Gundog Training Forum

So pleased computer repairs have been done! Looking forward to the next installment.

The man who had prevented me from swimming out to sea to rescue Lady now had a labrador pup and I helped him to train her. All went very well until she reached the "Kevin" months and began to disobey him. He was "lost" as she was his first ever dog. He had a health problem which meant he was not much good at running and he was also a bit older than me. There was not much use in me telling him to get out there, catch her and then enforce discipline.

She played him up badly, time after time, refusing to stop to whistle . She was an excellent marker and she handled reasonably well but handling is no use if the dog will not stop to look at the handler when he whistles. He'd entered her for his and her's first ever Novice test but by the Wednesday prior to the weekend test she still would not stop and would go off in any direction she fancied if an arm was waved at her while she was running about. He was going to withdraw from the test so I offered to do a bit of training with her in a very large but remote fenced field.

I took her to the field without him being present and let her loose. After allowing her a minute or two to run around I blew stop when she was 40-50 yards away and then I began running. It took me nearly two hours to "run that bitch down" but I kept on after her until she eventually surrendered and lay flat on her side to wait on me . I reached her, had her sit to whistle a couple of times while up close to her then sent her off for another run around . I blew stop and she stopped and looked at me. I followed this up with a stop whistle as she galloped out towards a thrown dummy and began to run after her again. She heard me coming after her and stopped. I repeated that, then was satisfied she'd stop.

I began giving her some fairly difficult blinds to do and she did them well and always answered the whistle. I moved to a pond and repeated the stop whistle training while she was in the water and that went well too. My friend was very pleased but had now decided not to run her in the test after all. As I was to discover, my friend had a flaw. He hated being made to look a fool and there is nothing quite as good as a dog for making anyone look like a fool ! He did not want to get a red face if she played him up in front of other handlers or spectators at the test.

I offered to run her in his place and he agreed . He and his wife turned up to watch how the bitch .....a pup by today's reckoning got on. She won the test after a run -off which she won easily since the other dog got a bit lost during a long distance marked retrieve.
I sent my friend forward to collect his bitch's little rosette and shield and he was pleased with that but only until the other handlers began to come up to me to congratulate me on "my" win while ignoring him ! He had another minor flaw .....he liked the idea of fame and prestige. He told me right away that he'd compete with her himself in the future !

I managed to get him some beating on the same estate that I picked up for when the next shooting season came around. Back then nobody went straight into shoots as a picker up unless they were "connected." It was a bit like serving an apprenticeship during which the keeper kept an eye on you before allowing you to progress to picking up. You learned about driven shoots from the ground up. It is still a good system .

My friend soon discovered that he had a big impediment to ever becoming a picker up, his bitch would not retrieve freshly shot birds....or cold birds either ! He came to me for help after a few weeks. I told him to miss the next day's beating and stay at home while I took her picking-up. She was a bitch that really loved to run and I suspected that while working as a beaters dog she got enough running about to please her without any need to retrieve any birds.

I put her on a lead and did not let her off until the second last drive of the day. She'd seen my dogs having fun, she'd seen the beaters dogs having fun but not even for a second was she allowed to leave my heel. That drove her frantic for something to do so I eventually gave her a memory retrieve on a bird I'd picked during that drive. She considered bogging off and leaving the bird unpicked but just a couple of fast paces towards her from me reminded her that I was the lad that had "ran her down !" She retrieved the bird rather than experience that again.

From there it was all plain sailing and I took a couple of birds home with me to demonstrate to my friend that she would now retrieve cold game. I assured him she would also retrieve fresh shot birds too, I knew she would for I'd sent her for two during the last drive. My friend was absolutely delighted and wanted to pay me for this but I wouldn't take the money. It had been an interesting problem to solve.

He made his own progress from there with occasional advice from me but I never again took his bitch from him to train. Eventually she won a Novice field trial and he got his "fame and prestige." She was to be, though he didn't know it then, the best bitch he ever had. He never won another trial with that bitch or with any of the pups he bought later.
He took another route to fame and prestige, he became a field trial judge instead !

