had a dog like that once - an english setter and ? mix. she would catch carp that would get into the swamp behind our house when Oneida Lake in upstate NY would flood every spring. problem was she would "stash" the catch then dig it up and roll in it after it had decomposed for 1-2 weeks. Gave that dog many, many baths every spring for years. thanks for the post - it brings back fond memories, despite the stench
We had a couple of golden retrievers in the family that could do that, all from the same bloodline, that could jump off the dock and catch a random fish. My uncle's dog won the prize--not for skill and certainly not intelligence, but for the biggest fish caught after jumping off the dock trying to fetch a grapefruit-sized rock we had tossed in as a joke; everyone was speechless when she surfaced with a keeper of a northern pike.
It was that day when I first realized how much better it is to be lucky than skillful.