , these two dogs just wouldn't get close to the fence .

The wind was wrong and then buck came in and just stepped on it and uh , so he eye wiped , he put the other two out . They were no longer in the trial and now he's got like , instead of an A , he's got like an A plus , like a tick there , like hey , the judges are looking at that kind of stuff , right .

So over the course of the first day , you're going to eliminate several dogs I've seen , going into the second day of a trial , I've seen as few as four dogs . I , going into the second day of a trial , I've seen as few as four dogs . I've seen as many as I think , 14 . Wow . So you're going to eliminate the field .

The second day You're going to have less , less handlers , less dogs , and they're going to probably spread the line out a little bit to make the retrieves even more difficult .

Uh , and so over the course of two days , the judges for judges , they're looking for the best dog on those two days of shooting Um and looking for the best dog on those two days of shooting um . Yeah , and it's cool . You're going to have some other awards too .

Like last year , um buck got an award called guns choice at a big trial that he didn't win , but the the gun saw him as the dog they would most want to have shooting over . So they do some and they will award first , second , third , uh and fourth , and then a certificate of merit for anyone else that's still in the trial . So , yeah , not easy to win .

Not easy to win two in a season at all .

When , when the stud interest has kind of declined because the next new thing is out there , um , and bringing a field trial champion over here is honestly decently rare . You know there are a handful in the country . Right now I've got four here . I've imported , I think seven or eight others , but uh , it's .

It's always like I can't ever believe that they're actually going to get here . Until they actually get here , I'm like , oh man , we really got another one . You know it's not easy .

I have a friend that was actually the one who was judging at that trial , who took me , took me in and allowed me to set me up to where I could go shoot at that trial , who had become over the last year a very dear friend of mine , um , and we have business working relationship where he's looking out for me , trying to find dogs , um , but also just a

friendship he's . He's a big guy like me six , four , six , five and funny and just he's a great guy .

And , uh , he was actually trying to find some dogs for me and had found some and we were talking we actually were talking about um , really nice field trial winning female that we brought over Um and he said , hey , just between me and you there's a potential of a field trial champion for sale . Um , you know the dog .

I can't say the name yet but it's going to be big money , but he's available and he's best of the best right now . He's . He's won a lot , he's hot and his , his pedigree is really just , it's a really good unique pedigree , um , and additionally he has some of the best um health scores I've seen Um .

So the guy sent me the health scores zero , zero elbows , of course , and then zero , two hips and his EBVs estimated breeding values are incredibly low , which is really good . Potential for creating good hips and elbows is high is what that means . So , man , I was like , well , send me the name .

And he was like I got to wait , I got to wait , I got to wait to make sure that he's actually willing to sell it , get the price and all that . And I honestly was thinking , man , I just don't know if this is going to happen Financially not in a position to buy a dog like that .

I just I have some champions here but they are getting older Moose and Rio I'm sorry , moose and Ozzie are getting older . I've got Rio , my black dog , and then I just bought a field trial winner named Fletcher and I was like I just don't know if I'm in a position to buy one . But I had a client who is a dear friend of mine .

I've known the guy since I was in high school but we reconnected through duck hunting and he had expressed interest in purchasing a dog that you know . I don't want to go into too many details , but if money is no issue , I want a bad to the bone Labrador to hunt in the flooded timber with .

He had seen some of you know he'd really enjoyed hunting with Cedar and Rio and he and a business partner of him that works with him on all of his duck properties were like , yeah , we might be interested in this . So fast forward .

I finally get the details on the dog and I'm like , hey , I know this dog , like I've seen him run , that would be really awesome to have . Uh . So I passed all the details along to my guy and I said , look , here's the deal . You know , we can bring him over .

And this is a friend of mine who does not the nature of his life travel , kids and all that . He does not want a dog , uh , 365 , seven days a week . He wants a dog to hunt with um , but he wants the dog to be well cared for the rest of the year . So we worked out the deal of a century , right it's hey , let's bring this dog over .

He gets to hunt with a very prestigious dog in his woods with his buddies and his friend this client , we'll call him JR and his friend gets to handle the dog . Have this , it's fun when you're bringing people to hunt and the dog makes the hunt better . You've been on these hunts , you know it's like , hey , look , how awesome this dog is .

And then everybody's stoked to shoot birds and then they're stoked again when they see the dog barreling through the timber . So , um , over the course of several weeks we we sealed the deal to where we would bring Buck over . Um , it was funny , as we're . Actually the plan was to bring him over and call him Huck , cause we liked the name Huck fan .

You know I changed names sometimes when I don't , I don't know . Well , we have that's still TBD .

So we decided to bring him over here and he's going to hunt with uh jr and his buddy and then in february , through really october , uh november time , he would be here at southern oak kennels and we would use him as a breeding stud and I would keep him in the best shape that I could as far as training and you know , you know how that goes .

I wouldn't let him lose , lose his uh his abilities through the course of the summer . So we worked that out and made a plan to bring him over man .

I don't want to go into too many details , but the dog goes from Thomas to my friend who helped me seal the deal , and then from him a courier picks him up , who I've worked with off and on for the last 14 years , and they take him to the this one I think he flew out of I can't remember if it's manchester or london .

So they , they have a direct flight now that flies into nashville , uh , non-stop , which is really nice , because typically they go to amsterdam and they have to stay in a kennel , um , and so they this , this flight goes to nashville , which , as you know , for me is super nice .

The whole time I've known you , josh , I've gone to Atlanta to pick my dogs up and I'm sure , after saying this , I'll have to do that some more . But it is truly a nightmare . Like when I set my mind to thinking about going to the Atlanta cargo facility to pick up live animals , my blood pressure immediately goes to the roof .

