Reflections on Seasons past

Before Gunner arrived in my world on 19th June 2007 the life of a working gundog was a total mystery. We'd had spaniels for a number of years: I can remember proudly telling the vet when I took Captain, our first, for his annual injection that he was a "Working Spaniel" - although he had never worked a day in his life!! If it had occurred to me that I might one day "work" a gundog, I could not have imagined what that entailed. When we lived 'down South' I was aware that the lady who occasionally gave me horse-riding lessons "picked up" locally with her three chocolate labs. If I gave a thought to what she did it was only insofar as I was in awe of her and rather impressed that a lady did 'that sort of thing' (all things 'shooting' being to my mind, at that time, strictly masculine!!).
The transformation of Gunner from much admired (by me) young pup to much admired (by many) young gundog is documented in detail earlier on this blog.
The contemporaneous and lasting transformation in my own habits and hobbies, though far more radical and unexpected, happened surreptitiously, slowly and totally unscripted - and over a much longer period of time.
In those distant days I was not aware that I was changing.......  In all the training sessions Gunner & I had with him-the-trainer It didn't occur to me that I was actually training the dog. "Yes" I was managing to teach him things but I was constantly in awe of the fact that he was learning to become a gundog! When he did things that I had taught him I was totally amazed...  even more so when he did things that I hadn't taught him! It never occurred to me to tell him to do something and when he did what I asked I was truly proud of him! I felt privileged that he wanted to be with me.
When we turned up for our first ever experience of 'beating on a shoot' on 8 October 2008 I was greener than grass-  and ignorant of the workings of a 'Shoot'. Yet, there I was with my very own, very handsome and obedient, coming-to-work gundog. I had no idea what we were going to have to do but I knew he was trained to do it! Nobody said it at the time; perhaps it never occurred to anyone; maybe they were just bemused by a not-so-young lady wanting to dress up in weird weather-and-bramble-proof garb and spend her days with a bunch of mostly rough and ready chaps - but they sussed that I knew nothing about the world I was throwing myself into!! Now I know their friendly banter was really teasing!!
The whole language of the shoot day was alien. I turned up with a young spaniel, offering to 'bush-beat' - without a clue. I didn't know what "drives" were, how long and how many there were in a day. When told for the first time to "work that strip of cover" I had no idea what was expected of us. Luckily Gunner didn't let on!

Whilst I knew that The Glorious Twelfth was the beginning of the Grouse (and therefore the Shooting) Season I didn't know that partridge could be shot from September and pheasants from October. I didn't realise that the Season ended on 31st January and had never heard of Cocking Days!
Still I turned up that first day with my young, handsome, well trained Gundog - totally oblivious - yet totally confident that whatever we were asked to do, Gunner would be up to the task!! We learned together 'on the job': Because of the dog he was we had opportunities that might not otherwise have come our way and before long we were hooked. It was all he ever wanted to do and the more I learned, the more I enjoyed it.
Ten Seasons later I realise just how much he changed my life!  Thanks Gunner.........