DesO'Neile
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Pinning.
I was looking through my photo album and I found this picture of Freckles ( Lagopus Tracy ) pointing grouse on Barnside. The red dot is where the grouse eventually flushed from. The fact that she ended up in this position is only half the story. The wind is coming from the left. She is standing with her back feet in the short heather and her front feet in the long stuff pointing accross the wind. That's how close to the edge she is. She pointed first about forty yards away in the heavy stuff to the right. She then worked up to the edge of the high heather and as you can see there is a comparitively fresh burn to the left with heather only an inch or so high. If ever there was a time for a bird to flush it is when it runs out of cover. She didn't pinpoint it right away she hunted around a bit, but Freckles was a wiley old bitch and eventually "pinned" her bird.
Just where the near horizon slopes down to the left hand edge of the picture is the boundary wall. You can see the light coloured gable of a barn in the far distance. The car was parked just over the wall and the camera was in the boot of the car. Freckles pointed, I walked to the car, opened the boot, walked back, exposed about a roll of film. Stood and watched her for a minute then clicked my fingers and the bird was in the air.
That's pinning.
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Mike
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Des,
Is that a "skill" that a dog can "learn" or does it come hard wired? Are many dogs able to pin their birds or is it just a rare few?
Great picture BTW.
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DesO'Neile
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I have had to change my views on this. At first it seemed that some dogs pointed very early and it was always those dogs that turned into pinners. Lately I have noticed that nearly all my dogs that have been given the opportunity to point early turn into pinners, though not to the skill level of Freckles. She could pin a bird on a dinner plate. When I start with young dogs I dizzy the birds so the dog can get right up close to the bird and maybe even lift it. Once they are staunch I use the releaser and this teaches distance so all in all I reckon a dog can learn to pin.
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