It's like some of you listening have seen the stories and remember the snow drive and all that . But Nashville is only three and a half hours for me and the people bless them , it's the easiest transition , like , you just pull up and they bring your dogs . That's nice , that's nice , that's nice , um . So I uh , yeah , we set it up for him to come .

And now I also had a female , a mama dog , going to stone that I'd had to got . I got her from ireland to scotland , to england , on this flight , and then that that's a whole ordeal .

And then I had two other females , one going to parish , over at SOK East , and one going to miles , who lives only about an hour and a half from Nashville , and that one was the field trial winner . So lots of nice ones on this flight , um , but obviously uh had buck on the flight , um , and yeah , so they they are .

You know we set all that up and you hope it all goes well and I'm always a nervous wreck about it , like the last time I imported some dogs to Nashville was two puppies , right before the CDC shut down puppies .

I did it on purpose and halfway there , if you'll recall , I got , I got a message that my dogs were not on the flight and I turned around and was headed back and I was just like something't set right . So I called the airline and they were on the flight .

They just filed the paperwork wrong , so it's a whole debacle , and so every time I'm like what's gonna happen this time , you know ? are they gonna get stopped . Uh , one of the females had cut her ear .

Um , you know , just flip , flipping her ears , she got longer ears , cut her the end of her ear , and so she got to the airport and I got an email saying , hey , the airline wants to know what's . Why is she bleeding from the ear . And I'm like , here we go , they're gonna , they'll shut down the whole shipment from that .

And uh , not , they won't send three of the dogs , it's one , it's one package all four dogs . So anyway , uh , we worked that out . They were from . Yeah , we got the ear thing solved and then uh buck made his way with the girls over to nashville , landed in nashville you get my date right on thursday , october the third at .

He landed at 8 pm , man oh man .

. Gotta think you've been raised by one guy in in england your whole life and then you got put on a . You got taken to another guy who had a kennel with other dogs . You got put in a van , loaded into a waiting area and then created like , lifted in a little those little trolley cars to an airplane , put on an airbus and had a nine hour flight .

And you land in a new country in the dark and some big guy that talks very differently comes to get you out of the crate . It's . You know , some dogs are unfazed , like Ozzie . I opened the crate and he was like let's do it Like no problem . Most of them have a little bit of a like I don't really know what's going on here . So he was that way .

I walked him around , he was fine , jumped right up in the back of my truck and I loved on him for a second on the side of my truck . He just kind of had his head over the bed of the truck . I took a picture to send to my folks over in the UK just to say hey , I got him . So , yeah , I loaded him up and started the .

I thought about spending the night in Nashville , but I decided to drive home . It takes a little while to get him from the plane to the tarmac , so anyway , yeah , he and I went home , home , and I was thrilled .

I posted a little story on social media about him , put his name out there , which was a bold move , uh and uh , cause then everybody knows that you've got him . You know what I mean . You gotta kind of be strategic about this stuff . You don't want to put the cart before the horse and say , hey , we're bringing over this dog .

I mean like , for instance , when I bought moose that was the biggest deal ever to me , uh , and I had put him on my website like two months before I brought him over here and then just hid the page Right , like I didn't make it public . Right and I couldn't wait to tell people .

But I was like , ah , I'm going to post it and something's going to happen , you know , and he won't make it . So anyway , I've had him , had him in my possession and headed home and got to the house , to Southern Oak Kennels , around 1 o'clock in the morning , which would have been Friday morning .

So I got him out and he was a little nervy at first but when I walked into the kennel because some of the girls were kind of barking at him , when I walked into the kennel because some of the girls were kind of barking at him , and once everybody settled he just kind of walked around and uh , he was , uh , he was kind of glued to my hip .

Everywhere I went he followed me and , uh , that's normal . It was like , hey , you're the guy that got me out of the kennel . You had me on a slip lead . I trust you . And he didn't love the other boys . Kind of walking up to him was just kind of like are these friendly dogs ? You know I don't . So , yeah , I let him run around , use the bathroom .

And he was in my airing yard , um , which I should say I , you know . So I have , I have 14 kennels and they're in like a half an acre yard that has , um , a fence around it . That's about five and a half feet tall . The kennels are TK kennels , six by tens , no , I'm sorry , five by tens , that are six feet tall .

So I put them in the kennel right between Fletcher and Murphy , who are both very friendly , like they love everybody , yeah . And when I looked back at him he was totally fine . He's wagging his tail , um , happy as could be . You know , he did not seem in any way nervous .

Now , a caveat to this is I had three girls in heat on the other side of the kennels . Their kennels don't touch , there's a drain between them , but they can definitely smell them . Yeah and um so , but I've , I've never had an adult labrador scale the kennels . Wow until buck , wow . So , yeah , uh , evidently I was asleep .

I went to bed at two in the morning after I got all three dogs . Miles took his home to nashville and I had the other two girls in buck . I got everyone settled in , um , I , I went to bed at two in the morning and strategically , but regretfully , put my phone on silent . Do not disturb , because I just .

It's two in the morning , you know , and you and I , with with Cornerstone , with all that we have going on in our lives . You got young , young kids , but our phones start to blow up pretty early and I was like I'm going gonna just turn my phone off as far as I don't want anyone reaching me .

I would like to sleep until eight or nine in the morning , get six , seven hours of sleep and then go about my day . Well , I woke up . I had a text , um , that made some reason , made my watch buzz on my table , um , and I woke up it was 8 oh one in the morning and I had 14 missed calls from Chris .

Oh , and that is a sinking feeling , because Chris , who is my kind of kennel kennel manager , here he runs the show . He's out feeding dogs , right , he's actually probably walking buck on a leash chris , he texts you with updates , he calls you with issues and if he calls you twice in a row it's probably pretty bad .

