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.