Charlies Chatter - Mk.2

[Alice]

does your mate not have any puppies at the moment you could have a go with? I thought there was another mad cocker on the horizon a while ago?

[trekmoor]

Yes ,he does have another mad cocker pup. It should have started it's training 2-3 months ago but he is a "Manyana" man when it comes to training dogs. He was going to train this pup himself but he hasn't quite got around to it yet !

Wullie

[Alice]

oh crikey! is it going to be another Roxy? would having this pup for training mean stopping with Dixie though?

[trekmoor]

This pup is one of Roxie's . She was mated to a little black demon with an attitude very similar to my Charlie's ....... "Leave me alone ! I know what I'm doing !" ...... The thing is that this type of dog usually does know what it is doing. They produce the goods while working to prove it ..... but maybe not in the way you'd like.
If I took her on I would have to hand Dixie back over.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Forth Estates - 11 a.m. - Cloudy and windy, not as cold as yesterday which was Baltic here.

Dogs - Rosie

I met up with the estates keeper and we had a little wander about the place. Rosie "turned it on ." We did a mixture of root crops, old game crops and woodlands and Rosie hunted at her usual lazy ranges and speeds but found game all over the place and most of it got pointed. She must have been showing off for the keeper but although she saw a pheasant run into cover just 30 yards ahead of her she stopped to whistle. Same thing happened when she pointed on two separate small groups of Fallow deer. I'm still not convinced she saw them move off !

I watched her as she followed a line among the woodlands and up in front of her - just 15 feet in front of her - up jumped a hare and ran off . She stopped to whistle ----- she cannot have seen that ! Not once did she chase today and she saw a lot of pheasants when she flushed. Rosie prefers to stand to the stop whistle following a flush. So far I have let her do this rather than add any unpleasantness to what the birds themselves have taught her to do.

She held all of her points except for one well. I saw her go around behind a tennis court sized area of high ,thick game crop and then all went still . As she was hunting a tail wind at the time I thought she'd probably gone on point somewhere in there as she hunted her way back towards me. I made my way as quietly as I could around to her but a cock pheasant took off in a hurry and then Rosie appeared looking pleased with herself.

Although I cannot say for certain I think she pointed that bird, got fed up waiting for me to reach her and self flushed it.

I was pleased with her in general and so was the keeper. He asked me if I would continue to hunt her for a few weeks yet to point on pheasant nests for him as he wants to put their eggs under Banties. Very reluctantly I had to refuse as I am pretty sure Rosie would try to peg the sitting birds and she'd maybe burst the eggs even if the bird escaped unscathed.
The keeper has told me I can have about one more week of hunting before I have to stop.

Some pics of Rosies points from today, plus one pic of Rosie's flushing " style !" Also a couple of pics of the fallow deer she found and pointed .









Her rather enthusiastic flushing "style !"



Her Fallow deer points. There was a big buck with the two females in the pic down near the river but the bugger moved out of view just as I pressed the shutter.







Wullie

[cuda]

great pics - better quality
huv you finally got yersel a new camera or are they doin an OAP discount at the photography club
Charlie

[trekmoor]

Cheeky sod ! Still the same camera . I haven't bought a new one yet coz I start greetin' when I even think about spending all that money.
Seeyeramorra.

Wullie

[cuda]

you want me tae bring a proper camera

[trekmoor]

Got a Box Brownie huv ye ?

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Went out with Charlie - not my one ,another one, along with his lab bitch and Rosie. Charlie had said he'd show me where some snipe were hanging out . The ground was end to end rashes and it was definetely snipe territory , my welly boots were needed. The first small field produced one snipe but it got up "wild" giving Rosie no chance to either point it or bump it.

There was plenty of scent around and Rosie hunted pretty well and I don't think she missed any birds, they'd just gone somewhere else to feed or rest this morning. I didn't see any snipe in the next field but Rosie and the lab were given a couple of retrieves apiece . Both dogs mismarked, by just a couple of feet, the dummies I deliberately threw to land on the borders of the rashes in some fairly short grass. The dogs were drawn towards the cover of the rashes and got themselves on the wrong side of the wind for the dummies and both dogs needed to be handled back to the dummies. This caused me a problem or two for I haven't begun to teach Rosie to handle yet ....... she doesn't even sit to whistle at dummy throwing ranges.

We moved on into our last area to be hunted. A reed lined ditch lay at the base of a rise behind which was a small pond and yet more rashes. Rosie's behaviour indicated a lot of scent near that area and there were several snipe there too but they didn't hang around for long enough to be pointed today.

We gave the dogs a marked retrieve each from the pond which the lab greatly enjoyed and showed it by doing a pre-emptive strike before she was told to retrieve . Rosie did the retrieve but didn't much like the mud underfoot as she entered or the bitterly cold water further out. I tried her with a memory retrieve from the pond and as I'd expected she gave the pond a body swerve to pretend to be interested in Charlie and his dog instead of the dummy. In anticipation of this I had followed her back to the pond and was on her case as soon as she refused to enter. Faced with the choice of some mud and cold water or a rather dischuffed me she chose to swim out for the dummy !

Charlie's lab is water daft but on every one of her 3 retrieves she had dropped the dummy 8 to 12 feet before she reached Charlie. I showed him how to sort that out and her final retrieve was from at least 30 yards back from the water. She brought that dummy all the way back and into his hands.

We ended with a marathon blethering session ...... Charlie is trying hard to steal my crown in that department. We blethered, mainly about fishing, for well over an hour !
Thanks again Charlie, I enjoyed our little training session.

Wullie