Right! Back to that summer and Tessa competing for Scotland at the "Big Game Fair."
I was one member of the three man retriever team and the three man spaniel team. I travelled down to the game fair with Billy Steele senior and Billy Steele junior who was just a boy then. We shared a hotel room booked for us by the Scottish Team Manager. The other team member for the retrievers was Ian Meldrum the brother of Bill Meldrum , the queens dog trainer and the son of old Geordie Meldrum, a very pleasant old gamekeeper and trial judge.

When Billy and I got to our hotel room it was to find the spaniel lads waiting outside. As soon as we opened the door the boys with the muppets for dogs all rushed into the room ....they had already drank every drop of booze in their own rooms fridges and were now getting stuck into ours ! And why not ? We weren't paying for it ! I helped them out a bit by drinking some too and then , with the fridge now being empty we set off downstairs for some further alchoholic intake down in the hotel's bar.

I can't remember much about that evening except that we all got rather jolly. Billy Steele is a "tidy" sort of bloke and he was wearing a nice suit and a collar and tie. I began with a tie but soon lost it somewhere. One of the spaniel lads was called Gordon Sumfin or Other and he was winding Billy Steele up by pointing out that he was wearing a suit too. He was, he was wearing a scruffy jean jacket to match his scruffy jeans ! He had a mass of bright red hair and not just on his head. It poked out in curly sprouts from the front of the shirt he was wearing .....it too was made of denim.

The following morning we set off for the gamefair and our passes got us in to park not too far from the test arena and it's rows of seats up on the stands. We also had passes with which to have a free breakfast so we handed them over and entered the grub tent. I was almost last in the queue for a plate containing an egg and a sausage and a little bit of bacon.
Gordon was in front of me and he was a big lad. He looked at his plate and just like Oliver Twist he wanted more ! He did his best to ask the lassie behind the counter for more on his plate politely but he did have a rather thick Scottish accent and the lassie was English . He asked her if he could have another egg please . She looked a bit puzzled but tried to oblige this wild looking , hairy Scotsman.

She reached over, took the plate from him, carefully removed the fried egg on it then replaced it with another egg ! The poor lassie ! Gordon looked at his new egg and lifting the digit finger of his massive , red haired fist he said , " Nah, nah, lassie ! That'll no dae ! " He then showed her that one finger and carefully explained as if to a complete idiot ...." Ane plate, (and the finger waggled) twa eggs !" he lifted another finger trying his best not to make this look like a rude salute.

The tent erupted into laughter from the Scottish contingent as the lassie still struggled to comprehend him . I have a vague memory of sliding down the tent pole I was using to support me as I laughed uncontrollably . Also sliding slowly down the pole with tears of laughter was , I think, Bob Yeoman , one of the spaniel lads. Our game fair had begun well and it got better and better.

Our retriever team came in first over the two days and so did our spaniel team. We went home triumphant and ever so slightly inebriated except for Billy Steele who isn't much of a drinker ..... I'm not too sure he's a Scot !
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To be continued
Wullie

I've tried to be patient but....more please Uncle Wullie!! Best read I've had in a long, long time!

I too am missing your tales of adventures and daring do.
I hope to be reading some more soon.

I typed this on the computers "Notepad" thingy coz I can't sit for very long at the moment, I'm too damned sore . Notepad gives me time to write in stages without the writing getting wiped out as it does on the forum. Hope I have managed the copying and pasting thing O.K. ....Here goes.
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My lab pup "Lady" was developing very nicely, always keen to work but never getting so "heated up" as to refuse instructions. I abandoned her career as a test dog completely. I saw no need to trouble her about doing dead straight lines to marked retrieves, her "banana" run outs worked very well in real life retrieving situations.
She was taken picking-up at the grouse and she worked well on them so I entered her for a Novice trial on a grouse moor at Leadhills. All went well until she was sent for a marked retrieve that had fallen into a deep, steep gulley with thick, rather high heather on it's sides. She found the bird at once and began to come back up the slope towards me but the heather knocked the bird out of Lady's too "soft" grip.
She picked it up again at once but the damage had already been done. She was eliminated for dropping game.