Um , last time he called me twice in a row was a dog had hit a barbed wire fence and cut her stomach all up . Uh , but he called me twice and I called him back 14 times in a row . That's really bad . Uh , he had called bethany several times oh my gosh and I , yeah , I knew , man , I knew I had this sinking feeling .

And I had this feeling when I I'm admitting this because I'm being super honest with you guys I had this feeling when I walked from the kennel to my house . I just thought that's the most expensive dog I've ever brought over here , by a little bit , by a bit , and I wonder if I should just put him in the shop .

I just had that quick thought and I was like no , he's fine . I've never had a dog escape out here . So I called Chris back and he's in a panic and I'm still thinking to myself and this is awful to say .

But I was like please be any of the other dogs and I know some of my dogs aren't gonna run off , you know , but the other new ones , I was like that just please don't be , don't be buck . And of course chris answers and he said we got a big problem , you know chris . So I said what's that ? He said this dog's done run off .

And I'm I'm thinking just don't tell me which you know . And I said tell me it wasn't the boy , because ch Chris doesn't know these dogs yet . And he goes yeah , the one on the boy's side . And I was like dude , that's just sinking , sinking , sinking , feeling Like getting literally just repeatedly kicked in the stomach .

And so when Chris showed up at 7 am Chris gets here between 6.30 and 7 . And when Chris got here at 7 , buck was out of his kennel but he had not run off , which 7 am . Chris gets here between six , 30 and seven .

And when Chris got here at seven , buck was out of his kennel but he had not run off , which is a good thing , cause if they run off in the middle of the night , they , they're hours ahead of you , right , yeah , yeah .

And uh , he was just standing over by the girl's side , so I think , I think he scaled and uh , and I mean , look , you're new , everything's new . And when chris pulls up my dogs , they , they , they alert the neighborhood that it's breakfast time , right ?

So they're all like , oh my god , they're barking and this really , I think , caused buck to have like a panic attack . And then he looks up and here's chris , the stranger , walking into the airing yard like hey , man , and I don't know what he said . He says he said something like you know , hey , buddy , or something to him .

And man , buck just turned and went the opposite way and did not touch a hair on that five and a half foot fence . I mean boom right over it . Oh yeah , and I've seen him do it in england , I should have known better . And uh , yeah , off . He goes in a beeline just straight out of our yard through my neighbor's grass and uh , chris went after him .

So I run outside and my dogs this is an hour later , hour and 15 minutes later , and I run out here , of course , like I remember , I got dressed . Like you know , you wake up and you're already late for an exam and you're just like in a panic and , like panic , dressed and ran outside and my dogs are all freaking out because they haven't been out yet .

You know , they're like Chris is here and we haven't had breakfast , you know . So , yeah , that was the escape and I'm thinking , gosh , I had this dog here for six hours , from 1 am to 7 am , and now he's gone .

You know , I've had a couple get out , found them five miles away , um , and that's a scary feeling . But when the labs normally get out , I'm thinking , okay , you know , we'll just be all right , they're gonna come back . Did you kind of share that same thought like , oh , you know , at this time , did you realize the depths of this when it first happened ?

Or you just kind of had a gut ?

In general , like I've I've come to the kennels and in in in my my previous kennel , you know , was down at the lodge there in Oklahoma and like there was no fence around the kennels and I'd had dogs pop a door out and they're just laying near , you know , laying in the yard , or like I see them over in the pond , I'm like what are you doing ?

The difference is they knew that that was home , this dog . I had a lady on facebook uh , she probably won't listen to this , I think she's in her like mid-90s , but she , she messaged me and she goes why don't you just check where you got him from , because he's probably just gone home . And I told her , I said that would be a long swim .

He broke out of here and he was running for England . Buddy , the British are coming . He was headed for the UK . Oh man . And so that was my fear . I was like he has no idea what , what is home , what , what is normal ? He has no clue so and he's not going to find anything familiar . You know what I mean Nothing . There's not , we don't .

They have different plants than us . Their grass is different , it's just different . Uh , everything's different over there as far as smells to a dog . So , yeah , I was in a sheer state of and everyone you know , yeah , I was .

I didn't tell everyone at once , but my wife knew , you know , and it was Friday and I went into , like I went into a dark hole , immediately Gosh .

And the problem with that was the neighbor who saw him is the opposite direction of the way he ran . So I went from hey , clearly let's go this way to . Well , maybe he didn't go that way , maybe he looped around and he went this way . So now I'm , instead of going in a direction , I'm going in a circle .

And this was on a Friday morning I had that weekend . I had some friends of mine in Birmingham putting on a music festival called Furnace Fest . Yeah , I hate all my metalhead friends out there , but Noah and I have been planning on Furnace Fest for literally two years .

I told him this is the year when he's 11 , he , he can go and he's had it on his calendar . So I go in the house and Noah , noah looks at me and he goes . We're not going to get to go to furnace fest . Are we dead ? And I was like probably not , but maybe later we'll see .

So I spent from about 9am until well into the riding around on a side-by-side calling for him . I learned a lot about the geography around here . I was trespassing , I was knocking on doors , I was stopping everyone I could see and I was just like , hey , there's a black lab . All my neighbors right here immediately knew no one else knew black lab .

All my neighbors right here immediately knew , um , no one else knew . And uh yeah , just went into like sheer panic looking . But I'm even thinking if I'm calling this dog , he's not gonna , he doesn't know me . I've got the same whistle as thomas , so I'm just doing a lot of whistling .

And uh , yeah , there was , there was no seeing him , he was , he was gone is this the first time you've ever lost a dog like this ?

But I bought a field trial winner in 2018 , and I took him on a trip with me maybe 17 , 17 or 18 . I took him on a trip with me and love the dog , but he hated my kennel manager at the time , my kennel help .

