What does Beating involve?

[sophiew]

I have been absent for a while from COL, in a haze of 3rd dog madness, and the early stages of my own pregnancy!

However...

Tally is now 18 months old and without a 'job'. She enjoys her Rally trials, has done a little agility (I'm not fast enough!) but my partner is often off shooting and although she'll never be a steady peg dog, I wondered if I could go beating with her while he shoots, so we could still enjoy it together.

2 questions - how do I get started? We've got a friendly shoot and I know everyone, she would be welcome to go beating if I was happy that she'd not run off, it's not a posh shoot

Also - and this might sound silly - would I have to finish off anything that was shot but not dead? Only I'm not sure I could do that. Or don't you see that part of it when beating? It's been worrying me!

Thanks!

Sophie
x

[hanandhen]

Well, I have only been twice but for me it involves a lot of; 'Where are we going? Where? I'll just follow you then', and, 'Has anyone seen Henry?' (Actually, he stayed much closer last time although he was still a bit eager ), and wandering through the woods, hitting trees and undergrowth with a stick and making bird scaring noises It's great

Re finishing birds off - on the shoot I go to, the birds are either picked up and dispatched by the guns or one of the beaters with better behaved dogs goes looking for them. I have never had to finish one off, although I have taken a brace home each time! But I think that if you are like me, if it came to it you would find that you could finish a bird off if it was hurt and suffering.

This is a good video, certainly none of the dogs on our shoot are quite that good (!) but it does give an idea of what goes on and it shows how to dispatch a bird (don't worry, it is not at all gory) http://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/index.php/yoursport/gundogs

I would try and introduce her to gunfire before you go though, as it can be quite intense even on a small shoot. Henry first heard the sound of shots out walking as there is a lot of shooting around us, then me and our trainer had a session with the dummy launcher, so he associated shots with fun retrieves. I was lucky that he is not bothered by shots at all, but you do need to break them in a bit gently at first. I would find a good local gundog trainer if you don't already have one that you know and have a couple of sessions If you can get to the Norfolk/Suffolk border area I highly recommend mine (recommended to me by a CoLer!) as she is brilliant.

Please give it a go, I have written about our experiences on my blog (link in my sig) and I am so glad I was brave enough to try it because it's great fun

ETA I also find the guy on that video hilarious when he starts talking about the Special Problem faced by ladies out shooting  

[Black Red + Yellow]

Brilliant advice from previous poster, definitely do not just go along without introducing gun fire from a long distance and then gradually decreasing the distance if Tally is comfortable - if you push a dog straight into the situation, you could end up making it gun shy or at the very least, gun nervous and although we managed to re-train Alfie's view point of guns, not all dogs can get over it which is such a shame so firstly, do not rush.  We do know someone who has recently done this with their gorgeous Cocker and we are so mad   He did not listen to us and just took her along to a shoot and she is so so frightened - she shows so much promise grrrrrr

Get some training in with with a trainer just to give you an idea of things - most of them have starting pistols and can teach you to show your dog that a gun shot is a positive thing

When you do go along for the first time, you might just want to spend the first drive or two just walking behind everyone to get a feel for the day!

Good luck to you