missing gundog work
January 28th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Found this photo from our trip to Jersey at Xmas and realised I hadn’t posted it. You can see the crescent moon in the sky (top left), even whilst the sun sets.
I thought of that photo because I was thinking about ‘environment’ and ‘landscape’. Bit of a tenuous link perhaps, but…
A few days ago I took Slate out to what we call ‘Bluebell Woods‘. We entered a field and I saw several pheasants fly, from further down the field.
As we approached that spot, Slate came onto a fantastic point. Which she held for about 3-5 seconds and then she rode in. This put up a further bird. She sat to whistle.
But the point isn’t what happened, which was by no means remarkable in any way. The point is that I realised that I’ve been missing all this.
There is something very ‘real’ about gundog work; very unpredictable. You can’t know what you will find when you go out, nor exactly what situation you’ll find yourself in, in what sort of cover. The dog has to show a lot of initiative in figuring things out, for herself.
And then there is an awareness of the environment which is fostered in you: Watching the landscape; noticing the wind direction; identifying likely looking patches of cover; listening for birds flushing or calling; observing your dog’s responses. It has the excitement of exploring. And it puts you in touch with nature and makes you feel part of the natural world.
This morning, I should have gone out with Slate to practise search squares and sendaways, for working trials. But the prospect of standing in a field and being concerned about the secure-hold-of-a-paperclip or the straight-line-to-a-plastic-cone just wasn’t appealing.
Just as spending the last entire week having two clicker sessions a day on ‘Hold’ (without mouthing, for several seconds) has been bloody boring to say the least. In fact, the only part of the working trials stuff I’m enjoying is the tracking. Perhaps because it does have that greater involvement with the environment and the landscape, and the same complete dependency on the dog’s natural abilities.
So I took Slate out hunting instead today. We didn’t find anything, but whistle recalls and sit whistle are still securely in place.
Next weekend is another monthly working trials training day. If Slate’s lump gets the all-clear, I could take her. But do I want to?