Uh , this young guy , he hated him and , uh , I was out scouting for ducks locally in December of that year and he saw a truck that looked like mine across the street and he ran and jumped the white fence next to the highway and got hit by a car and killed man . I'd never , never , bred him . I'd only had him about four months .

Um , wow , that's a little different , but that was in the in my record of things that have gone wrong . That was very high on the list , right , his name was lenny um and he was out of asterix . For you pedigree nerds out there , he was one of the few winners to come over . He was one of the only pups out of Astra to come over here , wow .

And then I had this other dog and there's a running joke about this dog and , if my buddy Martin listens to this , I love you , man . But I imported this dog named Clay and he was trained but dude he was . He did not recover from the trip , he was spooky and I was gonna sell him to this guy .

And I just called the guy and I said , hey , I can't sell you this dog . Uh , he's , he's not , he's not . He'll do all the work you want him to do , but he's just . Everything is stranger danger and I I don't think he was like that in in the uk and in fact I know the people that had him .

I know he was not like that , he just couldn't settle in yeah um and he ran away . One time I saw it happen and he jumped a fence and just took off and this was down in okalona big land .

I got eyes on him and then some guys that were building a fence had seen him , and then I found him in this field and I cornered him in the back of the field and I threw a dummy and he ran halfway to it and he looked at me and then he turned around and jumped a barbed wire fence and took off in the woods and I was like I've seen this dog once ,

I'm not gonna see him again . Ended up same thing . Saw him like three times and every time he ran for me and so I've got a video . You may remember the video , but I got a video . I just it was 2017 with him , I just bought my f-250 and I have this video of me .

I got him on a gravel road and he's just running down the road and I was driving next to him I remember like blowing the stop whistle and I I'm trying to use a scottish accent I'm like , good lord , just , uh , shit , you know just .

And I ended up just running him till he he essentially locked , he cramped up and almost had a heat stroke and I went , yeah , I like had to cool the dog down .

So I found , I got him back home , he , he spent about two weeks recuperating , right Like getting back healthy , and then one day , dude , I had him out in the yard with all my other dogs I go to put everyone up and he looked at me and Josh , I knew like he looked at me with his eyeballs and he didn't have to say it , but what he said was I'm peacing

out . And he took off down my driveway for no reason . I mean , just took off and , man , I'm looking , I'm looking up my driveway and my house is there , and I'm looking on the other side of my house and here comes a car and I'm like , dude , the , the geometry in my head , you know what I mean .

I'm like , I'm like they're going to the same point here . Oh no , this car smokes him , just boom off the front bumper into the air . And I'm like , oh , he's dead . And the whole time . I'm calling him , I'm sprinting dude , sprinting gosh , and the car keeps going and I look and there's clay booking it over the hill .

I mean running like nothing happened and that's the last time I ever saw that dog . Wow , we looked for four days and I say that he is 100 part of a group of feral dogs that live around oklahoma , mississippi . We laid eyes on him eight or nine times in this pack of dogs .

He had a white spot in his chest , so we get binoculars out and be like there he is . So yes , I have had it happen before , but so you rarely get up . Yeah , I've had dogs take off . You know , I've had female dogs in heat take off and you got to get them quick .

You know , I've had some scary situations , but none , none with a dog that cost as much as this one .

You know dogs that live out and just , and you , you , you know this dude from where you , where you grew up , and it drives me insane because I'll drive around here and there are 500 dogs who just don't . They don't have a leash on , they don't have a fence , they're sleeping in the road , yep , and they'll live to be 15 .

Yep , they'll never go to the vet . And then you let a dog like him get out and they're going to get hit by a car . You know what I mean . They don't have street smarts . So , yeah , I'm in a full panic over those stories . And look , there are also other stories of some of the people who do what I do .

Um , wild rose , back of the day , mike stewart , uh , lost a field champion and it's like , it's like a legendary story , right , like I've heard it so many times of this dog . He opened the tailgate , he jumped out of the kennel , took off . Last time they saw him and I used to tell that story as like , be careful , because this can happen . 100 and .

And then josh miller lost a stud dog and did a podcast on it and found him four days later , strike had to capture him with a net off the side of a atv and so , and same thing , just import it . So I'm like I , I need , I need to be the tiebreaker here .

One guy lost one , one guy found one , but it's happened , it happens to , to the best of us and the worst of us and everyone in between

, right . So guys I know who know a lot about these dogs , like those guys have had similar things happen and in the back of my head I'm like golly , this is yeah , yeah , I mean , it can happen to anyone .

They just these are good old country dogs around a corner and around a gun town , mississippi . You know they don't go down easy . They , they live a , they live a wildlife and they , they survive . So your first people that saw Buck were your neighbors and the opposite direction of where he went , what happened next ? Who , I mean ?

Was that the last sighting for a while ?

He's just an absolute legendary plumber here . He has a booming company , legendary plumbing actually uh , and lives . He lives right through the woods , uh , as the crow flies . He's about a mile from me . Um , yeah , his family that they're the brady bunch .

He married a , a gal who had three daughters and he had three sons , so they have six kids six boys six , three girls , three boys , six kids in their house . And uh , he's like me , he likes to have fancy toys and he's got an infrared drone . So , uh , by 9 , 15 AM he was here flying that drone while I was out looking .

So I was , I was driving around , he was flying the drone everywhere . The problem was it was warm and once it gets hot and those trees start to catch the sunlight , on the leaves they turn red on an infrared drone . So he flew my whole area around here and we couldn't find . We went through probably about two and a half hours of battery .

Wow , yeah , and he , he , he had not . You know , he was missing work to do this . Um , so that's disheartening . You know , I'm like maybe he's huckered down . You know , he brett , I love him , he calls me , he goes , man , I was like you find him . He was like , no , there's a huge buck bedded down right behind your house .

