First grouse – 6th January 2012
Friday was the last real day of my Christmas / New Year break so I wanted to make the most of it. I ventured into the forest with the intention of walking through the forest and getting out onto the hills to do some proper training. As I got out of the land rover I saw a cock pheasant strutting about in the path only about 20 yards away quickly moving into a shallow ditch before heading into the scrub. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to work on a controlled flush I let Archie straight out of the back of the land rover having first slipped a lead on Grace. Within seconds Archie was on point and, with Grace on the lead, I roaded Archie in for about 30 yards before he finally came to a halt within feet of what must, up until now, have been a very stealthily running bird. I encouraged him forward and up shot the very vocal bird. Archie dropped. I then sent Archie in to work out the area even though the chance of another find was minimal. When he had finished I let both dogs run off some steam.
On the moorland I worked the dogs on a cheek wind until I figured I had walked far enough, then turned to head in an arc back towards the land rover. This meant bringing both dogs in to heel, then casting them off in a straight line followed by a tail wind. The theory being that they would turn after a reasonable distance, cut out across the wind, then work back towards me working into the wind as normal…with me standing still in front of them rather than walking behind them. I sent both dogs off and Archie, rather sensibly, took the path of least resistance, namely the path of neatly cut heather, and within seconds was out of sight. Grace on the other hand took the harder route, running through the deep heather. After a few minutes, and not seeing, as expected, Archie appear out to my right I walked forwards until I could see what was going on. This is what I saw…Archie’s head poking out above the heather on the right. He had turned as expected, then picked up scent and stopped dead. Grace had also gone out to the right and, spotting Archie, charged across to park herself directly in front of him before going on point. A stolen point if ever I saw one. My greatest regret is that I was too slow to stop her before it happened. I then had a few options. I could walk ahead, through unworked heather to get behind them, or work Grace into the birds from where I was. Grace’s next action reduced my options. She roaded forward 15 yards, stopped, a pair of grouse flushed noisily another 15 yards ahead of her and I then dropped her on the whistle. Archie continued to back Grace, despite it being his point, and watched the birds away as they flushed. I called both dogs to me and gave Archie a lot of praise. They were the first grouse of the year and whilst it was great to find them they really should have been Archie’s birds. Never mind, in the scheme of things, he will have his birds before too long. I am only thankful that he had the cock pheasant at the outset.
