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.