Training a dog to quarter – 19th October 2008

Every now and again we have a bad day, and today was one of them. We reached the moorland just after lunchtime and the wind was howling. This was a strong westerly that every now and again blew the whistle that was hanging around my neck with no help from me whatsoever. Rather than keep Grace on a lead as we made our way through the pheasant laden lower slopes I cut straight up the hill with my back to the wind. I started trying to get Grace to quarter a tail wind. We had done this before but today the wind was very strong and we were trying to do this up a slope…this combination wasn’t helpful. I cast Grace off directly away from me and she ran maybe 20 yards before cutting to the left and quartering across the wind. When she reached the end of her cast she back cast, running into the wind then came back across infront of me, ran out to the right, back cast again and came across me, this time so close that I picked her up. She was doing the right thing but not getting far enough away from me on the initial run. I tried running when I cast her off, but in deep heather, up hill, in a howling gale and recovering from man flu, this didn’t seem the most comfortable option. I resigned myself to walking forward with Grace covering her beat in chunks of 20 yards. This wasn’t very elegant but had to do. When we eventually reached the summit we worked a cross wind with Grace doing ok, then we turned and headed directly into the wind. Grace soon settled into a routine and covered her ground well.

After about half an hour we reached a patch of bracken and Grace signalled a bird. I guessed it was a pheasant and it seemed to be a runner at that. Grace pointed, I moved in on her, she roaded forward in short, but fast spurts, signalling to me that the bird was winding its way down hill through the bracken. After a few minutes whilst Grace was moving very slowly forward a hen pheasant lifted from the bracken about 50 yards down hill. The bracken was deep and I know that she had absolutely no idea a bird had appeared. I decided to drop her all the same and blew the whistle. What happened next was both puzzling and annoying. On the blast of the whistle she took off, running after the scent. I dropped her to the second whistle after about 10 yards but why was this? She hadn’t seen the bird but chased on the whistle. I now wonder whether she now associates the single blast of the whistle, in the context of a point, as a signal to run in (as this is what she does nearly every time). I called her away, then dropped her 5 times in succession…no problem at all. Very annoying, and very puzzling.

As an aside I noticed lots of Reindeer Lichen today. It seems particularly obvious as it is covered in fruiting bodies. Altogether a pretty unsatisfactory day really…apart from the lichen.