The Signal Centre.
Another typical Wimbledon Week scorcher.
Ran the dogs about as much as is possible in a relatively small area before taking them near the bird. It shaped up well, Roxy pointing and Chris backing close by. The makings of a perfect picture, however the minute I went in front of them Chris was having none of it. There was something afoot and he didn’t want any. So it just had to be her, all by herself, alone with nobody with her. She wasn’t moving. I could have turned cartwheels and she wouldn’t budge and she was as steady as a rock on the flush, watching the bird away intently.
Gransha School.
Warm, 21.5c, but a bit muggy.
Didn’t work out as I wanted as even though this is a big area there has been so much rain and warm weather that most of the place is waist high. Luckily there was an area to the left of the drive that was just about doable.
I was wetting myself at first. I cast Basso off and he ran back to the drive and headed, I thought, to the road but just before exiting the gate he cut back into the grass and pointed.
Basso must trust me more that Chris, his Dad, and he didn’t mind me going in front of him.
Basso did everything perfectly here as you can see from the photos. I didn’t have to drop him, in fact I couldn’t get to the whistle round the camera, but it didn’t matter anyway.
It is difficult doing this sort of thig with Basso as he is anything but stupid. Of course it could be his nose that tells him what’s going on but he seems to have a road map to birds and unless you have a big area to hide the bird in, and do all the obvious stuff, like place the bird at one end of the field and drive round to the far end he more often than not is pointing once off the lead. As I said he’s a clever one but I think its his nose.
Later.
Took him to the Signal Centre. Complete and utter waste of time. Polished my shoes until we came to the bird, which he handled perfectly, dropping himself. Only after the bird was produced did he make any real effort to run. Won’t be doing this again with him any time soon, at least on his own.
The N.I. Country Lifestyle and Medieval Fair,
Shane’s Castle.
Lovely day, typical Wimbledon weather. Just about as good a game fair that I have attended in some time. Not the biggest by any means but the long fine spell mean the ground was in top nick and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. Took Basso and Chris as I had a bitch lined up for Chris on the way home. Couldn’t leave them all day in the car so I walked them about a bit, got some nice comments, and then left them back in the car to be able to have lunch in peace. Met Alan Neill, Godfrey McRoberts, John Christie and Frank McManus and the only bad news was that Davy Reid, Innistona, has had a mild stroke and isn’t too well.
Called at Larry lee’s on the way home and Chris did the business.It didn’t look as if the bitch was going to wear is at first but Larry and I repaired to the kitchen for a brew and in our absense the deed was done.The bitch is a sister of Misty, White Mountain Queen who was sired by Jump, Ir.F.T.Ch. Sugarloaf Bold. Judy, as she’s called is slightly more robust than Misty who was a very elegant bitch but very much a pound of washers in a velvet glove. There is nothing to suggest the pups will be anything other than good workers, and good lookers as well.
The Signal Centre.
Took BBD, Big Black Dog for a bird. Can’t post it now but eventually I will have it on uTube so I won’t be able to tell any lies.
The Signal Centre.
Ross and I took Chris and the Coco Monster to the Signal Centre for Chris to have a find and Coco to watch. The wind was ackward and we worked in an L shape. The long bit was about 150 yards and the short bit about sixty. We were working across the wind and then turned into it. Both dogs were off the lead and ran about until we turned the dog leg. There wasn’t much wind but the minute Chris turned into the wind he had the bird. As you all know the scent disperses the further you are from the bird and Chris was a bit vague at first but he eventually pinned the bird at about ten yards. Coc0 watched, after a fashion, but it wasn’t until the bird was released that he took any real interest. When I let him off he was quite excited and ran about obviously looking for the bird. The penny will drop I am sure but not completely for a while.
The Signal Centre.
Warm, 21.5c, & humid but for the first time in a while a breeze from the South.
To me this was as fascinating a session as I have been involved in in some time. I took Coco on his own to hunt for the pigeon.
First of all I searched for a place with just about sufficient cover to hide the launcher but low enough cover not to disrupt the scent cone unduly. I found a place about half the size of a tennis court and placed the launcher at the windward side so that the scent would drift down over the relatively smooth ground.
