Approximately seven years ago, Denny Linkes – an avid hunter and steel worker from Kittaning, PA – went to purchase a Lab named Molly from a private breeder. He had owned a Lab before but this time it would be different. Molly was the daughter of a dog named Buddy. As Linkes tells it, “When I went to buy Molly, her parents were on site. I loved the mother and I exceptionally loved Buddy. Since we met, that was my dog.” Linkes offered the breeder everything he had and then some but she still declined to sell Buddy. Time passed and when his first Lab Midnight died, the breeder – taking pity on Linkes’ sorrow – let him have Buddy who was 5 or 6 at the time. “To be honest with you, when that woman called I dropped the phone. I (felt like) I had won the lottery,” Linkes said. “That was my dog we were just so happy.”

Linkes’ schedule at work became more hectic and his father passed away. Knowing his mother would be having a rough time on her own, Linkes took Buddy to her house to stay with her. “She’d never had a dog in the house,” he said. “She asked what she was supposed to do. I said to her, ‘just love him.’ It was an unanswered prayer for her.” Over the next year Linkes’ mother and Buddy grew inseparable as he helped assuage her grief.

Buddy returned to Linkes’ home where Linkes began to train him. An avid hunter, Linkes had first dabbled in dog training with Buddy’s daughter, Molly. She won a Pennsylvania state championship while she was still a puppy and placed in the top five in the next couple tournaments she entered. “I thought, ‘Wow! This dog is better than I am,’” Linkes said. “So I started studying everything I could.” Linkes confessed that Robert Miller’s “Retriever Training” is like his Bible. “I’ve read it 15 times and every time I read it I still get some little thing out of it.”

A close study of wolves and a believer in attempting to develop a mother wolf relationship with her pups Linkes’ training methods have been described as unorthodox. “I don’t use gimmicks – I’m hands and eyes,” he said. “I’m a touch and feel person. I whisper to my dogs.” Linkes admitted that many might find his training methods unusual because of the amount of time and attention he expends. “I am very patient to analyze what the dog has to offer – meaning that I spend an extensive amount of time leaving the dog to run and studying it,” he said. Linkes plays hide and seek for hours with his dogs. “I mean really playing hide and seek,” he said. “If it’s raining or snowing (outside) I’ll wear the colors of ‘mother nature’ and I’ll physically lie down. I just create that bond. It’s about being patient and letting a dog be a dog. Anybody can train a dog, but the hardest thing about the science of training a dog is getting it to do what you want it to do, when you want it to, while maintaining that dog’s health and happiness. The three words I lean on are patience, love and understanding to create that special bond.”

The bond came naturally with Buddy. “His training was very easy,” Linkes said. “It was just as if he was saying, ‘Show me Denny – I’ll do it.’” Buddy was entered into local competitions but not at the national level. They were – as Linkes described them – “just local ho-hum, let’s go hunting stuff.” In 2003 at the age of 10, Buddy began limping and Linkes stopped entering him in competitions because doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong. The condition came and went. After a biopsy was performed the worst was confirmed – Buddy had a tumor on his front leg up in his shoulder. It was bone cancer. The realization was devastating for Linkes. He had been through similar challenges with Molly who years earlier had ripped tendons and had bone spurs. In Buddy’s case, Linkes had to weigh his age with the possibility of operative complications.

In three months time, Buddy got to the point where he couldn’t walk and Linkes had to carry him outside to go to the bathroom. Linkes confessed that he got to the point that he knew he had to make a decision one way or the other so that Buddy wouldn’t suffer. Linkes wanted to take him hunting one last time and taking Molly along he planted two birds – one for him, one for Molly. “I know people might find me crazy, but I put Buddy in a deer carrier and seat belted him in there and I pulled him,” Linkes said. “When we retrieved his bird Molly placed it on him. He lifted his head like he knew it was for him.” Parking the deer carrier, Linkes walked away a few paces and asked for a sign about what to do with Buddy. When he returned to the carrier Buddy had miraculously made his way free and was lying next to his bird. Taking it as a sign that something should be done, Linkes returned to his house and immediately called the veterinarian to have Buddy’s leg amputated. “As expensive as things are you worry if you’re making the right decision, and I just felt in my heart and mind that it was,” he said. Buddy’s operation took place on a Monday morning. Tuesday morning he walked from the vet’s office to Linkes’ car – stitches and all. Linkes noted an immediate difference.

