Bryn's blunders

[Bryn]

Get him on Dragons Den, mek a fortune.

Thankfully normal disorder has been restored

[Bryn]

Beating at Millom today, lot of progress, first drive a heavily pricked partridge dropped into the wood just behind us so took Bryn to pick it he had a bit of difficulty figuring out how to pick it up but after some trial and error he got it, found another partridge that no-one knew about on the way back to the cars after drive 3 and proudly retrieved it in front of all the beaters as we walked back. Dug out and retrieved a pricked hen pheasant that had tucked under the bank on a stream on drive 5 I think.

Did his usual heavy cover bashing although I had him on a long home made slip-lead in the lighter stuff and he was working much better in the more open areas by the end of the day.

One thing I learned in particular today is to trust what Bryn is telling me where birds are concerned, he was really keen on particular cover a couple of times but I thought those areas had been beaten so brought him away only for birds to get up behind us , on the last drive I let him hunt on in an area he was really keen on and sure enough he flushed a cock bird - lesson learned

We had Nellie, Poppy and Lily along today. Lily got to have a sniff at the game and had a go at a very short 'retrieve' of a partridge which she did as well as could be expected at her age.

Many thanks to Amberquest &co.

[Bryn]

Been busy earning pennies to keep the dogs in the manner to which they'd like to become accustomed so not done much with Bryn recently. My current hours meant Nell had to take him for the final lesson and assessment for his KCGC Silver award. Wasn't hopeful as he'd been an absolute nightmare when she took him to the lesson last week, anyway I got a phone-call from Nell to say Bryn had passed

[Stacia]

Well done Nellie and Bryn

[shamykebab]

Good boy, Bryn, well done!

[Bryn]

Been feeling really guilty about not being able to do much training with Bryn in the last few weeks but finally got a chance to do a bit of this morning. With maybe a month of shooting left I decided to start working towards the first tests in March and see where we are and what needs work. At the end of last season's tests the only thing keeping us out of places in Novice class was that we'd never done any work on hunting and it cost us dearly.

Have wrenched my knee so decided to use the bit of rough ground (maybe an acre of clumpy grass, brambles, whins, blackthorn, some shrubs and a small stand of conifers) opposite the house. Went out myself first and planted 7 dummies of different types where they'd never be more than 5m from my path, then took Bryn across the road (bit of leadwork) let him have a root around before taking his lead off and setting him to hunt. He hunted well and as directed, keeping within the range I wanted him to work. All the dummies found in short order so headed back to a clearer area and did a wee bit of direction retrieving where a slight issue came to light, I sat him up and threw left, right and back, left/right are fine but he's started running in for the 'back' dummy as it sails over his head so backtracked slightly and sat him to heel while I threw what would be the 'back', I then sent him left and right so he was sitting facing me when I sent him for the back dummy. Finally decided to head round the village for a bit of lead/road work where we met a couple of wee yappy things, although tempted to go say 'hello' to one of them Bryn sat when told and behaved very well, sitting and coming away when told.

[Bryn]

Full time work has continued into the new year so not had as much time as I would like with Bryn and the weather has generally been rubbish as well. Shift times mean I'm much restricted to 20mins a day before I head off so mainly working on polishing/sharpening up controls while hunting, took him out yesterday having seeded various types of dummies/balls which he found in double quick time only needing direction to a new red mini-dummy as he didn't think that was for picking until he got a double pip. One thing I did notice yesterday is that his hunting speed has gone up at least a couple of gears, don't know if this sudden big increase in pace is because he's not been getting as much 'work' or just that he's maturing

Also got to make a start with Lilly's retrieving, just a couple of v.short marked retrieves which she did very well, I don't expect her to be steady but I am sitting her up at heel before I chuck the dummy. I'm very, very impressed with her speed (think greyhound), intelligence and eagerness to please, Lilly has certainly been a revelation to watch develop so far.

Sham has bred a cracking pup. If PERCE reads this think Bella with Poppy's control

[Bryn]

15m now


Been a frustrating couple of months due variously to work, illness (Nellie gave me her 'BURD' flu for Valentine's, which mutated into MAN_FLU and I stupidly tried to work through it) and the crap weather training has been reduced to very short sessions with the occasional short trip to the coast or a local forest for the 3 dogs to stretch their legs. An ongoing issue seems to be Bryn occasionally anticipating things and not waiting for the command, I usually know when this is likely to happen as he gives me a 'look'.

Bryn's x-ray scores have finally come back after the BVA dicking around since November
Hips a wee bit disappointing coming in at 14 which is the breed average
Elbows a very nice 0
Just leaves the eye tests to arrange

With less than 1000 ESS scored to date, the vast majority of them probably show bred, I have my doubts as to how well the given breed average and mean reflect reality in the breed as a whole.

Its all very laudable aiming for lower and lower scores but at what scores do mild defects cease to be an potential issue in the function and quality of life of the dog, for instance Poppy has appalling hip scores of 101 but at 5yrs is showing no sign of impairment. Is there a sliding scale of deterioration where say a dog with a score of 50 might begin to struggle at around 12yrs of age but a dog with a score of 25 will have died of old age long before hips become an issue?

[Rookie]

We had a big heavy labrador with horrendous hips. From an early age you could see it watching him walk however it didn't really appear to have much effect on him until he was about 8 or 9 years old. He was always a lazy big lump, preferring to sit next to whoever had the gun and let another dog do the work or just to potter about occasionally playing with the other dogs. Fishing was his preferred sport!

He went onto daily anti-inflammatory drugs at about 9 years old and got to within two months of hitting his 13th birthday but he couldn't have worked for a few years before that. He was just too sore afterwards.

Not a brilliant picture. It was only taken because he happened to be sedated for something else anyway and wasn't particularly sleepy by the time it was taken but you get the idea. I also suspect that part of the reason for the poor positioning was that his joints just didn't have the range of movement that they could have had. He was about 8 years old at this time so I can only imagine what they were like when he got to 12.

[Bryn]

Ouch! that looks horrendous, almost no socket at all. I wonder what that would be scored at.