Larry McMurray may be the only person who thinks gravy is bronze.

	Larry McMurray and Pepper want to improve on their silver medal during the 2003 Great Outdoor Games Retriever Trials.

McMurray and his black Labrador, Pepper, won the bronze medal during the 2002 ESPN Great Outdoor Games in Lake Placid. The medal looks nice in McMurray's trophy case along side the unprecedented nine International Grand titles. The shine of the medal, though, doesn't compare to why McMurray and Pepper make such a good team.

"The medals, the titles, all of that stuff, it's just gravy,'' McMurray said. "The reason I bought Pepper was to duck hunt. And then I found out about all this other stuff.''

As it turns out duck hunting is the reason Pepper is so good at the "other stuff." Currently, Pepper and McMurray are working toward winning the gold medal in 2003. Their training regime is taking place in the rice fields and flooded timber of Arkansas where duck season opened recently.

On a given morning, Pepper could be making retrieves and dealing with obstacles from too much brush in flooded timber, long retrieves in an open rice field, or fighting current in one of the many rivers in eastern Arkansas. And on any given morning, Pepper is learning something that could eventually earn her the Gold Medal.

"I like the field trials and the Great Outdoor Games events, they provide the dog an opportunity to see things that you can't duplicate in actual hunting,'' McMurray said. "But by the same token, hunting provides things a field trial can never replace.

"And from a handler standpoint, hunting gives you a good starting point on where you need to work.''

It was in the duck woods where McMurray realized that simply training a dog to get close to a retrieve wasn't good enough.

	Pepper makes the most of her retrieve.

"Training a dog to get it close to a retrieve isn't hard,'' he said. "But I quickly realized I had to give her a command to turn her loose and hunt.''

As McMurray began to unfold all the layers involved in making a good retriever, he got involved with the Pin Oak Hunting Retriever Club, where he learned how to get the little extras out of a retriever to make his hunting trips more enjoyable. In the process, Pepper took to the concepts so well in the hunting world that she quickly began racking up title after title in the field trial world.

But it was the hunting that carried her through the Great Outdoor Games. At the event, with marks and blind retrieves that where as long as 300 yards, Pepper's experience in the long retrieves of Arkansas' rice fields paid big dividends.

In that round, three marks were thrown. The first landed about 250 yards from the retriever handler team. The next was much closer, 75 yards, but almost in line with the first and the last to the side at about 50 yards. In retriever trials these were deemed exceedingly easy marks, but the organizers threw in a twist.

Those marks, mostly in plain sight, were deemed "poison birds,'' which meant the retriever could not pick them up until it had first found the blind retrieve, hidden some 300 yards away, but requiring a cast that took it through the middle of the marked birds. If the dog picked up a marked fall first, they were disqualified.

The situation sometimes occurs in the duck woods. More than one duck is hit. Typically the close ducks are down for good, but the sailing duck drops out of sight behind rows of contour levees. It has to be the first duck retrieved before it gets away.

The situation forces the dog to race past obvious birds to get to the long bird.

"This really tests the trust factor between you and your dog," McMurray said. "They know those birds are there and they've got to trust you enough to push past them and find something they really don't know for sure is out there.

"You're standing up there and you're saying, 'Oh, Lord, let that dog do what she's bred to do, because I can't help her.'"

The bronze medal is proof that Pepper was more than ready for the situation. The difference in bronze and gold in that round was only one whistle.

	McMurray guides his black Labrador through the obstacles of the course.

Pepper's transformation from a duck dog to one of the best retrievers in the world started in the duck woods, which makes perfect sense considering that was where McMurray first decided that Pepper was a necessity in his life.

"I can remember the day I made the decision I was going to buy me a dog,'' McMurray said.

McMurray was hunting in one of the rice field that Arkansas duck hunting is famous for. The field had several contour levees strewn. And gumbo mud, the type that sticks to your boots and wads up in a heavy mass was thick, made walking a chore.

In the open environment, it is common for hit ducks to sail a long way before falling. The hunter without a dog is forced to sludge through the mud chasing a duck that can be several hundred yards away.

This was the exact scenario McMurray found himself in, forced to toil his way across a field that a dog would have made easy work of, and enjoyed the trip to boot.

"But when I got back to the blind with the duck I hurt so bad, so bad I could taste blood. I said to my partner, 'I was going to get me a dog.'''

Now that McMurray is saved the pain, and Pepper enjoys the trips, both continually build a relationship that pays off with more titles. And while they finish out the winter duck hunting, they'll be working toward a gold medal next summer.