Coco isn’t the most confident on his own so I took him for a bit of a walk down wind and then made a U turn to head back towards the bird, into the wind. Coco would run out a bit, poke a round a bit, and run back. I would give him a pat and just stand there until he ran off again. No pressure was the idea. Several times when he came back he didn’t stop, he just ran on out the other side. On these occasions I said nothing. With a sensitive dog even praise can distract them and spoil what you want to do so mum was the word.
After about fifteen minutes of this we were fifty yards down wind of the bird. He was getting some sort of scent. He would put this nose to the ground and root around a bit. Pop his head up to, sort of, take the air and then put his nose to the ground again. This brought us forward another twenty yards. At this stage he got a definite draft of the bird but he veered off to the left, with his nose in the air. He ended up about ten yards upwind of the bird but by that time had lost the scent. I called him back and eventually he came back towards me and back into the scent cone. He immediately veered off to the right but was drawn towards the bird, at first by scent. I could see the expression on his face and he was really thinking about this scent. He was edging forward very slowly but by the time he was five yards from the bird he could see the launcher. The second he saw the launcher I triggered the bird. After a long two second delay it also triggered Coco and he took off after the bird but being new at this sort of thing he quickly lost sight of, and interest in the bird. He came back, nosed about the launcher, I gave him encouragement, rather than praise and put him on the lead.
This all augers well. He is beginning to have interest in scent and birds. I have moved him and Chris to the pen behind the garage and near the loft. Every time I go out I will taunt him with a pigeon. The first time I did it before I came in he looked with mild interest at the bird which I held up to the weldmesh so that he could nearly touch it through the wire. When I let it go he nearly came through the wire! Small acorns and all that jazz but I believe we are making progress.
Black Mountain.
13:01 hrs. 15c. Swirling mist and persistent but light drizzle.
An awful day for dog training but a perfect day for the first visit to the hill for ages. The plan was to try to run each dog for ten minutes and then a bit of free running back to the car.
Judy.
Looked every one of her eight years and only lasted five minutes.
Jalad.
Ran quite hard for eight minutes and handled reasonably well.
Roxy.
Ran for the full ten minutes and ran hard but she was running down, and slightly across, the wind and her lines weren’t good but she seemed in good form.
Chris.
Man of the Match.
Ran hard, ran excellent lines, and was really up for it and enjoying himself.
When we turned round for the down wind gallop to the car all the dogs improved and Chris put in a couple of casts, on good ground I’ll grant you, of the very best combination of pace and style.
Even Judy did well in the free running but as far as I’m concerned it’s the first run under control that counts. It is also true to say that the more running a dog gets the fitter it will become so both parts count, but not equally. In my book anyway.
Later.
Ross is now the Head Chef at The Wildfowler in Grey Abbey. The net result is that we have to do a lot of “Market Research”. Tonight we researched Cafe Essence on the Hamilton Road in Bangor. Langoustines, Rack of Lamb and Baliley’sCheese Cake with ice cream. This was serious research. Best meal I’ve ever had in Bangor. All this research required a constitutional so I took The Luckster to the Wee Res. He looks like a very sound pointer. He is relaxed and happy to be with me. I don’t have to call him to me I just hunker down and he come right in close. He won’t yet sit on command but it doesn’t take much to push him down.
The Signal Centre.
19:30. Bright & sunny, 19c, with breeze from south 2.
Chris and Coco.
I decided to show Coco what I wanted. I took the pair to an adjoining paddock and let Chris have a good gallop around. He was looking hard but I had him fooled. We then walked into the paddock where the bird was, a good hundred yards away. Chris hunted well, he even sort of quartered this relatively narrow piece of ground. I saw him drawing on the bird and let Coco off but I was too early. Before he had pointed Coco was jumping all over him and I had to put Coco back on the lead. Luckily Chris had lost track of the bird in the excitement so he cast about a couple of times and then he pointed the bird. I had Coco slightly behind him and to one side so that he could see the flush when it came. Coco was looking in the direction of the bird . He was standing up on his toes and looking hard,……..with his nose. To keep his concentration I clicked Chris in a bit more and triggered the launcher. Coco started when the bird flushed but he made no attempt to go in probably because I had the lead tight and I was blowing Chris’ drop whistle. It worked well and some progress was made.
