CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Activities => Working => Topic started by: Helen on November 12, 2006, 03:27:31 PM
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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 ::) :o 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 :luv:
after the traditional shoot dinner (90% alcohol, 10% food :005:) 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 :shades: (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 :luv: , 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...
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Yey!! Sounds superb!! :D :D
Well done Jarv :-*
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Oh hun, so glad it went well, I was thinking of you and Jarv yesterday, but I knew he would be a star! :luv:
OOOO he is going to be a proper trained gundog - how exciting!!
Well done you, how fantastic! :-* :-* :-*
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So glad you enjoyed it.It is a proper workout isn't it, better than a trip to the gym.
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Thats fantastic, what a great thing to be involved in. Well done to you both ;)
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Sounds like great fun --- any pix of the Jarv and his mum
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Well done Jarvis :luv:
Emma and a very jealous Jarvis
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Sounds like great fun --- any pix of the Jarv and his mum
pix maybe next time ;) if you can bear a photo of a lovely mucky little brown dog and his owner who HAS been dragged through a hedge backwards - and forwards, and sideways (and through hawthorn bushes, barbed wire, killer brambles, thistles. nettles, holly bushes and the biggest sticky burrs in the world....o.h was fondly picking 'nature' off me AND jarv all last night!)
thanks for all your posts guys - if you ever get the opportunity to go to a shoot do it. it is fantastic watching working dogs work - people often say that their dogs just 'love it' and they're right - it was a completely new level of sheer dog joy to me! A lot of their reactions are instinctive and surprisingly very controlled, and they switch off from all the other dogs around them and are really focused on their handler. Even jarv ignored the other dogs until they could have a sniff and play at lunch.
...apparently i have a couple of years hard work and at 4 or 5 years old jarv will be at his best (lots of work before then!) . We were beating with 3 springers who were 10 years old and they were like 2 year olds in body and spirit!
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Well done Helen and Jarvis, maybe one day I will get mocha out there to, although I think I'd better have this baby first! Can't seem me getting over any fences in this state, flatten them maybe! :005:
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Well done Helen, and Jarvis - it sounds great fun ;)
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Is there anything that Jarvis Cocker can't do :005: :005:, Dog model turned serious worker.
Sounds like you had a lovely day, is Jarv tired now because I think it would have finished Mikey off to have a day out beating.
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Well done mate ;) Hattie says she is very proud of her boyf :luv:
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well done both. before you know it you will be entering trials with this boy!! hes a born star... ( but I always knew that!) :luv:
prickly bushes are hellish especially with a long line you get more stabs trying to untangle it. its impossible in thick whins/gorse. :005:
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well done both. before you know it you will be entering trials with this boy!! hes a born star... ( but I always knew that!) :luv:
prickly bushes are hellish especially with a long line you get more stabs trying to untangle it. its impossible in thick whins/gorse. :005:
awww thanks jean! won't aim as high as trials just yet, but am aiming to get him half as good (and happy in his work) as his mum is - that's good enough for me ;)
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Well done Jarvis, you superstar :shades:
Glad you both had a good day :D
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Well done Helen and Jarvis, I go beating every 2nd Saturday aswell. I haven't been brave enough to take Floss yet. I don't think she is quite ready. I am so pleased Jarvis did well. I had Floss out getting used to gun sounds last week with our trainer she was a little nervous but did quite well. however she is due in season again soon so she will not get on the beating line just yet, even if i thought she was ready.
Beating is great fun tho isn't it? I ached for a week after my first time out (but i am old and decrepid not a fit young thing like you. I had to miss this weekend due to work but can't wait for the next time.
