ips
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2012
- Messages
- 15,642
Been dogging in daily since end of august.
Day 1 penrith
Had a day beating at penrith a month or so ago but forgot to write a report. Anyway it was a new estate for us and she did very well. Pegged a pheasant which got stuck against a fence so it wasnt her fault.
Day 2 garstang
Keeper very short on beaters but somehow we managed to put some birds over the guns and bag was 240.
First drive i was tasked with working up (blanking in) a sort of gorge with a stream at the bottom and bracken etc each side, eze worked this well. We end up at the side of a wood and keepers wife asked me to hunt out a large ish rhododendron thing, there was a lot of birds in the wood and they were moving about in clear view of eze. Somehow i managed to get her to ignore them and she entered the cover were pretty soon the whole thing erupted with birds that either moved forward deeper into the wood or flew over the guns, keepers wife looked over and i wasnt sure if this was a good thing so i said "happy ?" She replied "thats perfect ian" Now i aint one to sound my own trumpet but at the end of the drive she said and i quote "your dog is awesome" to say i felt proud of her would be an understatement. She ran down a very strong runner and caught it a foot or so off the ground, the retrieved it to hand perfectly.
Second drive keeper asked me to hunt a half acre or so of what i will call white grass, it ran between the wood were the other beaters were lined out and the guns. As it turned out there was nothing in there but she quartered very well and was compliant to turns and stops . When we got to the end i sat her up whilst many birds were flushed out of the wood over our heads, she was totally steady. At the end she retrieved another pricked bird .
Third drive was a bitch of a wood, at some points i was on my knees trying to get through the thick dense cover while maintaining control of miss pooch. Eventually it opened up and there some rides cut through. Keeper was next beater to me, no pressure then. Eze worked well but at one point she lost me and got disorientated taking 30 sec or so to find me as i repeatedly blew recall purely so she could follow the sound. This wasn't a bog off, i could tell by her body language on her return. A bit later sent her into thick rhodie and this was a mini bog off as she pushed through and i lost sight of her, big eruption of birds presumably went the right way and she returned. The one thing i am sure of is that if she boils over a bit and goes a tad too far she will return straight back to me once they have flushed . At the flush point only keeper and i are faced with twenty yards of cover up to the fenceline and hundred or so birds right in front. He says "we will nudge em out by sending our dogs in and recalling straight away and keep doing that until we nudge em all out"....this sounded a risky plan for me until i thought to myself, its only the same as hunting a hedgerow and i have been training that all year. So deep breath and i send her in, blow stop and recall after three yards just to prime her. We popped em in and out about twelve times and nothing bad happened. Retrieved a partridge.
Fourth drive i blanked up a stream similar to first drive then was acting as a flanker, problem was i had no flag. She was sat hup watching birds over the guns to our left, birds came out the wood so i raised my arms to try to turn them, she took it as a back command and legged it towards the guns, ignored recall but came back after a 30 sec jolly, no harm done, my fault.
So in conclusion a really good day keeper was happy enough and invited me back so i now have a mix of saturdays and tuesdays equalling about 15 days on this shoot this season. My calendar is now very full
Day 1 penrith
Had a day beating at penrith a month or so ago but forgot to write a report. Anyway it was a new estate for us and she did very well. Pegged a pheasant which got stuck against a fence so it wasnt her fault.
Day 2 garstang
Keeper very short on beaters but somehow we managed to put some birds over the guns and bag was 240.
First drive i was tasked with working up (blanking in) a sort of gorge with a stream at the bottom and bracken etc each side, eze worked this well. We end up at the side of a wood and keepers wife asked me to hunt out a large ish rhododendron thing, there was a lot of birds in the wood and they were moving about in clear view of eze. Somehow i managed to get her to ignore them and she entered the cover were pretty soon the whole thing erupted with birds that either moved forward deeper into the wood or flew over the guns, keepers wife looked over and i wasnt sure if this was a good thing so i said "happy ?" She replied "thats perfect ian" Now i aint one to sound my own trumpet but at the end of the drive she said and i quote "your dog is awesome" to say i felt proud of her would be an understatement. She ran down a very strong runner and caught it a foot or so off the ground, the retrieved it to hand perfectly.
Second drive keeper asked me to hunt a half acre or so of what i will call white grass, it ran between the wood were the other beaters were lined out and the guns. As it turned out there was nothing in there but she quartered very well and was compliant to turns and stops . When we got to the end i sat her up whilst many birds were flushed out of the wood over our heads, she was totally steady. At the end she retrieved another pricked bird .
Third drive was a bitch of a wood, at some points i was on my knees trying to get through the thick dense cover while maintaining control of miss pooch. Eventually it opened up and there some rides cut through. Keeper was next beater to me, no pressure then. Eze worked well but at one point she lost me and got disorientated taking 30 sec or so to find me as i repeatedly blew recall purely so she could follow the sound. This wasn't a bog off, i could tell by her body language on her return. A bit later sent her into thick rhodie and this was a mini bog off as she pushed through and i lost sight of her, big eruption of birds presumably went the right way and she returned. The one thing i am sure of is that if she boils over a bit and goes a tad too far she will return straight back to me once they have flushed . At the flush point only keeper and i are faced with twenty yards of cover up to the fenceline and hundred or so birds right in front. He says "we will nudge em out by sending our dogs in and recalling straight away and keep doing that until we nudge em all out"....this sounded a risky plan for me until i thought to myself, its only the same as hunting a hedgerow and i have been training that all year. So deep breath and i send her in, blow stop and recall after three yards just to prime her. We popped em in and out about twelve times and nothing bad happened. Retrieved a partridge.
Fourth drive i blanked up a stream similar to first drive then was acting as a flanker, problem was i had no flag. She was sat hup watching birds over the guns to our left, birds came out the wood so i raised my arms to try to turn them, she took it as a back command and legged it towards the guns, ignored recall but came back after a 30 sec jolly, no harm done, my fault.
So in conclusion a really good day keeper was happy enough and invited me back so i now have a mix of saturdays and tuesdays equalling about 15 days on this shoot this season. My calendar is now very full
Last edited by a moderator:
)