Her next trial was not long after that and Lady was now about 1 year old. It was held on superb ground and rabbits and partridge were around on this mainly rough grasses and patchy heather ground. Lady had a couple of simple marked retrieves and was then called in to make a 2nd dog down blind retrieve on a rabbit lying dead down in the bottom of a sort of little valley. The rabbit was sort of rolled into a ball and was definetely dead but all around it and all the way along the bottom of the valley were stones of a similar colour to the rabbit and of about the same size. The rabbit lay dead in the bed of a dried up hill stream .

I sent her then left her alone. She did her usual thing of homing in on the air scent and did not go nose down until she was very near to the rabbit. The surrounding rounded stones confused even her but she let her nose do the looking, found the rabbit and returned with it. That retrieve, combined with her total "unflappability" won her the trial. I promptly entered her for every Open trial available.

While driving home from the Novice trial she'd won I was in a state of euphoria ...but that soon changed. It was now night time and as I drove up a very steep hill about halfway home my car suddenly decided not to work any more. The accelerator cable had snapped on my old banger. At the bottom of the hill I'd just driven partway up and about 200 yards away was a pub and I hoped to put my car into "free wheel" and then just roll down the hill in reverse but doing so was hair raising because of the other traffic on the road !

I never want to repeat that 200 yards of driving backwards down a steep hill. The road followed a curve around as well as up and down the hill so between trying to stop the car, which had no rear lighting apart from the little red brake lights, running backwards off the road or onto the roads opposite side and having other cars and lorries coming straight towards me up the hill as I rolled down it while flashing their lights and furiously blowing their horns, it was not a pleasant, stress free little journey !

I arrived at last in the pubs car park, went into the pub and bought a pint and a dram of whisky ..... just to settle my nerves ! I then did what they do on that T.V. programme.... I phoned a friend ! He drove out from Edinburgh to pick up me and my dog. As he did so, I proceeded to celebrate my win with even more whisky. I was quite merry by the time he reached me ! My car got towed back to Edinburgh the following day.

Lady's next trial was a two day , 24 dog open and we got chucked out late on during it's second day. A bird had fallen on the far side of a little tree lined gulley with a shallow burn at it's base. I could not see the fall and neither could Lady due to the trees but it looked like a fairly simple semi-marked retrieve . I sent Lady and off she went but neither I nor the judges could see her after she went into the trees and down into the gulley.

After a moment the judges walked forward to take a look and then they called me forward to take a look. Once I began to laugh , the judges did too. Lady had reverted to being a puppy ...I think she was about 14-15 months old by then. She had "discovered " the stream and was happily galloping up and down it sending water flying everywhere with a huge delighted smile all over her face ! She had completely forgotten the bird !

The judges liked me and they liked Lady, we all just stood there laughing for a moment at this reminder of how young she really was.....but they still chucked us out of the trial, the buggers !
I ran her in another two day Open shortly after this one and we got chucked out of that one too ! All had gone very well until a bird was shot which fell over a drystane dyke to land about 30-40 yards away in a large turnip field. Turnip fields and dogs and pheasants and me do not seem to be a good mixture . I suffered a repeat in that field of my very first trial with Tessa.

Lady had never been in a turnip field , never mind in a turnip field that was choc-a- bloc with unshot birds.I think she had lost her mark at the wall she had to jump over. She began to flush unshot birds as she searched for the shot one. To begin with she did answer to whistle but every time I redirected her she encountered another unshot bird or two. For the very first time in her short life she began to ignore my stop whistle. I was told to recall her but she didn't answer to that whistle either.

Lady, up until that point in time , had never had a single physical correction in her life. She had never needed one. I was stuck, I had nothing to fall back on. I had very rarely even raised my voice with Lady, she had been so easy to train. I was told to climb the wall and to catch her before she emptied the field of birds !

When I finally caught her I could, of course, not correct her, trial rules forbid that. Lady seemed pleased I'd come to join her in a game of "flush the birdies !" Most judges liked me and they liked Lady too. I was told there and then that there were pricked birds in that field and that they would be grateful if I would stay behind as the trial moved on to try to find them . This was accompanied by a huge wink from one of the judges and I took the hint and the silent advice that had been given.

There were no birds down in that field other than the one Lady had failed to find. I followed the unspoken advice given by those very helpful judges, went into the turnip field , the scene of the "crime," and let Lady loose again with a "Hi-lost " command. Lady was soon happily chucking pheasants up into the air again so I blew stop and at once began running to catch her.