Black Mountain.
20c. High cloud, dull. SE <>2.
Basso, Jalad & Judy.
Judy is a real trier and she was no different today. I got the ten minutes that I wanted even though she looked for water more than once, not that there was any. This is an improvement over her first outing but noting special, by Judy’s standards.
Jalad gave one of his most complete performances for some time. He covered a lot of ground, handled when required and was beauitfully flat. Only negative was he did it all in fourth gear.
Basso was easily the man of the match. This was his first outing and he only lasted eight minutes but in that eight minutes he was flat out. He was the one dog you would want to see again. He covered a lot of ground and was right across my toes. The hills around Black Mountain are the top of an artesian system and the ground is firm under foot and just the sort of place Basso was built for and today he made great use of the conditions and his own physique. Only negative was a tendency to false point which to me always comes when a dog is unfit.
When I say Basso only lasted eight minutes I didn’t actually pick him up. I just cast off the other two dogs and they all ran for another fifteen minutes back to the car each egged on by the other two.
The Pigeons are making a nest. I was down to four and released two more. The cock bird was knocking ten barrels out of one of them and likely to kill it and I got the impression he would start on the other soon too. In the event these two birds disappeared and probably just as well as this cock is a bit of a bastard but isn’t it interesting that the moment the pair are on their own they make a nest. It would be great if they produced this year and I will be very careful about where I use my birds if they do. Hopefully I will have pigeons this winter and more next year.
16:00 ish
The Signal Centre.
Coco & Chris.
Warm, 20c, sunny, wind still from the south 3>.
Same attack as last night. I kept Chris honest by relocating the launcher and giving him a lot less ground to work with round the bird. I let them both off together, in fact I let Coco off first to make sure he would never have to play catch up and it worked in that he didn’t give tongue but he was all over Chris and I picked him up before we got to the bird. Chris quartered the whole paddock which is just as well as he wouldn’t have got a chance at the bird if he hadn’t done all his ground. He had the bird well back which was good because each time Coco’s attention wavered I could get it back by sending Chris forward again. The dogs couldn’t see the launcher at the time that I triggered it and Coco just stood and watched the bird away and eventually sat, probably because Chris had.
20:30 hrs.
What a way to end the day. I took Coco on his own to the same ground as this afternoon. The whole thing was set up perfectly. It was still about 17c and we had a 2 -3 from the south. On a warm humid evening like this the scent cone would be heavily laden with scent. I have often had high expectations of dogs only to have them dashed but while my expectations for Coco had no foundation other than hope he has consistently proved his intelligence and natural ability with each new task. I just knew that he would do well at this and he proved me right. Everything just fell completely into place……well almost. I mismarked the bird again but I digress. I placed the launcher at the far end of the bigger of the two paddocks I have been using of late. It is hard flat ground with tall straggly shot rough grass. Great for hiding the launcher. I let him off straight away right at the car so as to give him as much time as possible to work to the bird. he ran about alright but as you would expect there was no pattern. We were about fifty yards down wind of the bird when one of those out of the blue things happened. You couldn’t write a libretto like this but just sometimes these things happen. He needed a pee. Now Coco comes from a long line of prodigious urinators. They could all have represented Ireland at peeing. Not only did Coco need a pee he needed it just exactly fifty yards down wind of the bird. The net result was that he stood steady right down wind of the bird for what seemed like hours but was probably less than 45 seconds. He started off hunkering down just like any pup but by the en he was up on his toes and he had the bird. He didn’t know what to do with the scent but there was no doubt he had it. When he finished he sort of cast about for the bird but that is where I got it wrong. I had reckoned that the launcher was a good fifty yards further on but when Coco pointed. Oh yes pointed, I was aghast to see the launcher a mere five yards in front of him. Almost in a panic, in case he drove in at the bird, I triggered the launcher. I fully expected wacky races but luckily the bird swung round behind me and Coco just swung round to watch it away. I blew the drop whistle and closed in on the dog to freeze him. He sat down. Boy did I do the praise big.I just hope nobody was watching they might have thought I was involved in bestiality but the dog liked it……………and boy did I like the dog. The Monster has had two chances to point and done it once. We’re one for two and that’s not big deal but Coco is quickly becoming adept at punching his considerable weight. I like my dogs the way Napoleon liked his generals, lucky! In fairness to The Coco Monster it’s a bit more than luck. It’s ability.
