ips wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 5:36 pm
A few seasons ago I would have been highly dissapointed with us for such a none compliance.....however as long as she actually gets the job done even without asking (as you put it)
I am passed caring, I have done the best I can with her
Nah, if you were passed caring you wouldn't still be trying to understand why
I keep training my old dogs faults right up till the time they go on the one way trip to the vets. It is not about making them any better, as like you say we sort of get use to them, but its about gaining knowledge and techniques that may help the next addition without the `risk'.
With your next post, if I have got it right, you started from the top right of the cover crop and she legged it down the right side ( wind blowing right to left ). If so, note I am looking at it from a HPR foremost perspective, I would first ask myself was the wind directly right to left or angled slightly behind or in front? Slightly behind and the dog `could' have an excuse for an air scenting dog. A spanner is `suppose' to be a ground scenting dog but that doesn't mean it can't take advantage of the wind, especially if you shoot over your dog. In which case the dog is doing its best to push the birds back over you to get a better chance of getting a bird in its gob
The next possibility ( and yes there are no certainties ) Is before I assume you were blanking in alone. There were other dogs on this occasion. There is nothing like a bit of competition to blow a dogs mind to its training
Thirdly ( and most likely
) She did it because she could
It's fun to loose the shackles of conformity once and a while. You can bet a dog doesn't dream of the consequences ( string of shame ) rather than the fun of what caused it to come out
Glad you seem to be over the worst of ill health and are getting back out beating and shooting. Come February you might take the lesson from your little dog and run naked through the cover crop .....just because you can
