It was one of those mornings when toast and a cup of tea seemed far more appealing than taking the dogs out, not only on account of the drizzle but the fact that I could see the cloud base at about 1000 feet, meaning that visibility on the moor would be down to a few metres. Nevertheless we headed for the hill. What I couldn’t see from the windows of my house is that we had had some snow in the night above about 1200 feet as this was obscured by the low cloud. It was cold.
Both dogs ran quite well, although it was difficult seeing either of them in the heather dappled with snow. Before long Grace came on point. It was a very solid point which was clearly backed by Archie who was following close behind. I stood to take a photo before finding out that the camera memory card was full. I then stood there in the drizzle and deleted photo after photo. I must have stood there for a good five minutes before I was ready to move. Both dogs duly stood there unwavering although this can’t have been comfortable for Archie who had backed in a now characteristic semi-dropped position. The lens on the camera got wet, hence the blur.
When I was ready to move the dogs forwards something odd happened. Grace moved forward from what was a solid point, flagged her tail rapidly, sniffed the ground then moved to the right as if to say ‘nothing here – just ground scent’. She is usually right so I was surprised when Archie moved ahead and went on point, and even more surprised when a hen pheasant flushed from what must have been inches from the position Grace’s nose had been in earlier. The bird rose and wheeled round over Grace’s head. I blew the whistle, Archie dropped into a sit position and Grace chased the bird for a couple of metres before realising that this was futile. We then carried on.
It wasn’t a bad session in that we had found game, but Grace is usually so accurate with her interpretation of scent this puzzled me. Maybe it was the snow, who knows.


















































