Me? Leave you with them? Not likely!

Ignorance is bliss.... "He'll never be a trial champion!" is a mantra we've long become familiar with. "But" said Rory the trainer "Take him along to a few Working Tests during the summer and see how you get on".

A Nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse. So, off we went yesterday at daybreak - well almost - with the picnic and the directions to our first ever test with, of course, the bestest gundog in all the world. Glorious frosty but sunny morning heralding a gloriously warm, sunny Sunday. Great for people activities: not so great for doggie activities. But there we are, can't have everything. As with everything The BGIATW and I have done together, this is all a complete first for us. We don't know what to expect, or what is expected. Great big learning curve. We're amongst the earliest to arrive: gradually the car park fills up with a miscellaneous collection of 4X4s, people and their spaniels. It's an A/V spaniel cold game test we've entered. Never heard that term before but Audio Visual spaniels sounded good to me - presumably they hear and see everything! I soon learned that it meant Any Variety - which in this instance turned out to be either Cocker or Springer Spaniels. Cold Game? Since it was a frosty start to the day, the birds were presumably left out in their cages overnight so they would be cold, wouldn't they? But not. It seems they are shot birds (pheasant,partridge and pigeon) which are frozen and thawed out the night before the test! Interesting!

After waiting an unwittingly long time for a late (non) arriver we set off - in our case, still virtually in ignorance of what's about to unfold. Out of 20 dogs and their handlers, only 2 others were first-timers but they both had been members of this particular club for a while and so knew what they were letting themselves in for. They admitted they were nervous. I admitted that since I was ignorant of what I was in for, I was not in the least nervous - till they told me what I was in for!

Anyway, off we set. And the proceedings were as follows: two dogs were set their test contemporaneously, judged independently by two judges - one a relatively novice judge, the other in this case a renowned international judge and one time (for 7 years) captain of the British Gundog Team. Each dog would, during the course of the day, complete the same test under each of the two judges. The 'test' comprised setting off with the handler (followed closely by the judge and accompanied by a man with a bag of birds and another with a gun) to 'hunt' a given piece of ground. During the hunt, the gun would be fired and a bird would 'drop' somewhere in the undergrowth. The dog must sit to shot; wait to be told to retrieve, then retrieve back to hand. Then continue hunting. Another shot would eventually be fired and another bird would 'drop' - this time behind the dog where he had no chance of seeing it - thus a 'blind' retrieve. Again, dog must drop to shot, wait for the instruction and then retrieve. End of test. Probable duration of each run, approx. 5-10 minutes, determined largely by the dog's ability and speed at finding the retrieves. Throughout the day, before and between each test, both dogs and handlers were on their feet 'following' the vanguard in order to 'be ready' to take their place at the due time. That's about 5 hours in all. Good dog: be quiet and behave for a couple of hours, go like greased lightening for 5-10 minutes; switch off then repeat.........

Easey Peasey.

The Bestest Gundog in all the world behaved himself impeccably: calm, cool and patient. He accomplished his retrieves without hesitation or error: the novice judge said his retrieves were 'good';the advanced judge said, after each retrieve, "Good nose that dog's got"! On a scale of 1 bad and 10 excellent, I'd say he scored 9, losing a point only for doing his job at below Formula 1 speed. But he was accurate, direct and needed no help from me.

So, jolly good and I was thrilled with him.

But, he would not hunt; on the first run he looked at the judge, and the bag carrier and the gun carrier and at me and clearly decided that his role was as guard dog --- he would not leave my side.

"Hunt? For what?" he seemed to say "Leave you with those blokes? More than my life's worth!" and he stuck close by, refusing point-blank to even pretend to hunt.

"Nothing there anyway" he doubtless thought - for by now, well into late morning the frost and dew had long dried off the ground and there was no scent to be found. Not daft that dog; why waste energy? Why indeed? He didn't know it was a test! He didn't know either that some of the competition were Trials Champions or mature dogs and handlers who'd done all this many times before. Talk about jumping in at the deep end......

On the second run therefore - in front of the Big Judge, I decided reticence was for the birds and gave increasing amounts of encouragement (Not quite cheer leader but moving in that direction....). Eventually he did begin to tentatively hunt around, checking back with me constantly to make sure I was safe with those strange men......... but compared with the competition, many of whom - to quote Rory-the-trainer - "would hunt in a car park", Gunner-the-hunter was a non starter. So though his retrieving, from what I saw of the others, was probably among the best, a spaniel is primarily a hunting dog and judged accordingly..... so we've a bit of catching up to do. But he's a fast learner and he'll do better next time.

If we can both relax and Gunner hunts in his usual enthusiastic (if not manic) fashion, his retrieving skills will get him up with the leaders.

So, project "Win that test" continues: next run two weeks hence. We've got some tips from our trainer about what to do in the meantime and what to do at the next test.... so onwards and upwards......

We both came home exhausted from the whole experience..... and eagerly looking forward to next time!