In the time and place where I grew up—Sioux City, Iowa, in the 1960s and early ‘70s—hunting dog breeds didn’t live in the house, period. It simply wasn’t done. The proper place for a ...

But I had missed the entire thing. Instead of shooting, I had been crouched at the doorway to the big wooden blind, one eye on the hunters inside and the other on my Lab, Hatchet, in the dog box. We ...