The Spelga Dam
Don’t know the direction of the wind but 3 -4. 20c. Bright but not sunny.
Went to the car park at the Kilkeel end of the dam. Wind was from an unusual direction so I went up the hill just beside the car park. I was walking up hill into the wind and the dogs were up and down the slope which must be 45 degrees going up from left to right. I set off intending to give Judy and Basso 15 minutes into the wind and they both did it quite easily but Basso was taking fifty yards more than Judy at the end of each cast and was still ahead of her at the end of the next. With the breeze it was cool enough for water not to be an issue and there was the odd small pool so they didn’t have to look too hard if they did want a mouthful. Judy had a find, well she pointed at least and I did see something away but couldn’t say for definite if it was a snipe. Basso backed her quite naturally.
Jalad got the the downwind beat which was down hill for me but he still had to contend with the steep slope. I thought he handled the down wind aspect quite well and he did just about the whole beat available,as had Basso, going right down to the fence at the bottom and I was turning him just before the skyline, far above. Jalad pointed, interestingly just about where Judy had, but he definitely didn’t produce anything. It sort of confirms that Judy may have had a snipe.
18:15 The Signal Centre.
Coco.
This is nearly getting too easy. Placed the launcher as far away as I could in the same paddock as last night. Coco looks to be more on a mission when I let him off now. He has no pattern but he is hunting after a fashion. I dropped him a few times before be got anywhere near the bird as much to calm him down as anything else. He pointed the bird at about twenty yards. He relocated across the wind, maybe a couple of yards but he had the bird.I walked up beside him, waited a short while and roaded him in a few yards where he pointed staunchly for another short while. As I triggered the launcher I blew the drop whistle and he sat, watching the bird away. I worked him in to the launcher, and let him hunt about a bit before putting him on the lead and going home for tea.
19:30
Used a different place this time and gave Coco a bit of a run around till he got down wind of the bird. Interesting in that this time he stood up on his toes but this was his least convincing find and whereas I don’t think he saw the launcher when he initially pointed by the time the bird flushed he could see it. It is quite pleaseing that he doesn’t show any inclination to chase.
Black Mountain.
17:00 Light drizzle, 16c (it didn’t feel it though), >2 SE.
Another bad training day but excellent getting fit day. With Ross along we were able to run them in pairs and save time.
Chris and Judy.
Chris ran just about as good as he ever has. He did great lines, even if they were at a strange angle to the wind, and had just about as much pace and style as you could ever need. Ross reckoned that it was his desire that was the difference. I would suggest that last year when we started he probably hadn’t been fully fighting fit for probably two years. Well last year he got plenty of work on a regular basis and he worked the whole shooting season. Net result is that even though he has been laid up for a number of weeks he has hit the ground running. Judy stuck to her task, was flatter across the wind than Chris but in the drive stakes didn’t count beside Big Dog.
Jalad & Roxy.
They did a heap of ground, handled well and had good pace but Chris’ efforts made them look rather ordinary.
The two pairs got fifteen minutes each and then we had maybe twenty minutes down wind back to the car and Chris was still going a bomb.
Pigeons.
What a 24 hours. First of all my my cock bird that had been so useful didn’t come back last night. As he is usually in the loft before I get back home I reckoned he was done for. When he hadn’t returned this afternoon I let the hen out to see if she would return. No sooner had I let her out than the cock landed on the shelf at the door. So when I left to go to the mountain I had no pigeons as the cock wouldn’t go back in without the hen. I arrive home with more pigeons, cheepers, to find the hen sitting on an egg. I put the cheepers in and the next thing the hen has gone, she can get through the bob wires and one of the cheepers has gone because the cock is back in and terrorising the new birds and the cheeper got out through the bob wires as well. If she would get back on her nest I would close them in for a spell to let things settle down.
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