yesterday jarv and i, armed with a long line, went out for our first days beating.
as some of you will know i was *slightly* nervous
as the shoot is run by o.h's brother and the gamekeeper only happens to be jarv's breeder (and jarv barks at fireworks so i had a sneaking suspicion he may have been slightly gunshy!)
....anyway.... we both had a BRILLIANT time, it was evident that this was jarv's calling in life! he was sceptical about the noise of the guns but he's worked out that guns equals pheasants so his ears prick up and his tail wags now whenever he hears a shot. we have an awful lot more training to do before i would be happy letting him be offlead for a whole drive but he learnt a lot from his beautiful mum who was the star dog of the day
after the traditional shoot dinner (90% alcohol, 10% food
) i spoke with gamekeeper and he was happy to have us back at every shoot - so guess what i'm doing now until jan on every second saturday
(we 'passed' the test!!!)
next time we'll be behind the guns, and jarv and i will learn how to remain calm and stay at heel ('whatever.....' sez jarv
- he is on a sharp learning curve!) when the birds are being retrieved. I do want to train him to pick up, as i think this is something he would really love as he is retrieval mad.
our drives took us through every kind of terrain possible - i am aching in places i didn't know i could ache, and jarv has this 'i AM a working boy' strut about him...but please please don't make me go through double barbed wire fences for at least a couple of days....
(...and i got to squidge 'tab', ellie and fudges liver roan brother who is
, and after many samples of sloe gin)
...so this week, we will mostly be doing heel walking off lead, waiting, stopping and a bit of dummy retrieval
and a few walks via pheasant country on lead...