I gave her a shaking then released her again, she went berserk again and so did I. This time I really shook her, I lifted her front end right off the ground to shake her. It worked, she now stopped to whistle so I repeated the running her down and the damn good shake after she refused to at once obey the recall whistle. Lady was not a "hard" dog and nor was she a stupid one. She now knew I could and would come and get her if she failed to obey commands.
It was to be the first and last time Lady ever received a physical correction plus a ballocking in her entire life. I now had her respect in more ways than one. No longer did she simply like me and respect me due to that liking, that little tinge of fearful respect can make a lot of difference.
I was to regret her now being so totally obedient but that came after she'd won her very next Open trial a couple of weeks later. If I remember I will say in a later episode why I wished she'd disobeyed me during a later trial.

Wullie

Yay! I was getting withdrawal symptoms - I hope your back eases soon.

Only a couple of weeks after the trial Lady had done a bit of pheasant chasing in and I had done a bit of Lady chasing in, she competed in another 2 day , 24 dog Open trial. I can only remember three of her retrieves from the entire trial but those retrieves were what won her the trial.
It was a walk-up trial with one drive. To my perturbation that drive took place over a turnip field that the competitors had to work in. I am not fond of turnips and they don't seem to like me much either but this time all went well and Lady found the bird the judge designated as hers with no problems at all. That is about all I can remember of that retrieve, it was an "A" retrieve but no more than that.

We were walking over a stubble field and were nearing the fields end when two pheasants flew off over the wall at the end of the field. One bird was hit and fell to vanish behind the wall but what I did not know was that on the far side of the wall ,the land fell away very sharply into a long fairly narrow valley of very rough ground. I was told to send my dog so Lady leaped over the wall and was gone. I could do nothing to help if help was needed for I had no idea where the bird had gone over there or of where Lady was in relationship to it.

The judges walked forward to join the gun who had shot the bird and I think they were surprised by the size of the area to be hunted and the depth of the valley and the cover , mainly dying ferns, in that valley. They called me forward to the wall just in case I could help my dog any. Lady was way down below hunting her way into the wind spaniel style but with huge casts to either side . She got a scent went 20 yards further in a straight line and picked the bird..... the retrieve had been a sort of marked blind combined with a bit of "sweeping." I knew that was an "A+" retrieve !

She was again in the walking line when we crossed over a field of tussock grass and rashes. A shot was fired down at the far end of the line but I had failed to see any bird shot. Word came back up the line that a rabbit had been shot and was lying about 30 yards out in front of the gun. I was told to send Lady for it. I didn't fancy my chances much. The retrieve distance was about 90-100 yards and the cover was a bit high and thick. Rabbits aren't always easily found.

Lady was sent for the rabbit as a blind but she banana'd my direction a bit to take her close in to the gun who had fired the shot. She then simply did things in textbook spaniel fashion. She took the rabbits live foot scent or perhaps the scent of the powder from the shot straight to the rabbit and picked it. I'd thought I'd have to handle for all I was worth and I think the judges thought so too but Lady had made the retrieve look so very easy. I never even had to touch the whistle.
I knew that had to be an "A+" retrieve too even before one of judges told me so !

Her last retrieve on the trials second day was an absolute beauty. A pheasant flew back the way we had just came and was fired at and pricked. It flew on over the top of a thin strip of woods and then over the top of a high wall that formed the boundary of another much larger and thicker wood. The wall was about 70 yards from me and that wood was damned thick with a lot of groundcover in the form of broken branches and fallen trees.
I was told to send Lady and she ran off down the line of the little thin strip of trees then instead of jumping the wall where it intersected those trees she turned along the edge of the wall and ran on into the field beyond for about 80 yards before jumping the wall. The bird was not anywhere near where she had jumped over and the judges looked at me in surprise when I just left her alone. I knew what she was up to and they didn't know her as I did.

