Getting tougher all the time!

"That was a pretty tough lesson you gave us to learn last time" I said, pitching up for our latest 'training-the-bestest-gundog' session.

"Oh? What was that?"

"The one where he has to learn to go for the pheasant he hasn't seen rather than the one he has seen" I replied.

"What was the difficulty?" asked our trainer.

"He was alright going off for the dummy he'd seen but got confused when I stopped him halfway and sent him out for something he hadn't seen drop" I said.

"No Wonder!" exclaimed our trainer "You were meant to let him see the 'dropped' dummy but then send him first in the direction where you'd hidden the other dummy which he hadn't seen and when he'd got that, then send him off to fetch the one he had seen."

"Ohhh" said I

"No wonder the poor chap was confused - you were teaching him the difficult way round, which you would have moved on to once he'd mastered the easier way."

"Ohhhh" said I

"Full credit to him that he actually did finally get the hang of it"

"Ummm" said I

And then it was off to the lakes for serious water-retrieving. Seriously deep water but the dog didn't know that...... We cured his new-found tendency to drop the dummy and shake all over us.. well, mainly the trainer.... "Not a good idea" said that person... (the deep water was a lot wetter?): my instruction was that as soon as he picked the dummy up in the water I was to whistle him home and then stride quickly away from the lake. This had the desired effect: seeing me leaving, Gunner (a) swam a lot harder to the bank and (b) forgot all about shaking dry in his haste to catch up with me. A couple of times doing that and he was cured of shaking first! Quick to learn, that dog....

So we moved on to the next lesson. I'd taken along a baby rabbit which we'd found dead in our orchard in the early morning.

"Ah" said the trainer "in that case we'll also take this dead feral pigeon I found this morning and do some 'live' retrieving".

I knew Gunner would have no problem picking up the bird: hasn't he ben practising with chickens and ducks all his life???? But I was a little anxious about the rabbit. Mind you a dog that picks up a hedgehog (as he did the other evening) will pick up anything..... Sent off to 'fetch' it he found it, sniffed it briefly, thought about it a bit... and, encouraged by a few "good boy"s decided it was OK to bring back.... not without thinking a couple of times on the way that maybe he should explore it a little further..... but he didn't disgrace .. brought it back and gave it to me - almost as cleanly as the pigeon. "Think that rabbit was just a bit too small for him" said the man.

"Ummm" said I.

"Again, he surprises" continued the trainer-man "Most dogs either pick new things up without hesitation or flatly refuse. This one? He stops, sniffs, thinks... then picks things up"

"Clever, then?" said I

"Maybe" said he. "Let's try doing what you have been teaching him the past 2 weeks, but the right way round.....!"

The first two or three retrieves were easy. So the man then lobbed a couple into some really dense, highly overgrown wasteground on the other side of an overgrown ditch. And the 'going-to-be-bestest-gundog' found those after some directing and searching.

So the stakes were upped again. This time, two dummies lobbed, one after the other, in different directions and further away in the densely overgrown wasteground.

When sent off, he sprang across the now familiar ditch and disappeared in the wasteground. Found one of the dummies very quickly and brought it home.

Sent him off for the second. He sprang across the ditch and disappeared in the densely overgrown wasteground. And searched. And searched. And most of the time I couldn't see him - only the waving grasses and weeds. And still he searched. And I continued to give him directions. Some of them were wrong - me forgetting to look at it from his perspective. Sometimes I was 'told off' in no uncertain terms for either not being firm enough with my instructions or being just plain confusing. In the end we called the - by now thoroughly tired and confused - going-to-be-gundog back. Lobbed another dummy into the middle of the densely overgrown wasteground and sent him off.

Bless his cotton socks. He found it almost immediately.

So, whilst on a roll, decide to send him off for the long-lost dummy.

"This time" said our patient trainer "as soon as he stop looking, you're to 'sit' him, climb across the ditch to him and then re-direct him from where he is. And sit him again if he doesn't find it. And do the same thing. Until he finds it."

Make no mistake. I was not looking forward to climbing over the ditch and wading through waist-high thistles, nettles and goodness knows what else.

So, metaphorically crossing my fingers, I told young dog to 'go, fetch' and he went chasing off, straight through all the undergrowth and we lost sight of him. And then he turned and came back.

"Don't know if he's found it or not so you'll have to wait till you can see him" said our trainer.....

Well, within seconds he came bursting through the thistles, thorns, nettles etc with the dummy firmly held between his lips.

I jumped for joy and could hadly contain my enthusiasm.

"What a clever, clever boy" I, almost, cried - continuing to jump up and down in glee.

Gunner caught the mood and charged up to me, tail wagging and little eyes smiling. I hugged him with relief --- that he'd been so clever and that he'd saved me from the alternative fate...... He too was jumping up and down with glee at this point! The trainer was quite taken aback by this unusual show of enthusiasm......

"Now that" said Rory "is what I call a good dog. A lesser character would have used tiredness as an excuse. But this one does everything you ask him..... and just keeps on trying."

"That's a good note to end on for today".

And when we got home, Gunner told his mate Lancer all about it. And Lancer just got bored and looked the other way.

So the young dog sighed and fell asleep ----- no doubt to dream........................

Just 4 weeks till 'the season' starts. A lot more to learn before then.....