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/gundogsI 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