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The
shooting season is drawing to a close now, and I am
beginning to make plans to resume Lottie’s regular
training sessions. Over the last few weeks Lottie
has had some more practice carrying game with no
problems. She has accompanied me twice now on shoot
days and though I made some mistakes, she
has done every bit as well as could be expected.
Lottie's first shoot
day
On
Lottie’s initial outing, I left her in the vehicle
for the first couple of drives. I then brought her
out to sit with me behind the guns, on a drive
where I knew I could return her immediately to the
car if she made a noise. She sat quietly throughout
the drive, with a couple of birds falling no more
than ten yards from her. Although I had her on the
lead as a precaution, she showed no signs of
unsteadiness and watched the ‘goings on’ keenly
without overexcitement. At the end of the drive
she remained at heel whilst my cocker Meg picked up
several birds. I was feeling pretty pleased with
her and with myself.
The next drive was a
little further from the vehicle but in light of her
behaviour I decided to keep Lottie with me again,
and set off for my position with the guns. Just
before the drive commenced however, I was sent a
message from my husband, asking me to join the
beaters (who were short of dogs), and to work my
cocker along the edge of the drive where a thickly
brambled strip usually results in some good flushes
for the guns positioned towards the side of the
drive. I had to make a split second decision as to
whether or not to take Lottie with me or return her
to the vehicle (which would involve keeping everyone
waiting) before joining the beaters. Lottie has
watched Meg working before with no problems, so I
decided to keep her with me. This was my first
mistake.
The
bramble strip was unusually productive that day.
Meg made flush after flush. She works nice and
close, and many flushes were just feet from
Lottie. Some were shot, some flew on. Lottie
began to ‘dance’ just a little with excitement at
heel. Still no noise, but I was becoming more and
more aware that a squeak could be forthcoming at any
moment. It seemed to take forever to reach the end
of the bramble strip. As we neared the end of the
drive I was about to heave a sigh of relief when the
beaters to my left, reached a pond and a dozen or
more ducks flew just feet above our head before
climbing up and over the guns. This was too much
for Lottie and she gave a small but definite squeak
of excitement. Inevitably she was also rewarded by
the sight of several ducks being shot. Furthermore
Meg as the only dog nearby, then had to be sent to
retrieve a runner. I sat Lottie behind me and
concentrated on Meg. This was my second mistake.
Meg had no need of my assistance, and as she
returned to me Lottie disobeyed my ‘hup’ command and
moved towards Meg as she came in with the bird. I
sat Meg at a distance with the bird in her mouth and
re-seated Lottie, who was now very excited, before
taking delivery from Meg. Not completely
disastrous but altogether not what I had planned and
not at all satisfactory
We need to practice
Lottie has had lots of
practice ‘honouring’ other dogs retrieving and
delivering dummies, and in the past I have found
this sufficient to ensure satisfactory ‘honouring’
in the field. But clearly the live duck was of much
higher value to Lottie, and she had not generalised
her training on dummies in this respect. I have
now frozen a number of extra gamebirds so that we
can practice honouring another dog delivering
birds, before attempting this on a shoot again. It
shouldn’t be a problem to sort this out.
Lottie's second shoot
day
Lottie’s second outing
was very different. This time, I made it clear to
‘all’ that I was not available for other duties
whilst Lottie was with me. Again I chose a drive
where she could be returned immediately to the
vehicle if she made a sound or became overexcited.
I left Meg in the vehicle so that I could
concentrate on Lottie. She behaved well. She was
quiet and interested and reasonably calm throughout.
She also paid a lot of attention to me, often
looking at my face to see if I was going to give her
something to do. At the end of the drive I
returned Lottie to my vehicle and brought Meg out to
pick up. I had left my other adult dogs at home for
the reasons set out below.
So, although our first
outing was a bit of a mess, I think we have
recovered without any long term effects. And on the
bright side, my efforts on stopping noise, spinning
and general overexcitement in the car seem to have
paid off. Lottie made no sound at all in the
vehicle all day, despite the excitement of hearing
shooting etc all around her. I am very pleased with
this.
Sitting and watching is
probably all Lottie will be doing on driven days this year,
I feel that any retrieving at this stage would
compromise her steadiness and might lead to noise.
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