Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject: First Time Out - End of Season Update.
Well there’s a lot of excitement and expectation in my little world at present as my shoot dates loom up and I have the fun of introducing young Rowan to a days driven shooting. Just to re-cap, she’s doing very well, shows good steadiness, stop, recall etc but is quite immature and is still very much the puppy at 17 months old (thrilled with life, everybody’s friend etc etc). The plan is to have her as my peg dog. I plan to have her along on the first few days out, handled by my wife, who will have the other dog with her for picking up, well back from the line and basically ask her to do nothing but sit. After having a day or two out, I will introduce her slowly. We have one peg on the shoot which is pretty much out of harms way, where you are on your own and don’t see beaters or their dogs, also Fallow and Muntjac tend not to flush in that direction. I can also Back Gun on a couple of drives, where the beaters dogs will be heading away from us (steadiness to other dogs is still a bit weak without my 100% attention). As for the first retrieve, I think I will just play that one by ear. Anyway, has anyone got any thoughts or advice on introducing a young peg dog to her new duties?
John
Last edited by EJW on Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
Sounds like you have thought of everything John. Its all about steadiness to begin with as you say. I don't get to see many steady peg dogs on the shoots I go out on , they are mainly tethered peg dogs.
I am sure she will be fine. It's exciting taking out a new young dog isn't it!
Please don't take this as a negative comment John, because it really is n't meant to be, but having read your post, I would question whether it's a good idea to be thinking about Rowan being on the peg just yet. Though I know you've already thought things through very carefully, and worked hard on Rowans training.
You've said that she's immature, and also possibly likely to be a little unsteady if you are n't concentrating on her 100%. You can't shoot and concentrate on your dog at the same time, no-one can, you have to be 100% certain that she'll be bombproof on the peg, before you shoot over her.
If she is fine with your wife when stood away from the action, watching Honey work, then could I suggest you consider another step prior to taking her onto the peg with you.
Give up your gun for a drive or two, or a day even!! Go and stand on the peg with a fellow gun, so you can concentrate on Rowan, and she is in the position where she could go wrong, but you are still in a position to prevent it happening.
If all goes well, then at that stage, you could seriously think about taking her on the peg with you, even then, I'd suggest doing it for one drive, and then let her go back with your wife, then take her back on the peg.
The old saying about the best way to ruin a gundog is to take it shooting, is so very true.
As you know John, I dont shoot. So that was one problem I never had to worry about. I only took Amy out later in the season when things would be calmed down a little, rather than early in the season when we would be walking for miles around the hedges. Like Rowan, Amy was just 18 months at the time. and I was able to pick my position to pick up. (Basically the places no one else wanted because not much was likely to happen.)
All I wanted for the first time out was simple dead birds, no runners, no blinds, just simple marks. A shoot day is so different from a training session I wanted to almost go back to day one of training.
I figured 4 retrieves would be enough for the first time out. The rest of the time would be training in the ways of a shoot. Walking to heel between drives, sitting quietly whilst other dogs were working, even things like travelling in the back of my Landrover with guns and their dogs! It's all a totally new experience. In the event, things went exactly to plan and we had a wonderful first day.
The following shoot I decided to up things slightly, and set out aiming for 6 retrieves. Unfortunately I got caught on my own with a runner. Not what I wanted! Amy performed well on it, but the next bird she ran in on.
Before the third shoot I did some remedial work on cold game. The shoot went OK, but she was starting to pull forward when hunting for blinds, hunting over a rather wider area than I wanted.
The forth shoot was her last for that season, because she came on heat, so I finished the last few shoots with Anna. This gave me the following summer to tidy things up and concentrate on her short comings before the next season.
Taking things easy during that first season showed me where I needed work, without winding her up too much at an early age, and really paid dividends! Her next season, (last season) she was so much more mature, and really excelled.
Like everything, there's no rush. If she looks too immature when you get her out, put her away again until next season. Really, the first season is only to find out where you need to put work in for next summer.
Hmmmm. Have you lot been talking to my wife Heather? She’s been saying a lot of this to me, but without the courteous bits!
I’m very pleased I posed this question and the answers will act as a very useful reality check as to what I can expect to achieve this season, without undoing a lot of the hard work that’s been put in. I have never succeeded in taking a dog to true peg dog standard before (never actually tried) and I am frankly impatient to succeed. I’m so impressed with Rowan and I know that she can do it, linked with knowing that with her on the peg with me, it leaves an opening for a new spring pup.
Jill – it’s true, you don’t see many good shooters dogs and there is a reason. You have to have a love of shooting and be a dog obsessive at the same time!!
Andrew – not negative at all, but realistic and I particularly like the idea of bridging the gap by leaving the gun out of it. I’ve done quite a bit of shooting over her but not with the level of distraction that a shoot day will give us.
John – yes I’m sure you are correct; it’s not this season but next that we should be aiming for and you remind me that I’m going to be losing her for a month around Christmas to her season. Actually probably more than a month as we have found Honey goes a bit peculiar in the couple of weeks before a season.
Well young Rowan has had her first day’s shooting and what a good day it’s been. Firstly, it has to be said, that her excitement levels cancelled out much of our training and I was very pleased that my wife was on hand to keep her back from the line and in check. Actually this highlighted a potential training problem, because all her training has been done by me with her beside me. Today I was shooting and she was back from me, you could see she was a bit confused, but it would take a better man than me to have been shooting and to have handled her today. There were also some very young dogs out, including 3 Springers under a year old. Anyway my wife kept her under orders until the last drive when she picked a couple of simple birds lying out in the stubble, which was done with great enthusiasm!! And is another thing that we can tick off.
Our older dog was a delight today. 5 years old and really tuned into the day. I brought a bird down, that crashed through a hedgerow and I thought had stayed there, but in fact had continued through and well out the other side. When sent for it, Honey went straight through the pheasant shaped hole in the hedging and out and beyond to find the bird. It was one of last years **** birds, so her problem then was getting back, but she found a way and brought it to hand. It’s been a good start to the season, we and the dogs have had a good day and we now have a dog heap in front of the wood burner.
Sounds like a good day all round John (apart from the idiots with the young springers ).
Taking a dog out shooting really does bring everything into very sharp focus, training is one thing, but shooting is the real deal, and it brings a whole new set of challenges.
Challenges which it sounds like your team is well equipped to deal with
Sounds like an excellent start to the season. What a star Honey is. Really showing her worth there. Young Rowan is looking well and fit in that photo and obviously enjoying life. Looks like you're going to end up with a couple of indispensible dogs there John
Well what a difference a shoot makes. Second time out yesterday and Rowan was a different dog, much steadier and tuned into what was going on. My wife handled her for much of the day but my peg draw gave me a couple of quiet drives, so I had Rowan sat beside me and she wasn’t bad for the first time. She did a fantastic retrieve on a neighbouring gun’s bird that had been brought down in a thick cover crop with no dog coverage for it. She covered about a hundred yards to the point of the fall and then tracked it down as it was still very much alive. It was a big bird and she gathered it up and returned it to hand with no fuss. Had I actually sent her for it, it would have been even better . I must have looked back, waved an arm, moved my gun or something and she was gone! I’m learning a lot with my new dog.
Honey was her normal rock solid self. Here they are on the day, alert to everything that’s going on, but under strict supervision.
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, they are mainly tethered peg dogs.
. I must have looked back, waved an arm, moved my gun or something and she was gone! I’m learning a lot with my new dog.
