The Understudy on lesson 3..

During the past two weeks, since his 2nd session with Rory-the-trainer, the little would-be delinquent has continued to be the bestest gonna-be-Gunner's understudy. His attention to the whistle is faultless and his willingness to learn second to none. There was just one aberration when he ran out the back door of the barn before I even noticed it was open.... that morning he disappeared for fifteen minutes or more. I had no way of knowing where he'd gone so no point looking for him. Halfway through the breakfast round though I heard a 'new' and frantic bark coming from way off in the distance. The little chap had got himself 'stuck' on the other side of the only boundary fence for miles around. We hadn't yet got to the "Learning to jump over" lesson so he didn't know how to get home. "Help me, Mum!" he kept shouting. Gunner and I went and rescued him. No scolding. He was a sorry little thing. Goodness knows where he'd been on his jaunt but he was grubby and bedraggled and - dare I say it - just a weensy bit frightened! He hasn't done it since: but I've not let him out of my sight again....as Rory-the-trainer said to me last time: "You can't multitask with this chap - you have to keep your eye on him the whole time! (What makes him so smart? Could be 30 year's experience I suppose!).

So at the start of our 3rd Rory-session I reported the good news about his attention to the whistle but confessed we'd not made much progress on the retrieving. He'll pick up everything and, in the house, will give it up to me with no hesitation - outside though he just wants to play so will 'fetch' - and fast -and bring it back towards me, but then he ducks sideways or whips round the back and off again, happily tossing his dummy around in his mouth and up in the air! Rory was unfazed and took us to a small enclosed grass yard where we did a few retrieves and got a few tips - for me not the dog! We'll see how we get on over the next 2 weeks! Till now the dog's been allowed to run in to his retrieves but Rory said he had to 'wait'. "This is new" said Jaunty - and duly obeyed - first time! The 2nd time he tested out his understanding and went to run in but as soon as I pipped the stop whistle, he did! Amazed? Me? Good dog.
"Let's take him to the rabbit pen" said Rory. My heart sank. It's such a testing environment. The pen is about a quarter of an acre of scrub grass, with scattered bundles of brash, sticks and old christmas trees plus a lot of interesting constructions which rabbits like to live in and under. It is stocked with a number of semi wild creatures. One of the biggest sins a gundog can display is 'chasing'. So the point of the rabbit pen is to give the young dog a total aversion to the little beasties...... To start, the dog is on his lead. As soon as a rabbit 'springs' and the dog sees it, his natural instinct is to give 'chase'. The moment the little ears indicate he has seen the rabbit, therefore, the handler severely scolds the dog and jerks the lead. This frightens him. As you can imagine. The idea is to make him associate the fright with sight of the rabbit so that next time he sees a rabbit he says "Oh my dog; it's a rabbit; help me - I don't want to see it!"
We spent about half an hour hunting in the pen: after the first couple of rabbits we let the dog off the lead and off he went hunting under all the piles of brash and 'constructions'. He didn't chase a single thing. He hid behind me twice! "That's great" said Rory. Well, he should know! "We won't need to repeat that anymore" said Rory; "Just make sure you do exactly the same whenever the dog sees a rabbit at home..... in fact, go in search of rabbits later today..! Well, we did -- and did we find any? No, of course not. As any self-respecting spaniel knows, as soon as you go looking for a rabbit there's none to be found - for dinner or good bickies! Clearly the next rabbit the dog sees will take us both totally by surprise and then we'll se who's quickest to react. No- I'm not taking bets, thank you.

Jaunty was full of himself when we came home and insisted on telling Gunner all about it. He was not at all impressed remembering only too well his own visit to the rabbit pen.... "Yawn, yawn" he said "Boring....we'll see how smart you are when the real thing comes along.....". Smart words. Won't we all. Clearly Gunner's not worried about losing his "crown" to the Understudy yetawhile.....................