Ghillie's Report Card

[trekmoor]

Trust you to have a pup called Slack Alice ! I've just finished telling my daughter that I may not be training Kurt any more. I think she was relieved to hear this partly out of consideration for my health and partly because I won't be nagging at her so much to do more training with him !

I have warned her though that Kurt will almost certainly chase sheep. I asked her again to train the stop to whistle very thoroughly or even very fiercely ! She lives in a village out in the country and there are sheep in a nearby field so I told her to walk him along the side of the fenced in field and firmly correct him if he so much as looks at a sheep !

He is big and he is powerful and he is fast and he certainly likes to chase so I hope my daughter does something about this now and not "after the event !"

Wullie

[munstyman]

You lot should stop pandering to him, there's plenty of life left in him if he would just swallow his macho pride and get a scooter
I had a client who exercised his Dally 2.5 miles to a park and back daily using a scooter and he could hardly walk a step without sticks. Piece of cake to do seens, memories from a seat you just need some creativity, and he's got plenty of that.
I bought my mother one aged 89, she was adamant she didn't want one, made her use it over a weekend (tough love ) And now at 93 the only thing she talks about is her beloved scooter and her only complaint it isn't fast enough
You can get them with a basket on the front just the right size for an aging cocker to look down on all the minions of the world and plenty of space for a slab between your legs on the way home. If he's to tight to pay for a full charge he could always knock it out of drive and clip the dogs to the front and `mush' his way home kurt being just the type for extra speed.
You ain't getting no sympathy from me you old goat, I was looking forward to coming up there and doing the LM Nat again and going for two from two at failing you with Kurt, so get your finger out and stop being a wuss

[ips]

MM
Sounds like a good plan
Get an off road version wullie...job done

[Stacia]

Sorry to read that Wullie. I thought about you a couple of days ago, there was a man on one of those scooter/disability type things and he was on the common training a Springer spaniel. You can get all terrain ones, just a thought.

[trekmoor]

Forth Estates - 9.30 a.m. - Bright and sunny but with a very cold N. or N.E. wind - - - temperature was one degree above freezing.
Dogs - Charlie, Edge and Ghillie.

Yesterday was a very bad day for me. I had to walk about 130 yards to reach my picking up station on the first drive and I had to stop 3 times during that walk to get some breath back. I sat on a tree stump and waited for the birds to fly past or perhaps fall somewhere in my area 200 yards or more back from the guns.

I heard plenty of banging from the guns but not a single bird flew past me or anywhere near me. I think the wind direction took the birds in other directions ? At the end of the drive I released the dogs to sweep around me but didn't think they'd find anything. Somehow, somewhere Ghillie found a hen runner and I was pleased to note that if it was perhaps a pegged bird then at least it was in pristine condition ….not a feather was out of place.

I walked back to my car still hunting the dogs and Charlie went missing for a few minutes. This never used to worry me but he is now very deaf and never hears my whistles or even my shouts. I began to feel stressed so my heart acted up and that combined with my breathing problem had me lurching about during the last few yards back to my car. Charlie appeared out of the rhodie bushes and trees so I hastily loaded him and the other dogs into the car before the little bugger took off hunting again.

Then I saw something moving through the trees . It was a little springer spaniel bitch and she was not hunting for birds. She had that horrible "I'm lost !" haunted look about her. I hate seeing dogs with that look so I went after her trying to coax her to me. She came to me and I could see that she was an old dog and that she had a few quite big tumours on her. I had neglected to take a lead with me to put her on so I had to carry her back to my car ….that was not a good thing for me to do but I couldn't just leave her there.

She got a fright when Ghillie growled at her through the wires of the car cage and ran off again ! I took a lead with me this time when I went to try to catch her again. Just after I'd caught her along came another picker -up who told me to hurry as we had to get to the next drive - - - Now ! Then he saw the state I was in and took the bitch from me. We thought she belonged to one of the pickers up so I asked where he was. He'd gone off earlier to get to the next drive leaving that poor old bitch to her fate !

I was f-ing fuming mad. If I lost a dog during a drive I'd be there until I found it and to hell with the next drive ! So - o - o - I now had breathlessness , an already struggling ticker and my own fuming temper to contend with as I drove to my position for the next drive. Again I saw no birds fall during the drive and my sweep did not produce any either. I walked back to my car then drove off to "have a word" with the little bitch's owner.

