Barnaby's now 7 months old and his nose seems to be getting more sensitive to scent by the day.
A week ago my wife returned from walking him not a little put out after encountering a number of hunters and their highly trained hunting dogs out on one of our favourite meadows. One of them forbade her to walk the meadow as they were out to track down and destroy a wild boar that some idiot had winged earlier in the day.
Two days later Master Band I were out on our evening walk when he picked up a scent while ahead of me on the lane. Yep you guessed it, he found the boar that had so well eluded the local hunters hounds.
Fortunately, even though very excited he responded to my recall and didn't dive into the bushes where the pig was at bay. In fact I didn't know it was the pig at that stage, only realising the danger when we approached with B on lead, to be greeted by deep grunts and the sound of an animal the size of a small car crashing around in the undergrowth. We beat a hasty retreat from what could have turned ugly.
Upon our return home I called the head forest gamekeeper to report the danger. Half an hour later we heard a retort and shortly afterwards the arrival of the gamekeeper at our gate to thank us for the call, and to congratulate us on having such a good hunting dog. So our funny little English spaniel is now being regarded more seriously by the men in green. We're proud of him.....
