|
|
|
did train reasonably well after this and became a field trial champion on the west coast a couple of years later.
It was early November when the formal shooting parties began to arrive. By this time Stylo was in France, Rocky was not ready to be put in a field with hundreds of pheasants running and flying about, so Stat was the only dog I could take out on these shooting days. This first year we were doing formal shooting about 3 days a week. In following years the formal shooting was almost every day. This would have been difficult with just one young dog to work. A few days formal shooting a few days of informal rough shooting was ideal for both Stat and
me that first year.
I will probably always remember the first drive I worked Stat on. The beaters worked through a field of kale, driving pheasants towards a conifer wood where the pheasants roosted at night. Seven or eight guns stood just before the wood and shot the pheasants as they flew over. If you hadn't seen this sort of thing before you would not believe the number of pheasants that could come from a field of kale. Literally hundreds of pheasants flew from that field on that first morning of driven shooting. No dog had to go far without flushing birds.
Birds were flying everywhere. It was easy to see why you didn't go chasing after a spaniel tracking foot scent. For the drives to work properly the beating line had to maintain strict discipline. If you started to get ahead of the line you stopped the dog and waited for the line to catch up. It was a great test of a dog's mental stability. Even though Stat was running as hard as any top American trial dog he didn't go crazy, but took the whole situation in his stride very well. When the drive was over the dogs were worked behind the guns to pick up the birds that
had been shot during the drive. Flushing and retrieving were two completely separate jobs during driven shooting.
The best marked retrieving work was during duck flighting. Presaddfed had the shooting rights to several duck "pools" scattered about the locality. These were anything from a small pond to a glorified mud puddle. The gamekeepers fed them with barley every few days. At dusk we would take the guns to one of these pools. As wild ducks came in to feed the guns would have a go at them. If it was a quiet evening the ducks would often circle the pool before deciding whether or not to cup their wings and come in to land. On stormy nights they were less
cautious. We would shoot until after dark. Depending on the number of ducks coming in and the ability of the guns we would usually come back with 6-12 ducks. The best flight I ever attended 5 or 6 guns came back with 50 ducks and had walked away from the pond while ducks were still coming in well after dark. Stat didn't have a clue on his first experience flighting. The first duck shot I had to throw a stone to show him where it fell. After a few retrieves he started getting the hang of things. Soon I'm sure he was getting a rush of adrenaline when he heard the wing
beat of ducks off in the distance just as I was. It was a great way of teaching a dog to work things independently. Often you
Page 6 |
|
|
Copyright © Spaniel Journal 2002, all rights reserved |