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(but i am old and decrepid not a fit young thing like you.
you flatter me....
fit and young are 2 things that i don't think i can be described as... :005:
40 going on 110 today
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well done jarv and helen.i would love to do this but i would get freaked out by the birds getting shot ::)my two have to be content with chasing the flocks of crows on the fields here :005:paddy is now bored with this game but ellie loves it.
helen,if you ache now wait till tomorrow :005:
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well done jarv and helen.i would love to do this but i would get freaked out by the birds getting shot ::)my two have to be content with chasing the flocks of crows on the fields here :005:paddy is now bored with this game but ellie loves it.
helen,if you ache now wait till tomorrow :005:
that was one of my hesitations lyn....but i surprised myself and really didn't feel like that. It's a combination i think of so many birds flying up and so few being shot (don't let the 'guns' read this!!) so the pheasants have a proportionally great chance of not getting shot, and my own belief that i would rather eat a bird raised in freedom and killed very quickly then a poor barn raised battery chicken who has never seen the light of day :'(
i was also impressed with how the shoot was run and how selective the guns were with taking a shot (maybe that's why a high proportion flew free!)
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glad you had fun, there is something so rewarding about it in a kind of weird way as you are walking through awful stuff for hours and yet its fun :lol: Dobbie was out shooting this weekend and has had his first go retrieving feathers, so a crow and 3 pigeons retrieved to hand, he is only 14 months and I have been grinning from ear to ear all weekend :D
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Sounds like you had great fun. :D
I'm sure it won't take long for Jarv to be a fully fledged worker! ;)
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Sounds like so much fun, well done, Indi and I are very jealous :luv: don't have the opportunity here would love to give it a go keep us upto date with all your fun
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fantastic!!! Good for you ;)
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glad you had fun, there is something so rewarding about it in a kind of weird way as you are walking through awful stuff for hours and yet its fun :lol
It is crazy isn't it we must be mad ,but like Helen i get so much pleasure out of seeing the dogs work. They just love it :luv: i also get a lot of pleasure drinking sloe gin and other alcholic combinations from everybody's hip flasks :lol: :lol:
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glad you had fun, there is something so rewarding about it in a kind of weird way as you are walking through awful stuff for hours and yet its fun :lol
It is crazy isn't it we must be mad ,but like Helen i get so much pleasure out of seeing the dogs work. They just love it :luv: i also get a lot of pleasure drinking sloe gin and other alcholic combinations from everybody's hip flasks :lol: :lol:
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sloe gin ph34r ph34r ph34r :005: :005: :005:
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so the rewards are alchoholic eh.
i wonder if there are any organised for near me.i think if i am honest that pads would be awful but ells may just get by.
somethig i have been meaning to ask everyone.does anyone elses cockers stalk birds like a cat.ellie creeps along the long grass almost on her belly,she gets quite close then pounces :005: luckily she hasn't caught a bird yet but she has scared the bejeesus out of paddy a few times.
she has been studying our cats bobby and baby to much me thinks :005:
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Sounds like you both had a really great day. You must be so proud of Jarv :luv: you will have to take some pics when you go next time :D
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Sounds like you had such fun.
Have to admit, it's something I know absolutely nothing about. Doubt that Buddy and I would be any good at it anyway!
Definitely need some piccies, though I'm sure you were quite busy enough without having to think about taking photos!
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Well done :D ... sounds like fun ... Jarv you are such a good boy :luv: I don't know if Molly would be as good although she behaved amazingly on Sunday ... its surprising how much that can do if we have more faith in them ....
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Definitely need some piccies, though I'm sure you were quite busy enough without having to think about taking photos!
hopefully maybe next time there will be piccies ph34r ;)
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Definitely need some piccies, though I'm sure you were quite busy enough without having to think about taking photos!
hopefully maybe next time there will be piccies ph34r ;)
Aaah! Taking her own personal photographer along then, huh?
