7th December

It was a freezing cold morning with a freezing fog. The temperature gauge in the jeep was reading minus 3 but it was nice and dry.

I brought the 3 dogs (Ben my 10yr old English Setter, Tyson my 6yr old springer dog and Molly) and we headed off about 10am to Donnells. We went into the first bit of wood with Ben and Tyson and I put in Tyson and straight away he had a cock up. My friend fired but he was out a bit far and didn’t get him. We rose about 4 woodcock in that part of the wood but got no shots (they are tricky feckers). We hunted all the ditches and in another bit of wood Ben went into the deep cover and there was no sign of him. We went around the outside of the wood trying to find him but no sign of him. Tyson started trailing hard at one point and burst into the wood and a nice cock pheasant came out over the wood to us. I fired first and missed him then my friend fired twice and missed and I fired again and got him as he was going back in over the wood into the heavy cover. Tyson went in after him and after a few minutes he came out with the cock. A lovely retrieve. At this stage there was still no sign of Ben. We decided to go back to the car and put away Tyson and go back to look for Ben. When we got back to the car there was Ben lying on the grass beside the trailer having a snooze HA HA HA. When he couldn’t find us he doubled back to the car and knew we would turn up at some stage. It saved us having to go back looking for him anyway ha. You can't beat experience ha ha ha.

Went over to another farm then to where there are strips of rushes, and hunted Molly (who is in heat as of today). There was only a few snipe in the rushes and they got up wild. Molly was pulling out a lot today. I was not happy with her pattern at all. Will have to put in some work with her on that. Maybe it was the impending heat. We'll see!!!

We stalked up on apond in the corner of the field with Molly dropped about 20 yards back. As we got up to it I could see 2 teal on the water. We moved in and between 10 and 15 teal flew up. I shot 2 and my friend got one. Molly was steady to the shot and falling duck. I went back to where she was and sent her for the 3 duck and she picked 2 from the field and one off the water nicely. Great training.

We then went to another pond beside a ruined castle/house and again dropped Molly and walked in. 2 teal went out for my friend and he winged one that glided out over the field and came down and took off running. I ran round and brought Molly with me and lined her up for her first ever runner. At this stage the duck was gone a good 150 - 200 yards down the field. She went back about 80 yards and started to hunt so I sent her back again. After about 4 back casts she picked up the line of the duck and followed it down the field. As she closed in, the duck took off again half running and flying and she chased it down and brought it back. A really nice long retrieve. We headed for home then with 4 teal duck and pheasant. Two happy hunters and 3 happy dogs.

It was a good day out with some nice retrieving.

30th November 2008

Out on Sunday morning for Molly's second trial run by the English Springer Spaniel Club of Ireland on Oilean Mor in the middle of Lough Derg on the river Shannon. It was a beautiful clear morning but very cold with a widespread frost and icey roads. After the short trip over on the ferry to the island the trial got under way. It was my first time on the island but straight away I could see that there was going to be a LOT of game in this trial.

The plan was to hunt fields of game crops and weed cover for the trial. From the very beginning the abundance of game was having an effect on the novice dogs. I was running no.7 and by the time it came time for my run several dogs had been put out. Some for moving on flush and others for 1st dog down on retieves.

For my run I started in an area of knee high kale with a lot of weed through it. The judge advised me to take my time as the birds were sitting tight in the cover. We were hunting up a slight hill with a slight cheek wind from the right. Molly set off at a good pace and was hunting nicely. Staying in under the kale and not bouncing over it which I was pleased with. After about 2 minutes we had to stop for about a minute while the other line caught up. When we resumed Molly continued hunting well and it was obvious that the amount of scent on the ground under the kale had her really fired up. About 150 yards into our run she had a really good positive find on a single partridge. The bird struggled to get out of the kale and flew off low barely above the kale tops. The left gun shot the partridge and Molly was away after it. Feck it anyway!  She stopped after about 10 meters but that was the end of our run.

I was disappointed to get put out like that as she is usually good on the flush. I think that had it been a strong cock pheasant that explodes with lot of noise out the kale and away strongly she would have been ok. But the combination of game scent and the struggling partridge was too much for her. On the positive side I was happy with the way she hunted. She did a nice pattern with good pace and was in under the cover and not popping over it. I know what I have to work on over the next few weeks also. Its all part of the learning curve for the two of us.