She was "banana-ing" her outrun to make sure she got the birds scent when she curved in and jumped the wall. It worked out perfectly for her and in no time at all she jumped back over the wall with the bird. Both of the judges remarked on her game finding ability as she returned and I wasn't given any more retrieves to do. Lady had been put "on ice."
She won the trial and I still think that during that trial she demonstrated just how good a real game-finding dog can be with no help at all from it's handler. Judges back then were, I.M.O. , more interested in dogs that were natural game finders than they were in dogs that could handle onto a sixpence. Old Harry Mc.Tier, my mentor had "brought me up in the faith" and I still like really good gamefinders more than really good handling dogs.... I can't always see the dog to handle it ! I like dogs with "game sense."

During the last retriever trial I judged, which was a long time ago, I am pleased to say I was instrumental in getting a Flatcoat Retriever into the awards. It was a gamefinder..... Pity it didn't handle better too !
The judges and many of the competitors congratulated me on that trial result. Two of the competitors had already qualified for that years Championships and since they were from the north of Scotland they offered to pick me up to travel down there with them..... I think the Championships were somewhere near Basingstoke that year. I thanked them for their offer but said I wouldn't be running Lady in it.

I had several reasons for that and here they are , not neccessarily in order of importance.
1. I couldn't afford it .
2. My work would not give me any more time off.
3. I wanted Lady , who would only have been about 18 months old on the Championship dates, to have more experience behind her before I subjected her to the numbers of birds often encountered during a retriever championship. I now believe I was wrong about this last reason. I never knew an easier Lab than Lady to control. It just never occurred to her to run in during her entire life ! She was mad keen but always looked calm and she was good at anything a trial lab would ever be expected to do.

I mated her later on but did not keep a puppy for by then I owned a Brittany puppy ....but that is another story.

Wullie

I now went through an extremely irritating period of trialing Lady where either I did something wrong or where we didn't do enough "right." I just could not get that second win that would make her up to F.T.Ch. At the same time I found that Tessa who also only needed one more win to become a F.T.Ch. just wasn't getting drawn from the hat ..... I couldn't get runs with her for love nor money.
I went to a trial which took place in a field of high kale during Lady's first run and went out on a runner. I shrugged my shoulders and stayed on to watch the rest of the trial. Old Harry was competing in that trial too and he came to grief in that same field of kale. The kale was waist high and Harry's lab bitch was sent for a partridge about 40-50 yards out from the line.
She got into the area but did not find the partridge, she found pheasants galore instead and went out of control. To be fair to the bitch controlling a dog was just about impossible, the kale was taller than the dogs and was very thick. Harry was told to call her up but his bitch did not answer to recall or to stop and pheasants were still being flushed by her outside the fall area of the partridge. I gave a wry grin as Harry had to do what he'd told me to do during my very first trial with Tessa. He had to go out there and catch his bitch.

Harry was fuming mad at her , we always knew when he was getting agitated as his stinking, ancient pipe would begin to erupt with smoke and ash and even little burning embers if he got annoyed enough ! I heard a judge warn him just as he left the line to catch his bitch, not to correct her during a field trial .... apparently he was known for conveniently forgetting about that little rule !
Harry went out to his bitch caught her , put a lead on her, then shouted out , "Oops " I've tripped up !" He then vanished down among the kale beside his dog and we saw lumps of kale go up in the air and a couple of yelps from the dog ! Back then, Harry's "gamesmanship" got a laugh from all present. I'm not so sure he'd have got away with that nowadays.

Harry once told me that when he first began to trial labs , provided a dog was soft mouthed, silent, a good game finder and steady it would eventually win trials. He said it was the steadiness that was often the problem. Apparently running-in was a lot more common back in days of yore ! His other lab bitch had already ran in during 2 or 3 trials and Harry was far too old to do much about it ..... a bit like I am now ! He devised a cunning ploy as that wee geezer on Blackadder used to say.

He went to his vet and told him his bitch suffered from travel sickness and could he have anti - travel sickness pills please. Having obtained the pills , it seems they made dogs a bit groggy for a period of time, Harry intended to dose her with them just before the trial .... the bitch by the way was never travel-sick in her entire life. Harry hoped being a bit less "fiery" would result in her not running in .
He was called into line and when the very first bird was shot Harry was proved correct for his bitch did not run -in ........... she staggered - in instead ! That got a lorra, lorra laughs as that Liverpudlian wummin is always saying. Cheats never prosper ! ..... Well, not often anyway.