I'm like , bro , I did not care , I need a different buck , man , I need the dog . Uh , so anyway , we , uh he , we flew , we looked and right before dark I took noah to birmingham for furnace fest . I told him , I said we're not going to get to spend the night , buddy , but we're going to watch your favorite few bands play .

It's a three-day festival and then we'll go home and then tomorrow night we'll come back . And so I got home , uh , friday night at like 1230 am , I knew it was dark , but I still just drove around just calling for him , could not sleep at all . Next day I , immediately , as soon as the lights up , I'm looking , we're flying the drone . Nothing on Saturday .

Nothing on Sunday until mid-afternoon . I had made a post in the Blue Springs Neighborhood post . Now I didn't want to post about it because I didn't want word to get out all over the world in case I . Just I was hoping we just recovered him within 48 hours , right ?

So at this point I hadn't talked to JR , I hadn't talked to Jr , I hadn't talked to Thomas , I hadn't talked to my guy that shipped him to me . Um , cause I'm thinking , look , I'm going to avoid the drama and just find this dog .

Um and I had talked to my , my insurance guy to be like , hey , you might be getting a call from me , um , but other than that , I was like I'm going to , I'm going to , I'm going to exhaust all my effort , right ?

So on Sunday , in that neighborhood post , I get a text from a guy who lives about three and a half miles from me with a trail cam picture of a dog , a black lab . It was from his rear end , and I was like man , I'm not going to say that is him , but it really looks like him .

And he has a very distinctive British lab black , uh , thick tail , big otter tail . And I'm like man , you don't see a lot of that on , like country dogs , right . So I said , man , it surely looks like him . He's three and a half miles away , walking through the woods , and so I send Chris over there . We put out a bowl of food , call for him , put some .

Uh , at that point we've printed out some flyers . We put some flyers and mailboxes over there and I'm thinking , dude , three and a half miles , he's in the area long way though . So about I post that ?

That's trail cam picture , uh , in the neighborhood group , and a comment on my post and I get a another picture from a guy who's about a mile South of that . That was taken 53 minutes prior . This would have been Sunday morning at 7 . Am , so 48 hours after he had disappeared and he was walking sideways in this picture and it was a hundred percent him .

So I was like , okay , that's him . He's headed toward the other camera where he was photographed 53 minutes later . He went a mile in about 53 minutes . So he's not going super fast , but if he went a mile in less than an hour and he keeps going , this is already Sunday night . Yeah , he could be in the next town , you know .

So I was encouraged that we had seen him alive , but very discouraged that he was not right here by the house . So I uh , I ended up , uh , I ended up phoning a friend Sunday night and I was like , hey , I need , I need some help . Uh , actually , no , monday morning . Monday morning he has not come back .

On the trail cam we got several pictures of raccoons eating the food . We left out , uh , and I called a buddy and was like I need some help and he has a helicopter and , um , that was a whole ordeal . He , he flew over Tuesday morning first thing we looked all day ordeal .

He , he flew over Tuesday morning First thing we looked all day Monday , tuesday morning . He flew over first thing and picked me up at the church parking lot in this helicopter and , uh , the best part of that is I called my buddy , uh , claude , and I was like , hey , does Colin , does Colin still have the helicopter ?

And he was like , was like no , no , I think he crashed it . And then he calls me back . He's like he did crash it , but he got another one and I was like , okay , cool , let's go . So Bethany is like this is not good . So , anyway , um , she was like , listen , you can fly around in this helicopter , but if you die I'm gonna kill you dead .

So , uh , we colin picked me up and , man , we flew from about 7 15 , when it was just light enough to see . Well , although we flew for about two hours , wow , and uh , yeah , I've met a lot of people from this area that when I've talked about it they were like , was that y'all in a helicopter ?

Because we were , we were , we were a little lower than we probably should have been , and , uh , we were all over the place and I'm just hoping he's going to be leaving a tree line .

There's still too many leaves on the trees to see him in the woods , so I'm hoping he's going to be leaving a tree line or see him through a field and I can call down to Chris and just get an idea of the area he is and start a plan . We saw a lot of dogs , but not him . A lot of cows , a lot of dogs , but not him .

A lot of cows , a lot of everything , not him man . So anyway , at that point I'm like man , I've got to make some phone calls . And so on Tuesday afternoon I updated everyone , I let JR know and that's a very hard call to make , hey , man . And I got a text from those guys that morning How's how's Buck doing ? Is he ? Is he everything we hoped ?

He'd be Well , he's fast and he can jump . I got that for you . So , yeah , at that point I really kind of lost hope , man . I was like you know , I thought we would have gotten by now . I'm just doing the math and I'm like , hey , every day he could be so much further away .

So you're just and I was trying to still do a couple like let's be honest , you can't just drive around looking for a dog 24 hours a day . So I was trying to do some normal life things , you know . So I went to the gym on Wednesday and I was like I can't be here .

I got to look for this dog , you know , I got and everything was just kind of tainted . Everything was just kind of tainted . So , yeah , I was pretty disheartened at this point , looking into my options with insurance and then also just thinking like what are we going to do for JR as far as a dog this year ? This is going to be a costly mistake .

Yeah , and truthfully , one of my biggest concerns was just for the dog . Yeah , like I love dogs , my dogs have it made over here . I mean , they're at everyday doggy daycare . They're happy . If you ever show up at my kennel . You'll see my dogs are tail wagging having a blast .

Asked man , I just would hate to bring over this incredible animal and know that he's out there , probably scared out of his mind or getting hurt . And yeah , I felt awful for the dog , just felt terrible .

