Recall and direction work plus a point – 10th May 2008
Well, having wrestled with the decision of taking Grace up into the forest, much of which is open and exposed, or down to the river with its shade and relative dampness I eventually settled on the forest, resigned to the fact that I should make an effort to get into the sunshine at every opportunity, knowing how short the British summer can be. So off I went. It is at this time of year I look longingly across the clear fell towards the empty moorland beyond and wish the summer away, something that I really should stop doing. Anyway, this patch of forest usually has a resident cuckoo, but this year I hadn’t heard it. It was either late, had decided to go elsewhere, or Africa had claimed it permanently. I would have expected it to arrive mid April so had effectively written it off, but as I got out of the land rover I could hear it ’singing’ its heart out in its normal spot. Wonderful. Because of this I adopted a different approach to training for the day. It was a warm, balmy morning, with plenty of birdsong so the last thing even I wanted to hear was my acme 212 blasting away. A few hundred yards on I heard another cuckoo, then another. Three in the same small patch of forest. I decided to train silently.
It was interesting. I didn’t try anything fancy like drops to the raised arm, but basic recall and direction control were pretty straightforward. Grace would run forward, when she was about 150 yards from me I went down on one knee, opened my arms and she would turn and come running back. This was good. I had often recalled using the open arms as an addition but rarely used it without the whistle. Next we did some turning and direction work. I turned my body to face a different area and Grace would head into the area, pretty straightforward really. I did notice that without the whistle she checked back at me much more regularly than normal. Maybe I should do this more often.
So there I was, feeling pretty good, when she went on point. Not a confident point, but there was no breeze at all so I wasn’t expecting too much. I thought I would continue in the same way, keep silent and let her work it out. She went in too close and flushed two pheasants. Not too bad considering the conditions but not great. She didn’t chase though, she watched them go then came back to me at high speed, all birded up and ready to go. Not a success, but not a complete failure either. About a mile further on she obviously got scent of a bird and did exactly the same thing. The bird flushed. This time however, she chased. Only about 20 metres but she chased. I was so annoyed. This was a very real lesson in the dangers of complacency. I thought things were going so well and she blew it (or maybe I did). We then spent the next mile dropping to the whistle every 20 or so yards. One blast, belly down. We did this all the way back to the land rover. I don’t even think the cuckoos could compete with this.
The first photo shows the view of the moor from the forest..empty and enticing. The second shows Grace in the distance, just before I ‘recalled’ her using my arms alone. The photos are poor quality, I apologise, but they are taken on a phone.
