If at first you don't succeed...........

Bugler makes his dad proud

Exactly a week after #TeamGunner's last Gundog Working Test adventure, off we went again. Another early start yesterday saw us heading to Barleythorpe in the beautiful county of Rutland.
"If nothing else" said The Big Boss "the dogs are getting us to visit some lovely countryside".
The morning was dry and cool with a promise of sunshine later. Our destination was a quiet (we thought) country lane (with a distant view of Rutland Water) a mile or so out of the village. Arriving shortly after 9 o'clock - not the first by any means - we collected the 'Card' and our numbers (4 and 8) and waited for the signal to move off to the test ground. We'd been advised in advance that we would be using a white grass pasture and were, therefore, a little surprised when we came to a halt by a young plantation!
"Oh well" I thought "all that practice in the cornfields ( the nearest thing to white grass here) might still serve some good!"
Bugler was the first of the pair to 'run' - being an even number we were in front of the novice judge first. He hunted enthusiastically albeit a little further from me than I would have wished but was good on the whistle and, joy of joys, when the shot was fired he sat and looked at it, thus (for the first time) seeing the dummy thrown. That meant the retrieve was simple and he completed it quickly and cleanly. His 'blind' retrieve needed only one bit of help from me, which he paid prompt attention to, quickly finding and returning with the dummy. His second run in front of the senior judge was a lot tidier and his retrieving needed no help so I was well pleased with him.

"What do you mean 'closer'?"

Since the No. 6 dog had not turned up, each of Bugler's runs was immediately followed by Jaunty. The judges couldn't have had a starker contrast! My second dog was well fired up for each of his first runs! What a good job I'd taken the advice to buy a new whistle! It took all my efforts to 'hold' him. His worst mistake - running in to the other dog's dummy - was of my making. Since Jaunty was a fair distance from me when I whistled him to sit to the shot the judge suggested I might like to call him to me - but only by name. When I'm doing group training with the three dogs at home, I use their name to indicate which of them I want to fetch the dummy - so as soon as I used Jaunty's name he understood I meant him to go for the retrieve. Stupid of me. That cost him 50% of his marks on that run. The fact that his own retrieves were clean and prompt was a consolation but didn't improve his chances! Each of his second runs was better than the first but nowhere near close enough or sharp enough on the whistle. More practice is definitely required. He has bags of ability and style and when he finally understands why he needs to listen to me I suspect he'll be better than Bugler.

"I've had a nice sleepy morning, thank you"

The tests finished around 1.30 pm and we all returned to the lane and our cars in warm sunshine. I'm not sure that Gunner was pleased to see us because we 'caught' him sitting on the seat behind The Big Boss. Mind you, it was a good job that he wasn't in the back because the youngsters jumped in with gusto, drank loads of water and then crashed out exhausted from the excitement of the morning! Apparently the lane had morphed into Piccadilly Circus after our departure at the beginning of the morning - The big boss regaled us with tales of the comings and goings whilst we ate our lunch!

"We'll have 'em licked next time!"

It was fully an hour to wait whilst the judges deliberated and certificates were written out. Finally the call came to "gather round" for the results.
When I heard the name of the third placed dog I was slightly disappointed, thinking that Bugler might have done enough to get in the placings. I was totally overwhelmed therefore when I heard the name of the second placed dog - and it was him!!! Apparently I was grinning from ear to ear when I walked up to collect our certificate.
"Makes all the hard work worthwhile" said Rory-the-trainer when I told him later "Especially when it's a dog you've bred yourself".

If this had been Red, we'd be out of Novice so perhaps blue is best

It most certainly does. In spades.
If we never get another certificate, I'll always treasure this one.
And what a clever dog Gunner is to father such a talented son. Oh - I know it's only 2nd place but if he can get one certificate surely he can win another?
I did say we would only do three tests but we've entered already for our 4th and we've got 6 weeks to practice so I'm keeping fingers crossed for Jaunty too!
Nothing wrong with ambition is there??????????