Is he going to get hit by a car ? Is he at some grandma's house , happy , eating a lot of food ? You know , that was one of my thoughts is like , man , maybe he just made it to some person's house out there in the country and they're oh , I just got a new dog and they're all happy about it . You know , if it's , you never know .

You know what , what could be happening , what were you know ? At this point we're probably assuming the worst what was you know ? Did you have insurance on him ? And , and you know , outside of that , what was kind of some last ditch efforts . You're like you know what can we do to ? You know , what did you do to last ditch efforts to find this dog ?

It was going to cover a portion of it , but it was not going to cover this dog . It was going to cover a portion of it . You know , I was like essentially what's going to happen is I'm going to have to ask my friends to sue me over the laws of this dog and insurance liability would maybe kick in .

So , um , every day after that I'm just like I'm losing hope . You know I'm , I'm doing all I can and , and there's man , there's all this stuff going on . So I've made this post in our neighborhood group and I've told a few people and then I've printed hundreds of flyers and Chris and I have put them everywhere .

Chris put them in mailboxes , which you got in trouble for that , sorry , chris . We put them at all the local businesses . So every day I'm getting anywhere from three to 10 text messages and three to five phone calls from people spotting dogs , right , and I'm man

. I can't tell you how many times I left something I was doing to go look at a dog or go see if I could find a dog .

She saw the dog , she drove and spotted it and she was like it , stayed there and we found it on the drone infrared drone . Brett drove over it's getting dark , it's dark , just got dark and we find it on the drone and put the drone his drone is unreal and we put the drone spotlight on it and he's like , it's for sure , a black lab .

It's wagging his tail , literally wagging his tail . And I start walking into the , the forest . I'm wearing my daggum no-gi jiu-jitsu clothing , so I have on a rash guard and like some tights and some shorts and every thorn is like ripping this stuff up and I get like 30 feet from it .

And Brett and I was on the phone with Brett , my AirPod , and he was like hey , he's moving , he's moving . I was like follow him with the drone and he essentially went into some thick stuff and we we went back out there and flew the drone for two hours and you're just like I'm the . If that's him , how are we ever even going to get him ?

But maybe that's not even him , we don't know . So it's just a big cloud of like , not unsure of what the future is , and I'm praying a lot and I'm like , lord , if this is , if this is your will , that this is what should happen , then help me deal with it . I've prayed more times than I can count and my wife , honestly , was so supportive .

Bethany was trying to help me , trying to help encourage me .

She's a counselor , so she knows better than to say things like I know we're going to find him because we might not , but she was trying her best to encourage me and was super encouraging to me , uh , and and like doing all she could to pick up stuff with the kids , slack with the kids , while I was , you know , looking for this dog , asking if there's

anything she could do to help , and she did the first two days , three days really . She drove around looking and calling with the kids in her Tahoe for hours , so shout out to my wife for being great support during this and she knew , just kind of give me some space because I was so upset . So , yeah , I went through the next weekend .

We had a puppy day here and we didn't have a lot going on that weekend , just kind of chilling here at the house and , uh , you know , go out , look for a little while , go look a block of woods somewhere .

And then , um , you know , we took our boat out one day and the whole time I was like I shouldn't even be out here , I should be looking for buck , you know . And uh , just hard to do anything normal . And Sunday evening I had texted JR . I just kind of I was like man , I'm really losing hope . He's not been seen . In a week no one has seen him .

Wow , yeah , honestly , man , I was praying about it and I was like I'm just going to make a social media post and ask local people to share it because I can't . It's the only way I think I can reach as many people . Um , because maybe he's just like gone to someone's house right right and somebody has him and they don't know the value of what they have .

And so , yeah , I made a post just like hey , please , everyone share this if you're local , not if you're not local , because it's not helpful , it'll get the algorithm all messed up . I need it impacting Tupelo , mississippi , our area , and I just kind of outlined my plea for help . And that was Sunday night at like 10 PM and , dude , it got shared .

It got shared a lot , a lot , a lot more than I expected . And , yeah , power of social media . So when I went to bed I had like 300 shares , wow , wow .

And like a couple hours , and at three , 30 in the morning , morning , I got a text from a guy that saw the post and he said , hey , I have a deer lease right up the road from you and this was on my trail camera and he's got two pictures , three pictures of a black lab walking across his greenfield wow and I was like man , it's dark but that really looks

a lot like him , um , and he's , he's got um moultrie , it's the company he's like I can , I can request a video . So he requested a video . Uh , shout out to him , his name is grant white . I don't know grant , I don't even . I don't know if we've ever met in person , but he sends me the video and I was like dang , that looks like him .

So I sent the video to thomas uh , in england , and thomas says 100 him and I don't know if you guys know this , but like , when you're around your dogs all the time , you can tell . You can tell like , if you show up to my kennel and I get all of my black labradors out , you're going to have a really tough time telling them apart .

If I get the yellows out , you can see a little bit of the shade , um , but even still , like you couldn't tell some of them apart , um , and . But I can because I'm around them all the time .

So if I can see them walking through my yard at night and I'm like hey , cedar , you know , like I just know the way they move , and Thomas was like that's him , that's the way he's walking , he looks skinny , but that's him . So I call Texas grant guy . I was like , look , I hate to mess up your , your deer plot , dude . He was so gracious .

He was like , do whatever you want , like just get out there , so the gates open . This is 1.28 miles from my house to the , to the green field , one mile to the gate . And so I drive up in the side by side on Monday with my kids and um , um man , we , we walk and drive the trails and call for this dog forever .

And I was like , well , I'm going to at least put a bowl of food out on the food plot and if he comes back this way and I have little hope that he will , but I'm like if he comes back this way , he'll have a big old bowl of Eukanuba and maybe that'll sustain him for a little while . I got to back up just a step .

