There goes another one.....

It's 8 days since the end of our 4th Shooting Season and The Bestest Gundog and I were doing a little reminiscing by the fireside yesterday evening.
"Right Gunner" I said to him "you've been sleeping for a week now so you'll have sussed that that's it for another season. How d'you feel?"
"Yeh, well I was a bit tired and achey before my big sleep and my paws were sore and my tummy was always empty" he said laconically "but now I wouldn't mind a day out with all our pals again- well, not those black chaps (labs to you and me) but the other spaniels and all those nice men with their too-big lunch boxes." (He's developed a penchant for pies and cakes!)

"Remember how excited you were when we started back in September?"
"Yeh;I could hardly sit still my tail was wagging so much; I thought we'd have to wait forever before you told me 'go seek' on the first drive. And then I went like the wind and it was so warm and I ran out of puff and you got that fretty look on your face." Unbeknownst to The Dog I'd consulted the vet and Dorwest Herbs for a remedy. I'd thought he was a fit dog but when, half way through the day, for several days,  he was gasping for breath I was seriously worried. However, the weather was unseasonably mild for shooting - more like early summer than autumn and we beaters were going around in shirt sleeves; small wonder The Dog was overheating. "Lucky we found that tasty supplement to put in your dinner" I told him "that soon upped your stamina levels didn't it? After a couple of weeks you were well away and before much longer lots of people remarked how much energy you had." "Well, I love my work and I just wanna sniff everywhere and everything and when the birds shoot up in the air or the babbits flash away I get soooo excited my head goes all dizzy!"

"Hmmm, maybe that's why sometimes you don't respond to the whistle?"
"Me? Not respond? But I'm The Bestest Gundog; isn't that what you always tell me - and anyone else who's listening. Anyway, I listen as much as I can but I know the ropes now and I hear what everyone's doing and I know all the other 'words'"
"Which 'other' words?"
"Well, there's  radio crackling which means 'we're off' long before you tell me and I do try and be patient but sometimes you're so slow; and there's 'big bang' which means bird dropped and 'bang,bang' which means two birds dropped so I'd better fetch one cos you might not have noticed and you're always so happy when I bring you something - and there's the funny trumpet which means time to stop again."
 "I'm glad you mentioned the 'bang bang' because we need to come to a different understanding on that" - you should have seen the look he gave me. "Well you are never to fetch anything unless I tell you to and certainly not if you're hunting at the time. It's very bad manners you know We're going to have to have

a new rule on that before next season". At which he gave me an even queerer look.
"But I know my job and when all the banging's stopped you often tell me to 'go find' - it's much easier to collect them as we go along - saves time you know." He has a point, but it's not his job and the other chaps, canine and human, get jolly annoyed when he does their work for them - and I go pretty puce myself. Not that The Dog ever notices that cos he's away on a mission....
"It's my most favourite thing too" he mused "especially when I find a hare or things that are lost - and I do find everything when you send me off."
He's right, I always say to my colleages that "if it's there he'll find it" and he never lets me down.
"And those black chaps are a bit prissy you know; how often do you see them charging through the brambles or the gloopy stuff or really looking under bracken?" He's right again. If you want to look good, you take a labrador; if you want to work good, you have to take a spaniel.  "It's not always easy going is it lad? Those fierce brambles and then those boggy woods full of fallen trees and briars where people often can't go and you have to hunt on you own. Sometimes even I'm amazed that you don't just look and say 'no thanks not today' - some days you were so filthy - green and black and bloody all over - you were almost unrecognisable."

"Yeh, Good isn't it. The thicker and heavier the going the better I like it and you'd be amazed just where those birds hide, 'specially if they're a little hurt. Remember that one I pulled out of the tree?"
 "I certainly do. It was in a hole in the trunk underground and surrounded by thick brambles - lots of reasons not to 'find' to a lesser hunter."
He was so proud when he struggled out with it and presented it to me. Such a clever dog.
It's an amazing life that a working spaniel has during the season. We humans might walk 5 to 8 miles across and over all kinds of terrain but our canine companions must cover four or five times that distance, to-ing and fro-ing and criss-crossing

stubble, plough, bog, thick bramble, heavy briar, bracken and dead, detritus-covered trees - mostly at full speed through every weather. These periods of 'hunting' - each for anything up to, say, 40 minutes, are interspersed with periods of sitting and waiting - maybe up to 20 or 30 minutes - without movement or sound, again - in any weather. They could be soaked through and yet have to sit still, shivering and waiting for the next drive. Many people on the shoot, who don't have dogs, take for granted that they will work soundlessly and energetically all day. That day could be 6 to 8 hours. Each dog in the shooting field has a role to play. The 'peg' dog must sit silently by his gun during the shooting and only retrieve when bidden. Many will only be asked to fetch the closest birds, the furthermost being collected by the Picker-up dogs.

