Libby's Diary

[trekmoor]

With the weather being considerably better here today I took Libby and the cockers for a walk through the woods of U.F.O. Hill for me and a run through them for the dogs. I didn't see much of Libby during the entire 1hour long walk . I headed out onto a more open field , the one the U.F.O. supposedly landed on 30 or more years ago. Libby hunted the entire field and the woods to either side of it but didn't find any of the glowing balls that attacked the forester.

I went back into thick woodlands again in an attempt to "lose" her but she always seems to know where I am. She appears to be running in huge circles or ovals out in front and to the sides of me and she makes her reappearances from just about any point of the compass. I did notice that she was not answering to the turn and recall whistles as well as usual or as well as I would like. She is possibly, over confident of her ability to find me.

Normally she works closer to me than she did today and today I was feeling better than I have done for quite some time. She usually keeps an eye on me if I am struggling a bit but didn't seem to feel any need to today..... I must be improving in health !

I tried her a few times with the stop whistle but rather than risk a failure I stopped her always within about 40 yards . She stopped every time .

I'd stopped and sat down on a log for 5 minutes out in thick woodlands with the 4 dogs sitting nearby. My log was just off to the side of a 10 inches wide muddy track through the cover. I heard Charlie growling ....and no wonder ! Coming through the woods towards me along the track came a very suspicious looking man. He was probably about 30 years old and he was wearing a very nice looking but very out of place black pinstripe suit , a nice tie and what looked under their covering of mud to be an expensive pair of black shoes !

I have never seen anyone look so out of place in the woods. He wished me a good day as he passed by and complimented me on my well behaved dogs (they'd remained sitting) while at the same time keeping a close eye on wee Charlie who was growling like thunder. Charlie never normally behaves like that except as a kennel, house and car guard dog. I agreed with Charlie, the man was highly suspicious looking in that setting of mud, trees, bushes, brambles, dead willowherb stalks and ferns.

I was bursting with curiousity but restrained myself from pointing the man back towards civilisation. I'd still like to know who he was and what he was doing in there.

I have been contemplating Libby's show career and I have been trying to persuade my wife to take her round the training class and the showring . I don't think I could move at a fast pace for long without collapsing. My wife and I "gangbanged" her two evenings ago and lopped off some of her ear, leg and tail featherings. I don't suppose a show person would be enchanted with her final appearance but I think it looks O.K.
She'll "grow into it" as my mother used to say while looking at her efforts on the hair I had as a boy. At least Libby didn't have her hair cut with the aid of a pudding bowl !

Wullie

[LJR]

Great news you are feeling better.

Hmmm, I am not sure that "gangbanged" is the correct term!

[trekmoor]

OOPS ! my son has now told me what that word means .....I thought it meant mugged and rolled !

Wullie

[cuda]

OOPS ! my son has now told me what that word means .....I thought it meant mugged and rolled !

Wullie

[Bryn]

[Naj]

Me thinks the guy in the pin-stripe was really Father Time, come to collect. Obviously thought he'd leave you a while longer to endure your own personal hell on earth with the evil Charlie.

Naj

on second thoughts, sounds like the CEO of RBS. He seems to have lost his way.

[trekmoor]

Bannatyne's Bog - 1p.m. - Very cloudy, light winds.

Dogs - Libby

The wind was , unusually, in my favour as soon as I left the car today and Libby pointed within feet of getting out of the car. She crept forward from the point and I was hoping she'd produce the hare that sometimes frequents that end of this very "rashy" field. I'd like her to get a definite point on a hare and I'd also like to know if I can whistle stop the chase that would almost certainly follow the flush. That end of the field is pretty useless as far as snipe are concerned, they usually congregate at it's far end so as Libby did a "follow" on the scent she had I followed her . She kept on doing the "follow" without producing anything however so after about 100 yards of this I called her off the scent and made her hunt on as we were now approaching the best area for snipe.

I think I should not have allowed her to follow for such a distance, she may now think she is supposed to track hares .....if it was a hare ? We were now in the snipey area and Libby irritated me considerably by moving dead slow and stop over it while covering less ground than a spaniel from side to side. She has been there before and has found snipe there before ..... I think she was expecting snipe to be there and had slowed down to a crawl in expectation of a find. I got P'd off with that very quickly and urged her on. I didn't see any snipe at all , that really surprised me for at this time last year between 50 and 100 snipe could be found on that part of the field. I didn't even see much in the way of snipe droppings. There are far fewer snipe in my area than there were last year .