I don't know how many of you have been through anything difficult and look , I mean this is not the most difficult thing I've been through in my life by any stretch . But when you go through something that's stressful like this , you definitely get a little bit of brain fog .

And I made a stupid mistake on Tuesday before this and I put the wrong puppy in a car with someone . Yeah , and now you remember , I put the wrong puppy in a car with someone to catch a ride to a client in Pennsylvania . I put a female puppy . I was supposed to put a male puppy . It was late , it was almost midnight .

I just made a mistake and didn't realize it because Lynn Reed had the puppy so I wasn't with them to see and I didn't tell her one way or the other until the guy sends me a picture on Friday no , I'm sorry , saturday , saturday puppy day at 6 am .

He sends me a picture of his daughter holding this puppy and it says we him , he's perfect and I was like the problem with him is it's not a him and I know it's 2024 and she can identify whatever she wants to be , but that's a girl dog and that dog is sold .

Actually , the dog that rode to Pennsylvania is Chad Duckworth's puppy no way , no way wow , the female , the dog that was supposed to go to pennsylvania , was chilling here . So I had to buy a thousand dollar plane ticket to pittsburgh and I picked tuesday as the day that I could go .

And so I was like I sorry , just keep the female , I will bring your male dog and start doing crate training in the house , and all the things you're doing with the female I'll do with the male , so that you're not behind . So shout out to Mike McCauley for being so gracious and understanding this . His family was super cool .

And Tuesday I get up at 3 in the morning and leave my house to catch a 6 am flight to Philadelphia with the little boy puppy . So then at 3.30 in the morning I get a text from Grant and he said dude , you're going to kill me . And I was like what ? And he sent me a picture . He said he was here at 10 pm 10 pm the night before .

We've got buck on camera eating the food . And I'm like I'm 90 , sure it's him . I'm like , okay , I got you . Now , dude , you're , you're in the same spot twice like all right now . Now we're playing a game and that was the first time I had like legit hope . I was like , okay , that's him , he's eating food . So I had immediately .

It was 3.30 in the morning , I'm about to be on airline flights all day with no service . So I text Chris a novel . I'm like , hey , when you get here , here's the GPS coordinate . I need you to go out there , I need you to take Sansa or Rose . So I've got Blake Allen's dog Rose , I've got Stone's dog Sansa , both females , both weigh in heat .

Take them out there , throw them . A bunch of retrieves . Put Sansa in a gunner kennel , shut it , Latch it . This is the middle of the woods , no one's going to see her or anything , and leave her there . Just leave her there . Just leave her there . For the day is it was only like 65 degrees on tuesday , so perfect day for it .

And uh , latch her up in the gunner and put two big bowls of food out in a bowl of water . And chris does it all to a t , you know . And I'm like , oh , so then I'm texting people . I was like I need a life trap , I need a way to get this dog , so everyone's's like my buddy Witt's like I'll bring you a hog trap .

Somebody's like , well , foot trap him . I was like I need him to be able to run , like I don't want to hurt the dog . So I end up talking to this girl named Anna and another girl locally . Both of them have worked with rescues and they both know people that have live traps and I was like like I need a big one .

And they're like well , we've caught great pyrenees in these . I was like all right , perfect . So the whole time , dude , I'm going , I go to philly , I drop the dogs off , I switch them at the airport , I get back in the on the flight home with the female puppy , and the whole time I'm like , dude , we're gonna catch this dog , we're gonna get him .

So I go to , I borrow a live trap from a guy named Jim in Memphis on my way home . Man , the way the Lord works , I ended up finding a life trap that was 10 minutes from the Memphis airport on my way home . Wow , yeah . So the guy's like use it as long as you want . So I pick this thing up . He shows me how to work it . I'm no trapper , right ?

I've never done this before . So , man , I go out there , I go out there , um , I go out there at like , oh I don't know . Um 4.00 PM , brett comes with me , my buddy with the drone . Brett comes with me and uh , and we end up . Uh , we end up going and I like I was like I'm throwing the gauntlet at this dog . So I put out two live traps .

I walked Sansa and Rose around , leave Sansa out there in the kennel . I got a trail camera for myself so I didn't have to depend on anyone . Grant was super cool to send me pictures and of course he's sending me pictures of Chris out there throwing retrieves with Sansa . But I got my own trail camera through brett , set it up to my cell phone , uh .

And then I put yukanuba in the live trap . I took blankets , rubbed them all over the girls and heat , put them in the bottom of the live trap , because dogs don't really like walking on like a graded floor , you know right so I put the blankets in there .

Um , and then I I had a ziploc bag full of a bunch of leftover taco meat because I was thinking what do I have that like really smells . So I pour taco meat all in the live trap and then in the bowl and , uh , I don't know you ever know that thing where you're like this could work , but I'm not gonna let myself get excited . You know what I mean .

It's like , uh , and I made a little video of the setup and I was like this is my last

effort . I don't know what to do other than this . And then I had a friend that I know that was like man . I just don't think a dog's going to a skittish dog is going to get in a live trap . And I was like he's not skittish and he's been in a kennel a bunch his whole life . Knows it should be fine , but who knows ?

and uh , yeah I go to the house , bethany comes home with some mexican food , my kids get home from jujitsu and the the cell phone camera will not update to my phone . I have zero pictures and I'm like dude , I'm about to have to drive back out here , reconnect this phone . I don't know what's happening .

And brett and jessica his wife came to the house and they were like hey , it's , it's fine , takes a little while yeah , yeah and uh , one hour and 32 minutes after I left the the trap , my phone says bing .

You know your photos are ready and I pull up and the first photo is a black dog in the trap oh , man and I was like oh my gosh , I'm expecting this to happen at three in the morning you know , right , it's not even dark outside yet , it's just barely barely , you know , um dusk .

