The excitement is mounting. Shooting season is not far off - starting dates seem to vary but sometime in the 3rd week of September seems to be typical. Apropos of which one of the local Gamekeepers has been contacted and we have signed ourselves up for 'beating'. I got the impression that not too many people offer themselves up for this most menial of sporting tasks; I could swear the chap almost dropped his phone in surprise when I said what I wanted! Anyway, I've offered to go a couple of times without the The Bestest Gundog in all the world - so that I can learn the ropes, so to speak - and then we'll see about taking him. And we'll work from there..... 
In the meantime, as instructed, I am nagging The Trainer to get us down to beat on another local shoot.... we could be busy enough come winter....
And so yesterday, after a 3 week break, it was back to school for T-b-g-i-a-t-w. The lessons are getting more difficult (for me, if not for him.....!). We know that he will retrieve anything from anywhere, whether or not he has seen it drop - as long as the handler's instructions are accurate and clear! Rory-the-trainer is impressed that he will go into the thickest nettles, brambles, thistles etc
So what we are to teach him now is to leave the retrieve he is en route to fetch - i.e. the pheasant he has 'marked' - and go off in a totally different direction after a retrieve he has not seen. In practice, the latter will be a wounded bird which is able still to keep running. The job of the dog is to collect the 'runner' and bring it back. And then the dog is sent back to fetch the original retrieve that he marked.
Really simple stuff.
We'll let you know next time how we're getting on. The initial attempts yesterday were full of promise...... and just a little bit of willfulness because (I think) of the number of mice in the long grass.........
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