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Definitely need some piccies, though I'm sure you were quite busy enough without having to think about taking photos!
hopefully maybe next time there will be piccies ph34r ;)
Aaah! Taking her own personal photographer along then, huh?
more like Jarvis' own personal photographer I think ;) :005:
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Definitely need some piccies, though I'm sure you were quite busy enough without having to think about taking photos!
hopefully maybe next time there will be piccies ph34r ;)
Aaah! Taking her own personal photographer along then, huh?
more like Jarvis' own personal photographer I think ;) :005:
yus...no pictures of moi....not exactly a glamourous look (and if you get a pic of me slugging sloe gin i'll sue >:()
:rofl1:
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Sounds like a great time was had by all ;)
Looking forward to photies of the next one :shades:
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Excellent stuff! I can think of nothing better than working a cocker in the beating line
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Excellent stuff! I can think of nothing better than working a cocker in the beating line
it's really hard work at the beginning of the season with a keen young worker.....2 steps too many and about 30 go up in a second! really want to try him picking up too as he loves retrieving - he made me laff the other night tho - i carefully and tightly tied some pheasant wings on his gundog dummy the other night and hid it in the garden and sent him out to find it.
he was ages!!!! then he proudly came back wagging his back-end madly with 1 pheasant wing, gave it to me, returned to get the other wing, same thing ....then the gundog dummy, and then the string i tied it on with ::)
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Excellent stuff! I can think of nothing better than working a cocker in the beating line
it's really hard work at the beginning of the season with a keen young worker.....2 steps too many and about 30 go up in a second! really want to try him picking up too as he loves retrieving - he made me laff the other night tho - i carefully and tightly tied some pheasant wings on his gundog dummy the other night and hid it in the garden and sent him out to find it.
he was ages!!!! then he proudly came back wagging his back-end madly with 1 pheasant wing, gave it to me, returned to get the other wing, same thing ....then the gundog dummy, and then the string i tied it on with ::)
May I suggest you be careful with this? Him pulling the wings off the dummy may be translated to when he picks game remember. Was this the first time he had retrieved feather?
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Excellent stuff! I can think of nothing better than working a cocker in the beating line
it's really hard work at the beginning of the season with a keen young worker.....2 steps too many and about 30 go up in a second! really want to try him picking up too as he loves retrieving - he made me laff the other night tho - i carefully and tightly tied some pheasant wings on his gundog dummy the other night and hid it in the garden and sent him out to find it.
he was ages!!!! then he proudly came back wagging his back-end madly with 1 pheasant wing, gave it to me, returned to get the other wing, same thing ....then the gundog dummy, and then the string i tied it on with ::)
May I suggest you be careful with this? Him pulling the wings off the dummy may be translated to when he picks game remember. Was this the first time he had retrieved feather?
he retrieved a couple of birds last weekend (under guidance) without detaching their wings ;) (maybe my tieing was faulty - was never any good at macrame). he has also bought me a live racing pigeon and a live cock pheasant in the past.....both survived with slightly damaged pride and no other injury ;)
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Good stuff!!!!!
Just worried that it was the first time and he might pick up bad habits
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I was up at my parents in yorkshire last week and mocha kindly retrieved a mixy rabbit everytime we went out. It was his first time picking up live (nearly live) game! He retrieve it lovely sat infront of me and after a few leave its presented me with the rabbit. Not the ideal first introduction to live game but you have to take what you can and he was fine, by the end of the week he was getting quite good and releasing the bunny. I was very pleased that all my work on the hold command in the living room everynight with the clicker had paid off!!!
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I hope you ended the rabbits' suffering :-\
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yes ofcourse. :'(
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I find that the maxi rabbits hearts often give out when picked up by a dog which is a merciful release although in the past pepper has drowned one taking it back from the other side of the river the numpty!
once i left the rabbit pen open and when I came home there was a sopping wet rabbit which had been carted round for ages by the old spaniel , she was used to dogs so they didnt dscare her and was totally unhurt but in a bad temper she was a netherland dwarf and lived to be 9 years old but she was a madam . bad tempered so and so. she bit the hand that fed her many a time!
my lot also are good at finding where my mothers bantams have gone off and are sitting on a clutch of eggs. I dont give my lot eggs in the shell cos I dont want them to start scoffing the free range produce.. their job is to find it!
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I dont give my lot eggs in the shell cos I dont want them to start scoffing the free range produce.. their job is to find it!
Great use of that spaniels nose!