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.