Set me off on the right path please

[Stacia]

Ah, I will put myself in that field and imagine Hope to do the same with my dog!

Jelinga

[Crosshair]

Hazel, Lilly and I had a great day today. We got invited to shoot at a local water-meadow based shoot with constant thick rushy ground all day long It is a true 'hunters paradise'. The guy who owns it had his friends and young reletives shooting and a few of us beaters got to bring guns as well. They only put down a couple of hundred ex-layers but they have some big shoots nearby so the whole place literally heaves with game. Snipe, woodcock and all the wildfowl are present too although we weren't allowed to shoot either of the waders this year and the ducks seemes to give us a wide berth.
I've been looking forward to it for ages and was relieved a couple of weeks ago when Lilly had her season because I knew she was going to be available.....then she cut her leg last Friday
However, it had pretty well totally healed by today so with a precautionary layer of vet-wrap on top to keep the scab on, we were back in business.
Holly, (hazel's mum) is an expert at walked up shooting now. Her marking is second to virtually no dog i've ever seen. It doesn't matter if there's three ditches, a belt of poplars and a pond in the way, if she see's you shoot it, she'll generally pick it.
However, her shoulders are getting stiffer this year and I've still got at least one day a week picking up with her to do plus the drives she helps out on at home so I decided to take Hazel.
I'm sure we've all done it- you have a good dog so you use it all the time- it gets better and the others never get a chance to reach their potential. Then one day the old timer pegs it and your left with a hole no dog is ever going to fill.
It's a long, hard day down there for a spaniel, so the plan was to hunt Lilly, sit her to flush, and then use Hazel to pick anything I shoot to save Lilly's energy. This meant a long day at heel for Hazel and she was great! Not obedience class level great, probably not field trial great but definately practical-shooting great. Only once in eight hours traipsing about did I look down and she wasn't there- she was two yards away, tail deep in a patch of rushes flushing a cock bird!
I won't bore you with all the details but will make a few general observations. Firstly, all the dogs there today see regular active service on local shoots, it wasn't all 'saturday dogs' but they bloody nearly all run-in when being shot over
This meant that last night's vivid dreams about Lilly flushing, me shooting and Hazel retrieving stylishly from the other side of the River Kennet on a 75 yard mark didn't get much chance to happen! I shot 12 pheasants and 2 partridges and out of that lot, 3 were Lilly flushes (bearing in mind we were only allowed to shoot birds not going forward), and two were Lilly flushes AND Hazel retrieves. On top of that Hazel picked only three other birds, the rest were collected first by the mad dash of dogs running in.
Secondly, i'm not sure if it is all the long blinds i've done with her lately, but she overshot most of them. Her marking is not a patch on her mother's. Practice makes perfect, so I must give her more practice on marks in thick cover. I was hoping that all the lining-up practice i've been doing with the 'pattern blinds' would help but tbh, it's so difficult when your shin deep in a bog, with a brace of pheasants in one hand and a broken gun in the other that it's pretty useless to have to get her in to heel, line her up with your foot and cast her off with a hand signal.
I thought I knew what I wanted but actually I didn't! I've decided that for my mix of walked up shooting, pigeon shooting and picking up I would far rather have a dog with a cracking eye for a mark that will kind of stop and take a re-direct rather than some robot that can't think for itself. Any thought's of working tests or novice trials are long gone- I now know it's irrelevant to me.
For those of you that read my 'Lilly's baptism of fire' thread, you'll know that I shot over her at a very young age- 10 months old in fact! Back then, I only needed her as a beating dog so never planned on her doing any retrieving. Her whole life was hunt hard, flush hard, sit!!!! However, a while ago now, I had her out on a beaters day and Holly was off picking up a cock bird runner when I noticed Lilly (sat at my peg as it was our turn to stand that drive) eyeing up another bird. I looked at her, she looked at me, then stared back at the pheasant, shuffling on the spot. Bearing in mind, she had never had a particularly strong retrieving instinct, nor had she ever been allowed to pick up or ever been hunted up to tennis balls or anything. Just out of interest, I said 'Go on then Lilly!' and nodded towards the bird. She looked at me suspiciously and then flew off! She picked the bird by one wing feather and awkwardly brought it back looking all chuffed. Since then, I have actually picked up with her. Last season, she probably did 8 days picking up.
So now, when I shoot over her, she is very different than she was three years ago at her tender age. Now, she resents the Labs getting the retrieves! She knows she can do the whole job and doesn't care that I'm only trying to give her a rest
She still sits to flush (with a whistle back up), then watches them away and stays sat even if I shoot it. She doesn't always remain seated the whole time i'm working the lab on the retrieve now though, sometimes she appears back at heel as if to say 'I'll get it Dad, I saw it!'.
Another slightly annoying trait is at the end of a drive (on days like these) when I'm helping the standing guns look for birds, I want Lilly sat still resting whislt Hazel earns her keep hunting for un-marked birds sweeper style. However, what happened a couple of times today was that I would cast Hazel off, and Lilly would take off aswell. Cross that she was wasting her energy, I'd bellow at her 'LILLY!!!!!!' At which point she's stop and say come back to say sorry. However, where Hazel is quite sensative, this shouting would then cause her to doubt herself and she'd come back in looking sheepish. Thinking about it now in hindsight I guess this is one occassion where a lead in the pocket would provide the answer, however I thought I had a spaniel with a 100% stay instead
Anyway, that's my 'brain-dump' done. No disasters, no lost birds, just a cracking day out with the dogs doing what they were bred for. What a fantastic sport we're a part of and how privillaged we are to enjoy it

