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.....................

Going nowhere fast..... yet

Well... a week later and we know we have definitely got 5 male and 4 female Ides of March... and we know they are in no hurry to leave home...... as of this afternoon only one has had the courage to explore beyond the immediate confines of the pen --- but only as far as just beyond the first gate....... they've all started trying to pinch mum's feed though and she's having no truck with that idea .... so maybe tomorrow will be the day.............. for now they're going nowhere fast.....

The Ides of March plan The Great Adventure

 The Ides of March are just three weeks old and, in the manner of those before them, they are now planning The Great Adventure....... Since the weekend they have been exploring further and further away from their ark and this afternoon they were right across their pen snuffling in all the mud..... luckily the ferocious winds we've been experiencing over the last week have dried the ground out so they are able to get around without getting too grubby.
Which is lucky because the first step in their Adventure is to find a way out of their pen..... a big enough gap under the gate or maybe they'll 

discover they're still small enough to walk straight through the fence..... then it'll be off up to Samson & Delila or round to visit Ginger & Mangal, or maybe down to the Playpen to see all the girls down there....... and anywhere else that catches their fancy.............
Andromeda, good mother though she is, will be relieved to have a little time to herself instead of having them climb all over her - literally. We will smile to see them trotting all over the estate - until, that is, they start making a mess with their 9x4 trotters!!!! And the Bestest Pigdog will have his paws full keeping an eye on them and making sure they don't wander beyond RectoryReserve boundaries. Ahhhh, business as usual then.....

The study of understudies

 "So here I am, a mature (and some say handsome) workin gundog - with a few other little jobs on the side and, it would seem, I need to pass on some of the wisdom to make the world a better place - or somethin....

So, She who must be obeyed and The Big Boss go off in search of a suitable vessel (vassal?) and come back with this funny little black&white thing who then proceeds to pull all my hangin' bits - and a few that aren't. And I'm wonderin' - how does that get to be an Understudy? I mean, how d'you teach a little thing like that anything that could be remotely useful? Months have gone by since he arrived and I have to admit that he's growin' up pretty smart and learns a lot faster than seems decent sometimes and I begin to wonder if it won't be possible to officially have him on my side?

It's satisfying to see that he looks up to me and tends to take what I say is the way things should be done around here as THE way things SHOULD be done around here.  But there's a lack of structure in his approach to life - I mean he flips around all over the place and picks things up and drops them as if it don't matter and when it comes to givin' stuff to Her - well he picks and chooses a bit. Now; I know that's not right, and She knows that's not right. But what's to be done?

I must be gettin' old.... 'cos why didn't I remember. Him. Of course.  She Must be Obeyed but Him? Well, that's another bag of balls (if you'll pardon my analogy) altogether. Of course. Now it all seems obvious.

In order to turn Gunner into the Gundog we had to spend some "Quality (£££) time" with Him-the-Trainer. Good job She hadn't forgotten that. So, 6 weeks ago it was the would-be-Understudy's turn to visit Him-t-T. And I'm pleased  to say he passed muster; even (though I have to say this behind my paws and very quietly) lighting up Him-t-T's little eyes in a way I never could. Allegedly He even mentioned the F.....T.... words. On Jaunty's first visit - Well, I have to say a chap could get a little - just a little - miffed at that. If one were so inclined, which of course I am emphatically Not.

So away they came - She who etc and the would-be-understudy from that first encounter with Him-t-T full of hope and aspiration. Now, I wouldn't like to have it said that I know anythin' about sour grapes but their 2nd session was an entirely different affair. Why? Well I'll tell you. In the intervening period the little Gem had gone from very good butter-wouldn't-melt into a gonna-be-delinquent with all his own ideas about when to listen and when not to listen and She despaired of ever turning him into anythin' - never mind anthin' that might vaguely resemble a gundog...

So the 2nd session started with Her explaining what was happenin and the would-be-understudy giving a very good demonstration of what she meant!

Well, I was not there so I don't know the detail of what happened in the next hour but those of you who followed my early career from Gunner to Gundog on this very blog (goin back 5 years or so) will have an inklin'. Jaunty said the Man was Awesome and Scary and Serious and gave a whole new meaning to "You will listen to what I tell you to do" - and all that rubbed off on She-who-must-be-obeyed.

And, you know what? That little would-be-delinquent has been the best little gonna-be-Gunner's-understudy ever since........

But will it last? Now there's the question...................... Watch this space....................."

Meet Ant and Dec

Quick update on Albert and Alberto at Elsham: the very next morning we had a message from Pirjo, their very nice and very fit new Lady keeper, to say Ant and Dec had spent a very comfortable night under their fresh new straw... and the following day we learned from Rachel - their assistant new-keeper - that they had already sussed out the meaning of the blue bucket (no prizes for guessing - it's the feed bucket) and were straight across to the gate for their breakfast.
They are going to do well in their new home I think!!!

Forthcoming attraction

 Sitting here watching the rain pouring down outside, it is difficult to believe that Spring has arrived and summer will be following. However, it was appropriately sunny for a brief interlude yesterday as Victoria's two weanlings - Albert and Alberto - were taken by The Big Boss to their summer home. They are to be one of the unmissable attractions at Elsham Hall this year and will carry the flag for curly coat pigs as their precedessors have each year for the past five.  They've been indoors with Truffle's weanlings for the past few weeks and were understandably delighted to feel the dirt under their trotters again

They'll have a couple of weeks to settle in before the visitor season proper opens at the Easter weekend. By then they'll be sporting new monikers because, as Pirjo - their very nice keeper-lady - said, two Alberts is "just two confusing"!
Whatever their names, their public will love them.......

The coldest March day for 27 years

Who took the sun?

I know it's down there somewhere

Andromeda's litter - The Ides of March - are a week old and already they've experienced the climactic extremes which make our weather the most common topic of conversation! Last week they were sleeping outside the entrance to their ark in glorious sunshine under a cloudless blue sky. Seven days later they have been exploring a vastly different world on the coldest March day for 27 years. Gale force winds from the North East have been blowing blustery blizzards of icy fine snow alternating, with alarming rapidity, with piercingly bright sunshiny spells. One minute I was sitting on the hurdle outside Andromeda's pen admiring the view - the next I was struggling with head down in driving snow to make my way back to the barn!
Curiously the animals (with the exception of the chickens) don't seem to have minded the confusing  conditions. The Flowers in the above photo have spent much of their day exploring the world under the surface of their pens while the smaller girls next door were busy tossing turf every which way (which is why we end up with the puddled ground that you can see in the foreground!). More surprisingly the horses too, whose backs you can just see the tops of on the other side of the fence, spent the whole day happily grazing in the sun or sheltering from the whitefalls in the lee of the hedge. When I brought them up for tea they were amazingly toasty under their rugs. The same could not be said for their handler!!

The dogs too experienced the flip flop conditions: The Bestest Gundog was doing his duty of clearing the rabbits from the 'New Spaniel Training Ground' in a blizzard just 15 minutes ahead of his Understudy looking for those same rabbits in glorious sunshine.  Oh to be in England.....................