Linkes took off from work to care for Buddy. Once his stitches were removed, he took Buddy hunting. While Linkes’ began training his other dogs for the National Championship in Illinois at Smoking Gun Hunting Preserve, he also was giving extra attention to Buddy – rehabilitating and conditioning him and ensuring that he wouldn’t get infected. When Linkes realized he didn’t have anyone to baby-sit Buddy during his stay in Illinois, he promptly called Pheasants Unlimited to ask if he could enter Buddy in the tournament as well. After initial pause over the fact that no one had ever registered a three-legged dog, Linkes and Buddy received the go-ahead. Linkes was amazed at how quickly word got around. When he arrived in Illinois it was all Buddy and Linkes could do to avoid the stares. “(In the competition) we had 20 minutes to find four birds on a four-acre field and we did it in 10 minutes,” Linkes said. “I sat there and cried. It was again like winning the lottery.”

After the successful run at Smoking Gun the sky was the limit. Buddy and Linkes entered more tournaments together and defying the odds Buddy learned how to swim with a special life jacket designed to hold his head up. In time, Buddy had his life jacket Okayed by the UKC for UKC field trials allowing him to compete in some successful runs that were a testament to his will and the spirit of those around him. “(In one) he retrieved two land ducks fine and we got to the water series and I asked the judge if I could hold Buddy on the edge of the water because the bank was so steep. Buddy couldn’t jump in because of his missing leg. One retrieve was 60 yards, one was 75 yards and he had to split the other side of the island – it was a simulated duck hunt. They hunt test was stopped and everyone said, ‘Wow.” A lot of people helped me there. We did it and we went on to win another seven ribbons that summer. We won approximately 10 ribbons that year,” Linkes said.

Linkes and Buddy were inseparable. Buddy was certified as a working dog and would visit nursing homes, hospitals and schools – “if there wasn’t a sign that said ‘no dogs allowed’ we were there,” Linkes said. On one visit to a nursing home to see Linkes’ aunt, a resident with an amputated leg stopped Buddy in the hall and said, “You have the same boo-boo I do, huh, Buddy.” He sat next to her wheelchair for fifteen minutes. Prior to his amputation Buddy always would perform skits at a local school for disabled children. As part of the act Buddy had to find and return a stolen purse to a woman and Denny would simulate a heart attack and Buddy would bring him his cell phone. He continued the role perfectly even after his amputation – never missing a beat.

In early 2005, Buddy suffered a stroke and passed away in his sleep. Reflecting on his heartache, Linkes has no regrets. “Was is easy? No. Was it worth it? Absolutely. We had the time of our lives,” he said. “Buddy touched a lot of lives across the U.S. When people said can’t, we could. We figured out a way.”

He died the week before Linkes would pick up some new puppies - Buddy’s granddaughters Miaja and Miasha. “(When Buddy died) I was extremely lost,” Linkes said. “I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. It was very tough. Then I picked up the puppies and it was like everywhere I went, anyone who knew Buddy would look at Miaja and say ‘Buddy didn’t leave you.’ She looks the same and acts the same way he did.” It should come as no surprise that Buddy’s granddaughters also carry the same heart, pluck and determination. This past November Linkes made another first in a national qualifier event – again at Smoking Gun – by qualifying Miaja at the age of only six months and 10 days, for a place in the upcoming national events. Linkes’ Labs Molly, who will be 10 in March, and 3-year-old black Lab Mojave came in fifth and sixth respectively in the Pro division of the same event. He also managed to qualify a client’s Golden Retriever named Ruby. From the way the dogs ran, Linkes was convinced of Buddy’s lasting presence.

Weeks after the Smoking Gun event, Miaja and Miasha – then 7 and a half months old – qualified second and third respectively in the National Amateur division at K and D Hunting Acres preserve in Tekama, Nebraska. They competed against dogs twice their age. Molly came in the top 10 in the Pro division, and Mojave took two trophies by winning both third and fourth place in the event. When we spoke in mid January, Linkes admitted that he has been “busting his butt” to win Pheasant Hunters Unlimited’s Nationals in March. “I just can’t help to say that I look to do well,” he said.

Linkes received the coveted Darren Miller memorial sportsmanship award at Smoking Gun in 2004 when he ran Buddy. He attends all of the Pheasant Hunters Unlimited competitions annually and chairs local events back east. He continues to attend youth summer field days and nursing homes with his Labs and teaches shotgun safety with the aid of his Labs as well.

And while moving on without Buddy hasn’t been easy, Linkes still feels his presence. “(He taught me) heart, desire, inspiration and to never, ever give up no matter what. He taught me about being creative, about love, respect and understanding,” he said. “He made me a better person.”

Denny would like to thank all the individuals – from schoolchildren to tournament attendees, judges and coordinators – who helped Buddy and were touched by his story, strength and determination. To Buddy: he sends his love.

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