Lady competed in 4 Opens I think without any wins. She may have had a second or a third , I can't remember. I always tried to forget "places" as soon as possible, I disliked being 2nd or 3rd more than I disliked being chucked out ! Any placing less than a 1st always had me driving home angry with myself and with a mind full of , "If only I had done this" or "If only I hadn't done that !"
That sort of trip home happened twice with Lady. The worst one was during the second time it happened to me. It was another two day Open trial and Lady had done very well on the first day with a runner and an eye-wipe to her credit. The morning of the second day went even better. She had a "third dog down " eyewipe on a runner. At lunchtime the other competitiors were almost queuing up to congratulate me , they seemed to think I had already won the trial.

One of the judges approached me and quietly told me, "We want to see her do one more retrieve but all you have to do is keep your nose clean." ...... Nod, nod, wink, wink !

Lunch on that second day was a rather leisurely, extended one and folk kept on coming to congratulate me .....bringing various ardent spirits with them to help celebrate my seemingly inevitable victory. To keep a long story short I got as p*ssed as a newt !

The trial restarted and I was called back into line right away on a nice big open , easy stubble field. A pheasant got up to my left but when shot it went into a deep wooded gulley at the edge of the field. I got lucky for it wasn't my retrieve. As things turned out it would have been better if it had been my retrieve ! As a dog was sent for that bird a woodpigeon flew over the field , was shot and fell no more than 50 yards out in front.
A nice easy marked retrieve on a dead bird I thought . I wasn't told to send her right away. The bird in the gulley was proving hard to find. The judges waited to see it brought back before having my dog fetch the pigeon. After a few minutes, back came the lab with the bird and I was told to send Lady for that doddle of a pigeon. I decided to play careful so just in case Lady had lost her mark during the time since it was shot I sent her for it as a blind.

Lady went out as directed but found nothing, she moved out of the area to go my right hand side but I knew the pigeon was dead. It would have been seen moving among the stubble if it had walked away from the fall area. I stopped Lady then directed her back to the fall but still she did not find the pigeon. She kept on wanting to go right and I kept on stopping her and making her go left. I was told to call her up.

Another dog was then sent for the pigeon and it found it almost right away about 20 yards from where I'd thought the fall area was and in exactly the place Lady had tried so hard to get to. In my drunken state I'd sent Lady to the wrong area and I'd kept her there ...... as I said in an earlier episode, I was given cause to wish Lady was not so obedient ! I wish Lady had ignored me for once and just kept going to pick up the pigeon. She could probably actually see it lying out there from where I'd kept on making her search.

That was the last time I ever got carried away by either compliments or by drink during a trial. Some people just have to learn the hard way. If it hadn't been for me Lady would have been a Field Trial Champion. She richly deserved to be one ........... I'm sorry Lady.

During another of her trials she had again got through into the afternoon of the second day but I knew she needed to get a retrieve other than a straightforward mark to "bring her up" a bit in the judges books . A keeper turned up that afternoon who happens to have the same surname as me . I'd known him for years and we got on very well. He was a retriever judge himself so when he asked me at lunchtime how I was doing , I told him she needed a more difficult retrieve than just an easy mark or she was unlikely to win.

He gave me a wink and said he was to be one of the guns that afternoon and , "Did I want a runner ?" I said yes so he then said , " Do you want it 40 yards out with it's left wing down or it's right wing down ?" ...... Big wink from him ! He was well known as a very good shot so I knew he wasn't joking. I gratefully accepted his offer . Beware of what you ask for ....you might get it, I did !

He shot a hen pheasant that was a definite runner for me and my bitch never found it yet ! I got eliminated ! Served me right too. At least I laughed at myself during the drive home after that trial, I hadn't come in second place or any other place !
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To be continued
Wullie

Just spent most of my spare time today reading these tales and boy they brought back some memories, the mistakes all too familiar with me the if onlys, the bits of luck thrown in a real learning curve of which I'm not half way round yet. Great reading Willie keep it coming.. I would be interested to know who the two trainers from the Forfar area were about that time Neil

Just love reading your stories, thanks )