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.