It was a very enjoyable day all the same and the two dogs that got the awards at the end of the day were definitely the outstanding dogs on show. The winner produced a brillant retrieve on a running hen in her first run and hunted with loads of pace and drive.

Back to the drawing board for now but roll on the next one. 

22nd November 2008

On Saturday morning I took Molly out for a run in a farm that runs close to the river Suir and has a large area of young Ash tree plantation with a nice covering of brambles, whitegrass and ivy on the floor. I took the gun along in case a chance of a shot presented itself. There was a strong breeze blowing a lot of misty rain blowing from time to time.

I cast Molly off into the wind and she started off somewhat half hearted and I was getting frustrated with her in the first few minutes. Then she stopped to empty herself and after that she found the gear box and started to motor nicely. I concentrated on keeping her close and flowing from side to side. She loves to get in under the brambles. We then crossed a drain in to mature area of pine trees with an ivy bottom and in the nice open ground she was really flying and doing a decent pattern. In amoung the tree though she sometimes lost sight of me and stopped a few times to look for me. I had to concentrate hard and move swiftly to try and stay in her peripheral vision as much as possible.

As we emerged from the pine plantation an into some more open ground a pigeon flew high over me and I shot it. Molly was in the middle of some bramble so didn't mark the fall. She was steady to the shot though. The pigeon fell into light cover on the far side of a small drainage trench about 35 yards away. I set Molly up and sent her for the blind. She took a line to the right of the fall and when she was out far enough I dropped her and waved her left towards the area of the fall. She started to hunt an area short of the fall so I dropped her again and gave her another left signal and she got into the fall area and found the pigeon fairly quickly and retrieved it nicely to hand. She is taking direction very well at the minute. Long may it continue.

We continued hunting in an arc back towards the car and Molly's pace stayed well up for the entire time which was very pleasing. She is very fit at the minute and looking strong. We were out for about 45 minutes in total.

There is a trial on next Sunday that I have entered. I hope to hear today if we managed to get a run. Fingers crossed.

18th November 2008

On Sunday I took Molly out for a couple of hours rough shooting. The plan was to get some clear flushes and shots and hopefully a retrieve or two for her. The area we chose to hunt was an area of rushes that always contains a good head of Snipe.

I made a big mistake though and without thinking started hunting the area in the wrong direction with the wind coming behind us. Don't know what I was thinking. Not thinking at all more like! This caused Molly to pull further forward and work the gound back to me. As the Snipe are 'jumpy' at the best of times here we ended up flushing a lot of birds too far out as they were getting up well out in front of the dog who was hunting well out anyway to take account of the following wind. I soon saw the error of my ways and we changed direction. Molly started to hunt much closer and we got 2 nice flushes as a result. On the first I was not concentrating on the dog and was focused too much on the shooting and Molly moved a bit on the flush. I corrected her and the next bird I concentrated on her and she was steady while my friend fired at the low departing Snipe.

In the next field of high rushes and dryer ground we started to hunt and Molly had a great find and flush on a Woodcock in the middle of the field. I wasn't expecting a woodcock to be out in the middle of field like that. Luckily I was on the mark this time and the Woodcock folded on the first shot. Molly marked the fall easliy in the open ground and retrieved well. At that stage the rain was really pouring down so we decided to call it a day.

This was a bit of a mixed day. I was not happy with my own performance, as first hunting the wrong way for the wind and then making the error of concentrating on shooting Snipe and not on the dog. However, I was happy that we got a few nice flushes of Snipe and also a good find on the Woodcock and nice marked retrieved. I will be more disciplined in future. There is another trial coming up at the end of the month that I have entered and I would like to get plenty of work done for that. I might bring Molly to work with me one or two days in the trailer as there is nice ground along the river Shannon beside my office that I can do some work in.

I'll report back soon.

5th November 2008 - 1st Trial

Nice bright sunny day in Shelton Abbey, Arklow Co. Wicklow for the Working Spaniel Club of Ireland Novice Spaniel Trial.