[Crosshair]

Was lucky enough to get invited shooting on Thursday. I again, nearly took Holly but thought it would be another great opportunity for Hazel.
It was a rare day for me where I got to revel in the whole experience of being a 'gun'.
I knew the eyes of the beaters and the pickers-up would be on me as the only gun with a 'peg-dog'.
Between drives etc etc, she was an absolute pleasure. She just stays quietly at heel to the point that I kept forgetting she was there, then panicking thinking she'd run-off before realising she was right there behind my leg
Stood out on peg during the drives proper, she was really good. I like my dogs to sit in front of me so I can keep half an eye on them and generally stuff falls behind, so it means i'm between them and the temptation. However, on the last drive, birds were raining down all over the place!
I'd love to tell you (especially you Rascal ) that she never ran-in but on the very last drive, she did. The host had a lovely brown cocker dog on his peg with him and he sent it for a lightly pricked mallard. It then got up and flew across the front of the line about three feet of the ground. At that moment, I was turned around waiting for a pair of mallard that were heading back to the pond from behind. When I looked around, Hazel had decided that the cocker needed a hand and was in hot pursuit. At that point, the duck seemed to make a full recovery and just flew away! As soon as it did so, she stopped herself and looked around. I gave her the silent treatment and she sat back down at the peg looking a bit sheepish.
That drive was heavy (we shot 119 from it) and it was a tightly cropped grass field so the temptation was huge. I shot about 35 mallard and pheasants and my two neighbours a good 20 between them so there were plenty of opportunites for her to have run-in for running-in's sake (rather than chasing the other dog) but she sat pretty steady. Once or twice she rose to her feet and turned to watch a runner. One, I made her sit back down then immediately sent her for it. The other was near a picker-up so I just reminded her to sit.
All in all, she did me proud and I look forward to getting more invites so I can take her out again

[Rascal]

Sounds like she did ok apart from the poxy cocker incident......

Rascal

[Crosshair]

They're nothing but trouble those wee dogs

[Polmaise]

Mine 'fecked off into the horizon today'!....and I was only cleaning out the kennels

[Crosshair]

So, more 'pattern blind' thoughts...........
I was hoping that she would be so confident in the location of the piles that she would be taking arrow straight lines to them. However, the results are still variable. Sometimes she'll get half way then veer off (so perhaps I should half the distance ) then the second I stop her and give her a momentum cast towards the stick, 'remember' and take a direct line to them.
Sometimes, she'll go a few yards then 'pop' and look back for reassurance but then instantly take a 'back' cast and go the rest of the distance. Other times, she'll get some of the way, then get distracted by scent then instantly take a cast.
It doesn't help I guess that in between lessons, I'm also picking up with her.
Looks like i've answered my own question- I guess I should go back to short range and build up speed and enthusiasm.

[Crosshair]

We went to the Scovellsway Gundogs "The Big One" scurry event on Sunday. I entered her in the Long Retrieve, which was a 60 yard simple mark and also in the Retriever Open Working Test which was a 130yard diversion blind with the blind element being in a wood through a cover plot at about 80 yards.

The simple long retrieve caused us some trouble! It was up a grass field between a hedge and a horse paddock. To the right of the hedge was a maize strip and to the left were all the other scurry events. Remarkably, Hazel did mark it as she normally ends up looking at me. Then she tore off at speed. I thought it was in the bag but as she drew level with the old horse ground, she got drawn to the left and off of the 'lane'. She was really motoring so got 20 yards before I got the whistle up and stopped her. I gave her a moment to think then cast her off 'Right!' This she did well and went right across the grassy lane and into the maize strip beyond- completely out of sight! I saw the dummy guy look into the hedge as if he could hear her so I was hoping she would wind the dummy and reappear through the hedge. I waited another five seconds then blew the stop whistle followed by a short recall. Clever girl, she took herself out to the outside of the cover plot and looked back as if to say 'what do you want?'
So I cast her 'Left!' And she re appeared right by the dummy and brought it back.

I was there with two other keepers, my wife and Ken Rolfe and got talked into trying the Open Test just for their amusement I think! The test was a 10m heelwork test followed by a pistol shot and thrown dummy near some horse jumps 130yards away.
You were then required to pick the 80 yard blind first which was through a weedy old cover crop and 10m into a small wood.
Heelwork was fine, then she marked the long one (which is probably a bad thing). I'd already predicted to my friends that she would take my line for about ten yards, then veer off to the mark.
So, I heeled her tightly in a couple of small circles to try and get her to forget it. I then really carefully lined her up and off she went. Sure enough, she veered off left handed. So I stopped her and recast her with a big 'Right!!!' She went a bit further the correct way, then veered off again but got further this time before she stopped. So I recalled her, lined her up again and this time she took a good line. Once she got halfway across the cover plot though, she got a whiff of something really good further away in an old pheasant pen. I honestly thought she was going to go self employed and come out with a pegged cock bird but no, she stopped and took a good cast and this time winded the dummy from a good 25m away.
She then picked the memory with no further trouble although she did go about 70 yards, then slow, then accelerate as if to say 'crumbs, that's further than I thought!'
All in all it was good fun although a bit sad that the only one of my Springers worth running in the Spaniel Working Test was my 9 month old puppy!!!!

[trekmoor]

Sounds to me like a good day out Crosshair .

Wullie

[Crosshair]

It was good fun Bill, always lots to see and learn when your in a field full of gundogs