These usually work in teams of 2, 3, 4 or more; they'll wait far back from the guns and then be expected, at the end of the drive, to sweep the territory far and wide in search of fallen birds. They may be sent off to fetch a particular bird during a drive if it is a 'runner' (ie: hit and wounded but far from deat) that could get lost if left till the end. Many picker-up dogs are, or would be, totally uncontrollable if asked to join in with the bush-beaters. These are the Jacks-of-all-trades and a good bushbeating dog is worth his weight in gold. He is expected to hunt every kind of terrain, to stay close to the humans and not charge through the drive (though many do - thus scaring off each and every bird en route), to 'find' and flush (not catch or 'peg') game, not to run in to shot (ie: go fetch shot birds during the drive) despite knowing they may have to help find them at the end of the drive; to walk to heel when asked and to range far and wide when requested; to ignore dead game when told and to fetch runners when sent. Defintely the most difficult and confusing task of any dog in the shooting field.. "Even you get confused sometimes, don't you Gunner?"
"Well, one does try to please but sometimes it all gets too much and when a chap's out 3 or 4 days a week for 4 or 5 months adrenaline takes over. Mostly I just want to get the job done - and some of the other chaps do things all the time that you tell me I should never do and - when you're not about - they ask me why I listen to you and don't just do my own thing and when I say 'that's the way I've been brought up' they just scoff and say 'so?'." "Remember that day" he said "when I jumped that big hare and was just about to bring it to you and that big lab came over and grabbed it from my mouth and then the other lab came over and tried to grab it from him? I was really upset.I'd never ever do that to any dog, lab or otherwise". I remembered the occasion well. After the labs had sorted out which one was going to claim the prize, Gunner went back to the spot to see if they'd really taken his hare. It really is the rudest thing one dog can do to another in the field and yet it happens quite often - with all game, not just unusual catches like hares.
"It's been a tough season hasn't it my boy" I said to him "It's a good thing you've developed the art of switching off between drives". "
"Yeh, that's my life-saver" he admitted.
It makes us humans smile. As soon as we all get back on the beater's wagon Gunner will stand at the front end, shut his eyes and go to sleep. As soon as the wagon stops, he jerks awake and is ready for the off. It's just like a computer on stand-by ... if you leave it doing nothing for a few minutes it goes to sleep, but touch it and instantly it wakes up and is ready to go again. That's Gunner's secret weapon; I'm certain his knack of conserving energy whenever he can is what keeps him going. A similar thing happens at the end of the day: as soon as he knows the last drive is over, and he does always  know, he acts as if completely drained. It's as much as he can do to climb down off the beater's wagon and crawl to the car. I put his fleece on and he curls up on the back seat and falls asleep; staggers from the garage to the house when we get home, eats and then goes to sleep till the next day. Dead as a dodo. Evening walks? Forget it. Morning feed-round? Forget it. Time for work? Here I am, ready and willing....
"You've done 46 days' this season - more than in any previous year - and you've not had a single day off sick or injured, which is a first as well."
"P'raps I can be excused for going AWOL occasionally then - after all, I'm still The Bestest Gundog and I did get invited to beat on that shoot that wouldn't ask any other dogs didn't I?" Which he did.  He may not be perfect but he's still the best-behaved spaniel in the district and gets invited to go where others would never be welcome.
"Don't let it go to your head, young man - there's plenty of improvement to work on before next season if you're going to maintain your reputation......"   
"Yawwwwn, pawwwring,... I can see where you're going with this......I'll just wait and look forward to September....... it's been nice chewing things over with you but it's time to go back to dreamland now.......Night, night". He's such a Clever Dog.