Merry meanderings #11 What is a Gundog?

Martin shoot 28-12-2012

"My twitterpal Winston T Whippett from Massachusetts US of A did ask a very good question the other day.
Such a good question that I thort I would make the answer the theme of my story tonite...
What was his question?
"What is a gundog? Can you tell me something about that please?" he did say.
"So, with apologies to all my pals who do know better than me, I tell you what I think a Gundog do be.......
"Basically it be a dog what does work for the 'Gun' - that is, of course, not The Gun what does go "bang!" but for the human or huwoman who do carry a gun and want to shoot something with it for sport - not cos they is nasty people. The somethings that they shoot are pheasants, partridge, grouse,duck, geese, rabbit, hare & sometimes - tho not in our part of the world - deer. They not do this all the time but only in what they call the "season" which do start on 12 August with Grouse and go through till 31 January.
There are many different jobs which a gundog do have to do and there are a number of different dogs which do work as gundogs.
The dogs is grouped into:-
Spaniels - which might be Springers, like #TeamGunner, cockers, Welsh, Clumber, Field (these v.rare now), and Water (also rarely seen), Brittany (rarely seen)
Retrievers - which are Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Flatcoat Retrievers, Setters - English and Irish
and 
Hunt, Point & retrieve dogs - which include Vizlas, English Pointers, German Pointers (which are either wire haired or short haired), Weimaraners and some others which don't come readily to my mind cos I not seen them about here.

Greetham Shoot 15-12-2011

The Retrievers' work is the easiest to explain: when a bird is shot, wherever it do land (dead or still alive & runnin - which is often pretty darned fast considerin how it got to its legs from the air) it is the job of the retriever to find it and bring it back to the human - quickly and cleanly (it not very good form to find the bird and then go on a little exploration with it.... not good form either to taste even the teeniest bit of the creature)

 Same applies to ground game - rabbits and hares. Tho' they never do drop from the sky! But they can still scarper pretty quick when they is not well shot...
Until the creature is shot, the retriever don't have nothin' to do but sit quietly and wait. It must therefore be a very patient dog. When it is not sitting and waiting but is walking somewhere with its human it must walk by that human's side at all times. Without a lead.
The job of the Hunt, Point & Retrieve dogs is to hunt over a broad area of land - think of a 5 acre field and the dog might be going from side to side in a pattern not  many miles away from it's person. When it sniff game (that's the birds and 4 legged ones too) it must stop instantly and lift one front leg to indicate where the 'game' do be. It then must wait till the 'Gun' do come close to it - which might take a while depending on the conditions underfoot - and then, on command from it's person, must flush that game so the peep with the gun can shoot it. When given the instruction it must then go and retrieve that game - the same rules applying as to the Retrievers mentioned above. Simple really. *Rushes & hides under table in case any HPR pals comes to beat me up for gettin in wrong*

Waiting for the 'off we go' Fulletby shoot Dec 2011

The job of the spaniel is to find all the game for the peeps to shoot, in every kind of terrain and weather. It must hunt methodically about 10 yards or so either side of its person sniffin out the game wherever it do be and when it find it, it must not chase it but must  'see it away' and then get on with findin more game. When it do come across shot game which has dropped in the area it must pick that up and take it back to its person - uneaten. It must do this for as long as it is told and then must stop and stay with its person till the next 'hunt' begins. Quite often it is asked to help find lost game which the retrievers can't find or if they are not anywhere near where the game is lost.
That be it basically.
The way I sees it, we spaniels have the most work to do cos we is on the go most of the time and the hunting can be quite hard if there be lots of thick bramble and woodland to go through. We certainly does get very fit by the end of the 'Season'.
A steady dog - one that sticks to its job and don't get excited and flibberty jibbery and chase everythin' is worth its weight in gold. I have always been a very steady hard worker which is why I is called The Bestest Gundog."

There you have it Winston - that's Gundogs in a nutshell tho I happily answer any questions chaps might have. About this or any other subject on which I might have some knowledge......."