I left the field and entered what I consider to be a game free zone ! All I have ever seen there is one hare . We were now hunting on a tail wind and within 40 yards of entering that hilly and hummocky sort of field Libby ran right into a snipe with no chance to point it. She stopped dead in her tracks when the bird got up just 4-5 feet from her so I suppose it did serve some purpose.

I decided to hunt over the rest of that field plus the very rough strip of bushes and brambles on the slope down to the little river but I didn't see any more snipe or anything else for that matter. As a hunt today was pretty much a dead loss.

Wullie

[Alice]

Is it Banatynes bog where Rosie also hunts dead slow Wullie? For the same reason, expecting snipe?

[trekmoor]

Yes Alice, Rosie and Libby exhibit the same ultra cautious but dead slow and stop behaviour in the same area of that field and in one 1/4 of a mile along the road from it where snipe are often present too.

I can understand Rosie behaving like that, she rarely goes fast and far anyway while hunting but Libby hunts in a very different manner usually. Libby in particular is far more cautious when snipe hunting than she is when hunting pheasants.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Yesterday I was away picking-up at a shoot I haven't been to before, I took Libby and Charlie with me. The shoot took place in a very steeply sided, narrow river valley and the slopes of the valley were either slippery and sometimes sheer rock or extremely slippery with mud held in place only by the trees on the hill sides. It was a difficult place to pick up from in terms of dog work as some of the birds shot by the guns in the valley bottom landed well up the hills on the far side of the small but very fast flowing river.
.
Charlie and Libby had 4 retrieves each. All of Charlie's birds were runners and three of Libby's were too. Libby had what I think was her first ever retrieves from in and over water. Her first bird was a cock pheasant which fell near the river then when Libby reached it, tried to fly over the river but came down in midstream . Libby went in after it from the top of the vertical bank, swam downstream in pursuit of the now swimming pheasant and grabbed at it just as she reached an even more turbulent part of the river. She lost her hold on the bird but kept swimming until she caught it again. She had some trouble getting back out of the water, the banks were often sheer sided and/or too high . I could only look on anxiously from 40 -50 yards away and partway up the side of the hill. This little bitch has courage .... or she is as daft as Charlie !

Her next two retrieves were for runners that fell over the river and legged it through the trees and dead ferns. Neither of those retrieves were long distance affairs and both were marked retrieves. I was pleased to see she'd tackle the little river. Her last pheasant was also a marked retrieve but although it fell about 80 yards away it was a very easy bird to collect. She didn't have to swim for that bird and although it was still alive it wasn't running.
She got a chance to retrieve a cold woodcock a couple of weeks ago and didn't like it at all. Yesterday she got a warm one to retrieve and she was much keener on that.

All of Charlie's four retrieves were from the steep wooded banks on the far side of the river. He also found one runner on my side of the water while doing a bit of non- authorised sweeping between two of the drives. One of his birds yesterday came from about 50 yards up the rivers far bank. At that place the far bank was so steep that in places it fell as a sheer drop down a rockface of about 5 -12 feet onto the rocks right on the edge of the river. Charlie had to retreat back into the river at the first point he tried to get up the bank at and struggled and scrambled quite a bit to get up the bank at the next place he tried.

He found the pheasant but got partially wing blinded. When he made his way back down to the river he came through some ferns and twigs right on top of one of the sheer cliffs and fell about 10 feet to land on his side on the rocks right beside the river. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the bird escaped his jaws and ran off again. He got up, went after it, recaught it and swam back across the river to me. He is a bit stiff and maybe sore today but seems to be O.K.

That shoot must be a bit of a nightmare to pick up at near the start of the season when the woodland and riverbank ferns are still high and there are still leaves on the trees. It must be very difficult to mark the fall of birds.

I was very well looked after at the shoot and was almost always given the least walking to do. The grub supplied at lunchtime was piping hot and the pay for my day was £50 ! I didn't expect that ! My legs are stiff and sore today and I didn't sleep well at all. I got up at 6.15 a.m. and took the dogs out. Libby vanished. She'd scented her pal Rosie out for her morning walk and had ran 1/4 of a mile to get to her. Rosie's owner had to walk back with Libby as the two of them played. The lady was wearing a nice white parka and nice white track suit bottoms ..... they ain't white now !

Wullie