I thought the article was a good one. There definitely is an "etiquette" to picking-up. Unfortunately clashes do happen between guns and pickers - up and even between pickers-up and pickers-up ! Most clashes with the guns happen because some pickers-up....especially the newbies.... try to stand as close they can to the gun-pegs.
These people seem to think it is all about how many birds they can bring back to the gamecart to show off with. The quality of the retrieves does not concern them as much as the quantity. A picking-up dog ….or three....can really irritate and distract a gun at a peg especially if he has his own dog and pickers-up dogs are milling around his peg looking for birds that the guns own dog could easily pick at the end of the drive.
Personally I do my damndest to keep my dogs well away from the guns during drives. If a picker up sends his dog for a dead bird lying, say, 40 - 50 yards behind a gun then I wish I had a £1 for the number of times I have seen that dog run right past the bird it was sent for in order to get to another one it has just seen fall ! If the dog then goes in front of the guns it may start just galloping about picking up birds then dropping them again in order to go to another newly fallen bird.... it is a nightmare !
Then it's owner the picker-up has a few choices to make. He could do nothing at all and just hope nobody realises it is his dog out there or he can whistle and shout for all he is worth in the probably vain hope that his dog will listen and return to him . His noisemaking probably annoys the guns even more than his dog is doing !!!
Keep well back from the guns and try very hard never to send your dog towards them to retrieve during drives.
I have had a few heated exchanges with guns , usually over runners. Like most pickers up I try to put my dogs onto runners just as soon as possible ….but I still do not send my dogs among the guns or near to them. If a runner falls close to the guns I leave it until the drive has ended especially if it is running back towards the beaters. One (or more !) of their dogs will probably get it !
One of my tiffs with a gun happened when I was asked by that gun to leave his birds for his lab unless they had fallen well back behind me. That's fair enough I thought, that's what I usually do anyway.
The gun was on the end peg of the line about 30 -40 yards out from a hedge, a ditch and a wood. I saw two definite runners fall off to that side of him and leg it for the cover. I left them for his dog and got on with keeping an eye open for birds falling behind me.
At the end of the drive the guns lab began retrieving the birds lying out dead on the grass and I went off to sweep the woods behind me.
When I arrived back at the game cart the gun was already there blethering to his friends. He casually asked me if I'd got the two runners then blew a gasket when I said I'd left them for his dog. It was then he yelled at me that he didn't send his dog into cover
I then blew my gasket and the keeper "had words" with both of us . I went back and got one of the runners. I never did find the other one.... it could have ran all the way to Englandshire by the time it got looked for.
There should be a sort of rough etiquette between pickers - up too. I try hard not to let my dogs into another pickers-up's "area" unless my dog has tracked a bird into there from my area or the other picker up has shouted over to me to come and help him find a lost bird or birds. Leave fallen birds alone unless they fall into your area or unless you know they have not been picked at the end of the drive.
I was once picking up about 100 yards along a hillside from a lady picker up with a large golden retriever. The dog was actually pretty good and I had helped in it's training. It got 3 grouse during the first drive of the day at this, first ever shoot, for both the lady and her dog. She was justifiably delighted with her dogs performance, it's marking of fallen birds was first rate.
When the next drive started the lady began to send her dog into my "area" for what should have been my dogs retrieves and her goldie did it very well. I told her at the drives end not to do that as I had two dogs of my own but she replied ," He does so love to get them that I can't resist sending him."
I waited for the next busy drive to reply to that. She was again sending her dog into my area ….even for the birds that fell on the opposite side of me to her position. I got some birds to retrieve too so I waited with a dead bird in my hand for her dog to again arrive in my area then shouted the dog's name and threw the bird for it . The dog was used to me throwing stuff for him so he happily retrieved it back to the lady.
I continued to do this for the entire very busy drive and then sauntered back to the vehicles with no birds in my bag. The lady arrived 5 minutes later very heavily laden with birds and complained bitterly about what I'd done. I just said, "He loves it so much I thought I'd throw a few for him." She never poached in my area again !
That's etiquette for you.....
Wullie