Only one person was left in the car parking area by the time I got there and from him I found out that the bitch was now back with her owner and was 13 years old - - - - and was getting put down today ! I was now feeling very bad and could hardly stand up , I was almost crying, poor wee bitch , lost in the woods one day and deserted by her owner and then being put down the next day. I wasn't feeling at all well but I still wanted a wee word with her owner.

Along came the keepers wife, she took one look at me, over-ruled all my assurances that I'd be O.K. and took me to her house for a cup of tea and a chocolate biccy . She also wanted to drive me home but I looked and felt better by now so that didn't happen. She did tell me just to go home though and she'd let the others know what had happened.

I was still a bit iffy for all of the remainder of the day and I still feel not too good now ….and I still want to have a wee word with that picker-up. I do not object to the bitch being put down but I do object to leaving a dog behind in order to move on to the next drive. I really do hate seeing lost dogs with that haunted, fearful look in their eyes.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

My thanks to all of you for your scooter thingy suggestions but no scooter made could take me through the woodlands I work in 9 times out of 10. I also have no place to keep one ….my garden already contains, one shed, two dog kennels and a run, three big wheelie bins and a garden table and chairs ! Since the garden is only about 20 feet by 18 feet , it is already choc-a- bloc with stuff !

Munsty, I would like to go to another of the assessment days but without a dog this time. The one I took Buck to back then was when he was 5 months old and he passed the hunting test, the pointing test, the shot , steadiness and retrieve tests and the water retrieve tests. When he was 6 months old he won the first test I ever ran him in beating pups that were up to three times his age to do so. - - - - - I don't remember any of your hairy fings doing so well !

Kurt hasn't even reached half of Buck's standards yet and Kurt is almost twice the age Buck was ! I don't blame him for that. He is probably every bit as good as Buck was , maybe better, but I could still walk when I had Buck, I can't now.


Wouldn't mind seeing some of them there collie x spaniel x gawd knows what fings again though - - - I always did like a laugh !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Kurt got left here again today and I had a hen pheasant from yesterday I'd intended for a neighbour. I changed my mind and couldn't resist trying Kurt on it. Last time I tried this was 3 weeks ago and it wasn't pretty to watch ! Kurt just loves to grab 'em and then swing them around and up and down by a leg or a wing !

Today I took him onto a long strip of short grass just a few yards from my house then sat him while I walked out about 20 yards to drop the bird. Rather to my surprise he did not even attempt to move from his position and I began to feel hopeful that he was in a calmer frame of mind than he was the last time !

I walked back to him and sent him and he went loopy-loo when he got to the pheasant. He picked it up and did a sort of bucking bronco fast and furious dance with it in his jaws. He was jumping up using all 4 legs to give him added height and somehow managing to do a full 360 degree sideways , mid-air turn ! I tried whistling him back to me, he ignored that, I tried calling him back both nicely and angrily. He ignored that too and ran off with the bird while still dropping it then repicking it in experimental holds on it's wings, legs and body . I got pi$$ed off and walked back to my house and Kurt eventually joined me at the gate.... maybe he didn't like giving his performance without an audience ???

I took the bird from him with no problems then went back into the garden and it's much more limited space in which to misbehave.
He did two retrieves from heel in the garden and he did them slowly now that the "fun" was gone. I praised him, then with considerable misgivings, I very carefully examined the birds ribs ! They were completely intact , I'd expected mince ! Very surprisingly even the birds feathers were still in good shape, only one flank feather had come out during all of this. I counted my blessings and stopped at that !

I think he is 10 months old now and in some ways he is still very puppyish …..but so far, he is not hard-mouthed. I have a feeling that if he was given a good number of birds to retrieve instead of dummies , he might cease to play with them and just do a straightforward retrieve without all the "antics." He loves to play with old rugs etc. and they too get the full "treatment" from him but it is very noticeable that any actual damage done to them is minimal. He is, very surprisingly, soft mouthed ! He just isn't a cruncher.

He is the sort of dog many a field trailer of GSP's would like to get their hands on - - - he is a soft mouthed one !

Wullie

[Stacia]

I wasn't thinking of you picking up in the scooter, but being able to get out and train your dogs. You could get rid of the table and chairs!

[munstyman]

I wasn't thinking of you picking up in the scooter, but being able to get out and train your dogs. You could get rid of the table and chairs!

He won't listen Jelinga He's a stubborn old goat
Wait till he's gone stir crazy in a month not getting out with the dogs, then he might see the light....just remember its like training a HPR, you have to make it out that its their idea and not ours.

[Stacia]