For my first run I was in a wood with lots of briars, ferns, laural bushes etc. After getting instructions from the judge I had just taken the lead off Molly when 3 rabbits flushed from the other side of the line and one went flying past us and was shot. After the other dog retrieved that rabbit, the guns said they had another one down to the right. Judge said he would give me that retrieve. I thought, SHITE, Molly has never had a fresh shot rabbit and we will be out before I get the lead off. He told me to hunt a small bit to settle the dog and then brought me over to retrieve. He gave me a good mark to the rabbit and I lined Molly up and sent her. She went straight as an arrow back and picked the rabbit and back to me like an old pro. I was very relieved. We hunted on then and with all the game scent in the cover Molly was flying into the heavy cover. We had a couple of flushes on pheasants but in the heavy cover the guns could not get a clear shot. Coming to the end of the run the judge who knew it was my first trial told me to be careful now as there was a mass of birds against some wire just in front of where we were. Molly made a drive in and flushed one bird at the front of a briar patch and was steady. Then all the birds erupted from behind her. She was already sitting at this stage and she never moved. Through to the second round. This trialing is easy HA HA HA.

I was last to go in the second round. The area was open ground with big lumps of thick briar scattered all over the place. The judge said to just wander around from clump to clump and let her work them out. The first one she went into she was obviously on something and she made a bust and caught a hen that had been shot earlier and ran on from other dogs. It had a broken wing. It was Molly’s first retrieve of a fresh shot pheasant and it was flapping and wriggling in her mouth but she brought it back like she was doing it for years. We hunted on and came to one big clump of briars that was full of birds. She burst into the middle of it and about 10 pheasants came out together. She was steady in the middle of the briars and one hen was shot. He brought us over and the bird was dead in the middle of a load of furs that was behind a bank of briars. Try from here the judge told me so I sent her a few times and she was going into the briars but not far enough back. After a couple of tries from there he took me a bit further to the left and said have one go from here. I sent her back and just as she went into the briar she winded the pheasant and went back and got it and out through the briars back to me. Thank God.

We have just survived our first trial. Plenty of flushes and 3 retrieves (2 blind). I was very happy. 

3rd November 2008

The weekend just gone was the start of the pheasant shooting season here in Ireland. Great excitement in the build up to it. Over this weekend I hoped to get Molly retrieving pheasants for the first time. We got a pheasant on the 1st (saturday) and that evening when I got home I dropped the pheasant for Molly and sent her to retrieve it. She went straight out. Sniffed the bird and picked it up. I recalled her straight away and she delivered it nicely to hand. I tried it again at a greater distance and again she picked and brought it back to hand. I put her up for the night happy.

The following day we got another pheasant and that evening I brought it home and placed it on the ground for Molly again and sent her. She ran out, tried to pick it up but as it was a bit bigger and heavier than the previous bird she was having difficulty getting a grip on it and was starting to get confused as to what to do. As I was tired after the 2 days hard hunting my patience were not up to sorting this out on the spot so I put her up for the night and will try again this evening when we are both fresh.

Yesterday I took her out for her first live hunt also. We went to a wooded area with open areas and bramble patches. At first she was a little reluctant to get really stuck into the bramble but after getting a bit of scent she was off like a flying machine tearing the brambles apart. She flushed a rabbit and was steady to the stop whistle. She was also steady to the double shot my friend fired at the departing rabbit. Lucky for the rabbit it was a very difficult shot and he escaped to live another day. We hunted on and a cock flushed wild from a corner we were heading towards. When we got there and Molly got the scent of the pheasant she seemed to gain an extra 2 gears. She was really flying through the cover and getting in under the brambles. I was very happy with her hunting performance.

This wednesday she will be going to her first trial. I hope to have the pheasant retrieving sorted before then. I will report back on Thursday and write about how we got on.