So , man , we actually rushed to brett's to get his canAm , which has enclosures , I'm not risking anything . And we take the Can-Am out there .

I took my kids with me , which that was actually really special , because they've been so emotionally invested 100% , yeah , they've been so every day to find buck , to find buck , you know , and everywhere we go , I remember driving out , I was taking my daughter to school and I was texting and driving and she goes , dad .

And I was like I know , I know , and she goes no , how are you going to see Buck if you're texting ? And I was like you're right , you know so , and this has been like days , you know . So , man , they , they got to ride out there with me , which was cool and I'm still like dude .

You know , I walked up and he turns and looks at me , calm , as a cucumber . I was like hey bud . Oh my gosh , he starts wagging his tail . I think he was more glad to be found than I was to find him , of course . I'm so nervous to even get him out of the trap .

I put him on a slip lead and he just came walking right out put his head on my lap oh yeah , that's the thing . He's not a feral dog , he's trained . He literally walked a heel and hopped in the can-am . Nothing happened , just nothing happened , nothing happened and I'm just like , dude , you have put me through the ringer , dog and man .

At that point my Facebook posts had right at 1,100 shares Wow , that's insane . Had right at 1100 shares wow , I was getting the same . Yeah , I was getting about 25 calls a day from people who had seen dogs , every kind of dog , josh labradoodles , just . Could this be him ? I'm like that's a pit bull . Uh , you know , it's just .

Oh , man , it has been so much um , and I've got so many friends who were texting me looking out um . Local friends here there's too many . Lynn reed is on the lookout every day . My friends kai and laken hoag I mean , kai is like moving trail cameras to try to see him . Laken's taking different routes home from work every day to try to look for him .

And then all these people around here that I don't even know are like super emotionally invested in the dog . And my babysitters , mia and Alex they're from up here and bless them , they're sharing every post . They're sending me anytime anyone tags a dog . And so then I'm overwhelmed because I'm like , how am I going to update all these people ?

I found him , you know , I got him and he was skinny . He's 59 pounds . He's probably about a 68 , 70 pound dog . Um , but man , like I worked him yesterday with just some tennis balls . He's , he's not running off , you know he's . He sat right here next to me in the office yesterday and slept for hours . I took him to the vet yesterday morning .

He had some ticks on him . He's skinny . I got him some flea and tick meds , did a heartworm test , put him on some heartworm prevention All the things I would probably normally do . But we ran blood work , we ran everything . I was like I need to know this dog's a okay and uh , healthy as can be , happy as can be and uh , yeah , live trapper .

Brett , jessica , my kids and I brought them home and Bethany was waiting in the garage and we had quite the celebration . man it was uh , yeah , yeah it was , it was a big deal .

A lot of people be like , yeah , you're gonna whoop him , you know like for running off . And I told johnny johnny was laughing hard because he was like dude , you , jesus , juked me . I was like no , dude , I'm not gonna kick this dog . But this is , this is how the gospel works , right here . This dog took off .

I am going to do everything I can to find him . I'm going to exhaust every effort I can to find this dog and when I find him I'm going to be 0% mad that he ran away and 100% joyful that I got him back 100% . And that's what the lord does for us man and yeah , yeah , it's not , it wasn't his fault , he's .

That's his nature , right , like us , our sinful nature . His nature was to run when he got scared . Yeah and uh , yeah , I'm , I would have looked for him . I would have been looking for that dog for the rest of my life . Uh , just at least checking every black dog I saw on the side of the road . But yeah , to be able to get him back is truly miraculous .

He's locked up . Right now he's in a large gunner in my shop under the lever rack and the door . I was like no one can open this gunner door if the door to the shop is not shut . However , I have zero concern about him actually running off again . Knock on wood , he's just like really happy and and that's what thomas was telling me .

thomas was like he just needs a day to get to know that he's safe and then he's fine , I was like , yeah , he didn't get that , he didn't get that , and he also , he's got his kennel set up out there and I've got a full fence panel on top of the kennel .

So , yeah , there's no climbing out of the top of that kennel at all period , just in case he decides in the middle of the night to go explore a little bit . Yeah , his , his rambling days are over .

Um , putting them just straight into a crate the first few days to make sure they feel safe probably should have done that . Just got so excited he was here and just treated him like a normal dog that would be here every day , right . So yeah , I , I would . I would definitely change that man .

Yeah , you know what I mean , um , and they would have had every right to be , but those dudes , thank you guys for for being friends first . Uh , cause they were . They were obviously upset , like I was , but they treated me with a lot of grace .

But yeah , for all you people who shared the post and all you people who encouraged me to do people were like you need to do like an episode , like a true crime episode on this talk . For all you people who were invested , thank you guys .

I would not have found him had it not been for that social media post getting shared and Grant White seeing it and telling me he was on his trail camera . Yeah , that would I mean . If you're a deer hunter out here , deer season's open . If you're a deer hunter out here and you see a dog on the trail cam , you just keep on scrolling .

You know what I mean . That's not even a thing . So for you guys who helped me out with that , massive , massive thank you , that's huge for me and , yeah , I'm glad we got him back .

That's an emotional roller coaster and I'm sure that's not the way you wanted Buck to get famous , I would imagine right Once you got him here .

I'm going to hunt with one of my other dogs just until I have buck fully acclimated , you know . So you'll see him on social media . Uh , if you follow along and , um , actually be honestly shameless plug .

I'll be using a lot of the drills we have in cornerstone , like intermediate , uh , um , retriever , retrieving drills like long memories and push , pull and wagon wheels and things that , in my opinion , work to really build your relationship with the dog , right , your communication dog trusting you .

I'm gonna be doing a lot of that stuff with him just to make sure we're all good and just like loving on him you know that's awesome . yeah , well , here's to the future .