Martha taking the role of a gundog

 We don't do character checks in the UK (yet) but it did get me thinking about how a days beating on a shoot with a dog is a real test of character.
On small shoots you will sometimes get children, some are as young as 18 months milling around at the start and finish but often messing around with the beating sticks.
The dogs cannot be gunshy, but they also have to accept that people have either flags that they wave or they have sticks which they use and bang on trees.
Dogs have to be very obedient, they have to have perfect recall, it only takes one badly behaved dog to ruin a drive.
On Saturday we travelled between drives in a landrover, Martha had to jump into the vehicle  (which is a fair height) into a space that she could sit in, but not turn round in, 4 adults and 1 dog is a squash to say the least, you just about get the door shut.
Martha has to deal with barbed wire, fences,gates, electric fences, cattle grazing, and normally running deer. Martha also has learnt patience, as you can stand in the rain for 20 minutes waiting for the guns to be ready.
Martha is a pleasure to take on the shoot, she has a good range and will always return on the whistle, she flushes the birds well and once flushed she will return to the cover.
She knows that the horn sounding means the end of the drive, and she emerges to locate us. I have to admit that on Saturday I was very pleased with her, as after one drive she was walking at heel, and then suddenly she turned and went back to the hedge we had passed, she froze at the hedge with her head down so we thought we should take a look......it was a young partridge sat there, not injured just hiding in cover. A clever girl who has been allowed to think for herself, my sort of dog. She didn't flush it, nor try and retrieve it, she just told us it was there......and the partridge will live to tell the tale of its encounter with a Barbet.

A brown barbet flushing

Okay so you can see my shadow, but on the shoots I go to with Bepop I am very used to black dogs, not only Bepop but also black labs and black spaniels, its a common colour for a working dog.
Taking a brown dog put another dimension to my day as  he was easy to hear in the undergrowth, but not so easy to spot.
In true barbet style he found water. Although Bepop is by far the worse for finding the dirty disgusting bog/water/puddle/poo I can also say with 100% accuracy that the barbets that have attended shoots with me are driven to water, a break from flushing on a drive but hey these are supposed to be a breed working on water, so its a good break and I am chilled about their deviance most of the time. One of my fondest memories of this season was losing sight of Bepop, and then spotting four black legs waving in the air as she did a bit of breakdancing in a muddy puddle, she was reprimanded for this behavior as she should know better, but luckily on the same shoot she managed a fantastic retrieve on a runner and her deviance was soon forgotten.
The photo is Novaforesta Eton blending well with the forest background  

Bepop and a Sunday training day

I mustn't be too hard on Bepop, but we had a training day on Sunday, the company was good, the weather was ok, my gundog was not in the mood!. I can explain why. An early start in the morning, wellys in the van, flask of coffee, and a solitary dog sets the scene for a shoot day in Bepops head, strengthed by the fact we started training by a ride in a trailer with the normal mix of labs and spaniels.Its getting better in Bepops mind, a line of beaters, and  gunfire. On a positive note, I did some brilliant blind retrieves, whilst Bepop hoovered the forest looking for birds. The trainers on the day, were fantastic and all offered advice, and the standard of the spaniels and retrievers, I was  impressed.After a hearty lunch, the sun came out and a stubble field saved the day. Whether it was the fact that she could hear me saying how good the other dogs were, she certainly watched the others doing beautiful retrieves, she had an open field and thankfully clear vision, no need to put her nose to the ground, she was marking the dummies....phew, after 5 hours Bepop was back as a gundog, and the day ended on a good note. I wish I had more time for Bepop and training, but you make the best of what you have.