28th October 2008

On Saturday morning I took Molly out to a boggy area in which I had met a good few Snipe the previous week. I had a friend with me who kindly agreed to shoot for us. The plan was to get Molly hunting the bog for Snipe and to ensure she was steady to the flush and shot during the session. The morning was very very windy which we hoped would help the Snipe to sit tight in the rushes. We started hunting into wind and Molly started off with good pace and power. Covering her ground well although she was tending to be a bit right sided in her pattern. I was able to correct this by turning her a little sooner on the right and not blowing a turn whistle at all on the left of her beat. She soon flushed a Snipe and was steady to the flush and the subsequent shot from my friend. However, with the very strong wind the shooting was going be very difficult. We progresses up and down the bog and had about 3 flushes and shots all of which Molly was rock steady to and she was marking the birds away nicely. On the final stretch following a good flush a Snipe was knocked (excellent shot given the strong wind conditions). Molly remained steady and following a pause on the drop I sent her back for the bird that she did not see falling. She went out nice and straight towards the ditch that the bird fell beside and was tending to pull left towards some cover when I wanted her to get out to the right. After a couple of attempts she took the right direction and got into the fall area and started to hunt. She made a drive into a clump of rushes and up went the Snipe and away across the adjoining field and out of our area.

I was very happy with the way Molly hunted today and she kept up a good pace from start to finish. She was 100% steady to the flush and shot also I was able to get her into the right area for the wounded Snipe (a good 50m blind retrieve). All in all it was a very successful training exercise and hopefully I will get a retrieve on a pheasant when the season opens here next Saturday. We are entered in a Novice Trial on the 5^th November so we have a lot of work to do in a short space of time. I am confident though that we will get on ok and not disgrace ourselves anyway.

23rd October 2008

The weather here in Tipperary has been shite the past few days and I am looking out the window now at rain coming down in sheets. I hope we get a bit of respite for the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend.

Last night it was raining also and very dull so I didn't get much time out with the dogs. I stayed in the garden and did some steadiness training. Walking Molly at heel and throwing a tennis ball in front of her. Then doing the same when she is quartering. She 100% steady to this now and I can throw any object and get the same solid reaction. I then sat her up and lobbed dummies, tennis balls, pheasant wings etc. all round her and she was 100% steady to everything. I called her in and she ignored all the temptation and came back to me. I then picked all the objects myself except 2 tennis balls and give her the 2 retrieves of these.

Last weekend while training in a local bog I met a good few Snipe with Molly so this Saturday I am going back there again and bringing my friend with me to do some shooting. The plan is to try and recreate a trial situation on the Snipe and get some flushes followed by a shot and hopefully a retrieve or two as well. All gearing up to getting her ready for a Novice Trial or two in November. I will report back on Tuesday as to how we got on and hopefully post some pictures also.

21st October 2008

Its been ages since I last posted on this training diary. I have gotten very lazy in my posting but I am back now with renewed enthusiasm (I hope). 
well it has been a great year with my Spaniel Molly. Both of us have learned so much and come a long way. Over the summer I ran her in 3 Working Tests here in Ireland. The first was in my local club North Tipperary Working Spaniel Club. I was very nervous that day I can tell you and I think it spilled over onto Molly also. It was a very enjoyable experience all the same and we made some new friends and received lots of advice. Following on from that I went to a few training sessions with one of Irelands best Spaniel Handlers Pat Brennan. The advice and encouragement he has given me over the summer has helped and improved us no end. Our second Working Test (novice) was run by the Clodagh Valley Gundog Club. I was less nervous this time following the training classes. There was a big improvement in both Molly and my performance. At the end of the run the judge complimented us on our progress. 
The final Working Test we entered was the National Working Test (novice) held at the National Game Fair in Birr Castle and run by the English Springer Spaniel Club of Ireland. The organiser Larry Taaffe is another person who was very helpful to me in the early days of Molly's training (and mine). Our run in this test went very well with a hunt up in very bare ground, a blind retrieve following a drop to shot, further hunt up with a long marked retrieve and another hunt followed by a marked water retrieve. After our run I felt we had done well after picking all our retrieves and hunting a decent pattern. I was delighted at the awards presentation to hear that we had received 3rd place. The feeling of joy and satisfaction I felt matched anything I every felt on the Hurling or Rugby fields. I am hooked! 
I have now send off entry forms to a couple of novice trials coming up in November so hopefully we will get a run in a few before the end of the season. I can't wait. I will try and post more regularly over the winter and will definitely report back on any trials we manage to get a run in.