Merry Meanderings #16 How did I get to be a beatin dog?

This is another question a lot of peeps do ask. Just How did I get to be a bushbeatin dog? I mean - a number of chaps might say "I want to go bushbeating" but, to be honest, I has never heard that. It is not a thing that a dog does think.

Not quite the finished article - yet

Well, one day when I was still young & had not nearly finished my schooling She was takin' us - that's me, my Pal Lancer and the Bossy Pilot, for a run across the fields. To be honest, Pilot wasn't really with us. He never was when we went for a run; he did do his own thing, keepin' an eye on where we all was and managing to go in the same general direction. Lancer, being a Good Example, stayed close all the time.
Anyway, we was goin' across a big field near the road what does go into the village and a car stopped. A strange, ruddy faced roundish sort of friendly man did call out:
"You ever do any pickin' up with those dogs?"
She was very surprised.
"Might do one day with the youngster" She did say "but he's not finished his trainin' yet, so I don't know"
"Well, if you want to give it a try, give me a shout!" and off he did go.
We didn't see him again for ages.

Waiting for the off......

Some of our 'mates' waiting for the off

Time and my schoolin' did go on.

Then one day, I was practisin "heel" walkin' along the road with Her and the same man did stop by in his car.
"You thought any more about what I said"
"I have" She said "This one's quite a steady dog I'm told, so we might be able to do something?"
"I'll let you know when we're starting and you bring him with you up to the yard"
And that was it really.
I don't know when he did tell her when was the right time but Winter did come and one day we did go up to the Yard.
It was all very strange; for Her as well as for me. The ruddy faced friendly man was there and did thank Her for comin; I heard someone call him Plum - later I did hear peeps call him a lot of other names too. I soon learned that he was the keeper and was 'in charge' which meaned he did do a lot of shouting and rude words.... but he was a good man and did also larf a lot. I liked him. He'd say:
"Gunner do this; Gunner do that. What you gonna do today Gunner!" and he'd larf....
She was the only one who wasn't a HuMan and I was worried. But all the men were very friendly men - they did try to fuss me but I soon showed them that fuss was not my thing. Then they did give me my space. There was just one that I did let scratch my bum; he was called Bob - you can just see him sittin' in the wagon in the second picture. He did go otrb two years ago now. He was a funny man - a lot like my pal Tony - always jokin and makin the other peeps larf. She did get on well with him once She did get to know him...
He did say to her one day soon after we started 'workin' with them:
"I'll give you 25 quid for that dog of yours!". She did get annoyed! That made him larf..... Sometimes if he did really want to "rile" Her he would say:
"Give you a tenner for that dog".....
He was my mate though; always if a bird got lost he would say :
"Come 'ere Gunner" or to Her : "Bring that dog of yours over 'ere!"
"Gunner'll find it" he'd say to the other chaps "won't you Gunner"..... Usually I did.

Switchin off between drives

The peeps that did meet at that yard did all enjoy themselves and made a happy atmosphere. We did go there two days a week for my first 5 seasons. For the first few weeks it was our only workin' place but one day a man with a gun did ask Her if we could help him at his shoot. So we did go. It was very different; no shouting and games inbetween the work but I did like it because I was the only dog for a year or two..... On the first shoot there were always lots of other dogs and all of them were not very well behaved and they did larf at me for listenin' to Her all the time..... one or two of them did try to pinch birds from me when I did find them. Rude! I did put them down if they wanted to argue with me.... They used to run all over the place and not stay with their peeps.  She did get very angry with them but the peeps was the bad ones cos they did not stop their dogs being norty. The dogs was just havin' fun instead of workin. Wasn't their fault.

Best behaved, best looking, Bestest Gundog

Soon we went to work at another shoot and again I was the only dog - that was the shoot where I got the big stick stuck up my nose.... As the seasons went by I did work on more shoots; I was a very happy workin dog altho the Big Boss did often say She let me work too often. I not know what that meaned.
She always did say we owed it all to that nice man with the ruddy face and the loud shoutin voice.

We was sad 2 years ago when that shoot did stop because we missed all our old pals and the fun we used to have.  Not always easy bein' a workin' dog."