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DesO'Neile · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject:

Friday 11th July 2008

The Signal Centre.
Blustery. Cool.

The Hunt.

The Point. With optional "What the **** are you doing there?" look.

The Road.

The Flush.

As Gordon Ramsey would say,
“Hunt, point, road, flush. Done!”

Later.
I can't get the slide show to work here but you can see it by clicking today's date under Recent Posts on my site.
www.glencuanpointers.com

DesO'Neile · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject:

Saturday 12th July 2008

The Signal Centre.
Judy & Jalad.
Just to see if Judy could be enticed to point a pigeon in a bird launcher. She couldn’t.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject:

Sunday 13th July 2008

Black Mountain
SW 1 - 2. Bright & sunny. 16c. Dry.
Out about two and a half hours.
Chris.
Big dog got two runs. First was terminated after about twelve minutes when he was distracted by another dog walker comming back down the mountain. Up to then he had run hard and handled reasonably well. Second run was a full fifteen minutes with Roxy for about the last ten. It was heavy old ground and both dogs gave it a fair go. Chris was again running hard and he handled really well until just about the very last cast when he put in a “Danish” one.
Roxy, Judy & Bess.
Roxy’s first run was with Judy and they got a full fifteen minutes. Judy’s lines were much the better but they both covered a fair bit of ground. Judy and Bess had already had a full run with Judy doing the much better ground work but unable to match the pace of Bess, when she could be bothered. Roxy then had the run with Chris described above before Judy and Bess having another run in the heavy ground.
Ross reckoned Chris had had enough and he was happy with the big dog’s work so only the ladies had various periods of free running on the lond walk back to the car.
In this context free running means a whistle is only used to pick the dog up when finished. In all other respects, safety aside, thay can, and do do as they please. If they stop running they get picked up.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:

Monday 14th July 2008.

The Signal Centre.
10:00
Gina & Chris.
Both dogs on the same mission, perfection of the drop. Although there is five years between them both these dogs know exactly what is required of them, they just don’t want to comply. As The Warden says in Cool Hand Luke, ” What we have here is a failure to communicate.” This communication failure is being addressed from today. Chris will already stay down for thirty seconds. Gina still wants to return to the feet before dropping. We will just have to keep at it.

Black Mountain.
15:00. 21c Humid 1 - 2 WWSW. Bright but looking very like rain later.
Not the most exhilarating afternoon. Any dog that ran suffered for their efforts. Judy did some nice lines, Roxy kept going, Chris did some nice cuts when he could be bothered and Basso ran quite well. On the down wind back to the car each dog got free running to enable them to look for water. I did a bit of turning and dropping with Basso and he responded well.
Will just have to get at it again tomorrow. Rain permitting.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:03 pm Post subject:

Tuesday 15th July 2008

The Signal Centre.
09:00
Gina.
Just hoping for her to sort of run over the bird in the launcher. You could see something was interesting her but she only made a half hearted attempt to hunt it. She did drop when I triggered it and probably before I blew the whistle.

Black Mountain.
10:00
WWSW 1 - 3 15c Warn but dry.
Chris.
Fifteen minutes straight into the wind. Ross was quite pleased with the dog’s performance as her had every right to be. They ran out of ground and it was difficult to see a second run being of the same quality so that was enough. His cast was about adequet at the start but by the end it was just about perfect and Ross, probably without realising it, had set his beat so what handling there was was more reinforcing the turn after the event than real hard work. The only slight negative was a tendency to dwell on scent but then you never know what bitch in season has pissed on what clump of heather in the last twenty four hours.
Prepared to give him a bye ball on that. We were both rather pleased.
Roxy and Judy.
They also got about fifteen minutes and in all honesty it doesn’t get much better than what these two dogs did today. Certainly Roxy tends to run the ground whereas Judy runs the wind but they were both crossing in front of me so their patterns were constant. I also ran out of ground and I probably would have picked Roxy up if there had been a lot more open ground in front as she was failing but I was very pleased with the result.
Basso.
Basso gave me some good cuts but he was still pulled about by larks but at least his one dog mission to rid Ireland of them seems to have been modified to a desire to count the wee buggers. I seem to have control that I didn’t have before but then if I got a big open lark free space I don’t really know what would happen.
12:00
The Wee Res.
Basso & Gina.
Idea was that Basso would give Gina a clue about the bird. When we got there it looked like we had forgotten the transmitter ( it had actually fallen behind the rear seats) so I dizzied the bird but Basso buggered about with the result that the bird flew off before the dogs got near it. Hopefully we will get another go today.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:09 pm Post subject:

Thursday 17th July 2008
Black Mountain.
W 2 -4 11c Dull. Light Rain.
To save time Ross ran Chris over the hill and I watched till he was out of sight and then went a cast further up the hill and did a parallel beat.
Chris.
The big dog was up for it today and if he runs as well on Sunday for me I will be well pleased. Ross went as far as he could but by the time he was out of ground the dog had only been running for eleven minutes so he cut across the wind to meet up with me. The cooler temperatures and the day of rest all played their part in making this good day for all the dogs and Chris in particular. I decided since everybody was going so well to run them down wind back to the car.Chris ended up running for about forty five minutes and was still going strong at the end. I would say he is about 75% fit and looking it as well. What I saw was a dog doing nice lines at pace and turning when required. Ross said that while out of sight he continued in the same vein except for one longish cast and a bit of a hunt on a lark scent.
Roxy & Judy.
Not as even as the other day but they both ended up running for forty five minutes as well and still seemed to have plenty left at the end. Judy’s lines yet again were the better but Roxy’s overall performance was good and powerful for all that I felt she was running bit within herself.

Yesterday.
Decided to rest up the pointers so in the cold wind and rain Tam got a gallop round the reservoirs and he really enjoyed himself.
The second pigeon chick flew the nest yesterday spending most of the day on the garage roof but was back in he loft last night.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject:

Friday 18th July 2008

Black Mountain.
W 2 - 3. 14c. Dull & misty on high top.
We did this as a trial run and ran for twenty minutes straight into the wind. Judy was just Judy. Right left, right left,right left, flat, wide. Chris was more or less the same and apart from needing reprogramming in the middle he gave as good as he got. Over the whole twenty minutes they were equal but Judy had better lines in the good stuff but Chris was able to reel her in in the heavier stuff. Bring on those Co Monaghan grouse.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject:

Saturday 19th July 2008
The Practice.
Basso.
Basso is no dummy so I think I am going to have to put a lot more thought into running him at released birds. Once he realises there are birds about he just about ceases to run. I decided to release the birds at a range of about twenty yards to cut down on the noise and also to encourage him to work in to the releaser after the bird has gone. I have also decided not to blow him down when the bird is triggered.
The first bird was an unknown to him to he set off at great pace but the instant he crossed the scent cone he came on point a full sixty yards downwind of the bird. He worked in relatively smoothly to about fifteen to twenty yards and dropped totally unbidden when I triggered the bird. When asked he cleared his ground by roading in to the launcher where I made a big fuss of him.
I wasn’t really thinking and the second bird, although further up wind was nearer the car so more or less the instant he got out of the car he was on point. Again he dropped of his own volition and was made a big fuss of when he cleared his ground.
I then had to move ground to The Signal Centre. For the first time ever the launcher released in my hand as I was carrying it to plant it. Big shock I can tell you. I therefore decided to give him a run with no bird to hunt but the wee bugger knew that the Signal centre usually means birds and refused to leave my heel. I therefore did and bit of dropping and recalling.
Conclusion.
Basso has brains and in the context of using the launcher knows exactly what is going on. As I now know he will point, drop, clear his ground and back I don’t need to use the launcher with him again any time soon. Basso has also exhibited just about the longest nose of any pointing dog that I have owned and it is deadly accurate as well. The current banner headline shows him backing Chris. He is a good bit further from the bird and he is pointing more directly at it.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:57 pm Post subject:

Sunday 20th July 2008

Trial Day.
Co.Monaghan.
Chris & Judy.
Judy had two runs. The first was vintage Judy. She ran wide and flat and at a good pace for a small dog in high heather. She actually out quartered a slightly faster dog because she ran nice lines. In the second round she was running equally well. After about eight or ten casts as she was running from right to left she drew forward to check out a scent but went on her way. When she turned at the end of this cast and took a forward cast she was now about three casts further forward than when she crossed the centre of the beat and when she did hit the middle of the beat on the return leg she ran slap bang into a covey of five, side on.
Chris.
This was Chris’ first trial in Ireland. He did just about everything I asked. He handled beautifully, ran nice lines and hunted hard. He ended up having three full runs in the stake. Unfortunately in his third run he managed to get in front of a single young grouse from a split covey and was excluded. He would have been doing extremely well to take this bird. Later on we were asked to run again to make up a brace. He was down a gear by the end of this fourth run.

The Author with Toftens Chris (Orange & White) and Exile on Main Street.

DesO'Neile · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject:

Monday 21st July 2008

The Wee Res.
Chris & Gina.
Just a bit of dropping and recalling. Gina is quite sharp and Chris is good as well, as long as you keep on his case.