Retsdon

They gear the rules now to the lowest common denominator. As an example, because of laws on foreign spousal visas that were brought in to try and prevent recent immigrants offering a right to British citizenship as dowry in arranged marriages, myself and a couple of thousand others are either a) separated from our children while we work in Britain, or b) are effectively exiled overseas with our British kids. When I asked an MP - an old university friend- about it, he said that nothing could be done, and that the plight of our family (stuck in Saudi until I can find £63,000 cash as a bond), was the 'unfortunate collateral damage' of other people abusing the system. I didn't leave Britain until my 30s, and I can trace an unbroken Scottish lineage back more than 300 years. To be honest it really hurts that my own government is preventing me raising my children in my own country. But that's just how it is these days. The laws are determined by the bottom feeders and normal people get caught in the machinery.

@Fortune: to do with exposing flesh,I imagine. @Paul 223: Dhahran Thanks for all the friendly welcomes...

I never had the need to train one to the gun. At the time I was among border collies, I had a terrier/lurcherish animal, originally a stray from Bow in the east end of London, that was doing the job perfectly well! As a matter of fact, it might be the only dog ever to have retrieved a flapping swan from an ice-fringed river Don in January. And no, I didn't shoot it. I was screaming 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's a bloody swan! just before my mate, who hadn't had a shot all day decided, in the gloaming, that he was looking at the only solitary goose in Aberdeenshire. If you've never eaten swan it's a bit like wild goose, only drier. But tbat was maybe the cooking. Anyway,back to the OP's dog. I don't dispute tbat that there are collies that won't work stock (I only came across one among dozens), or retrievers that won't retrieve. But let's face it, they're the exception. On the whole, dogs will do what they're bred to do. So if you want a gundog - get a gundog breed. I'll stand though by my assertion that collies are wasted as pets and obedience trial animals. Do they enjoy the work? Sure. But it's like I enjoy shooting a Nerfgun at targets in the playroom with the kids. I love it..... No arguments though - thanks for the response.

You're not even allowed to swim at the beach...

Excellent pics!

Trump's chaotic immigration thing is a smokescreen to distract media attention while he, or rather Bannon, enacts a coup on the National Security Council by radically altering not just the faces on it, but who they represent in terms of governmental organizations.

A lot of the locals have rifles at home -AKs mostly - but from what I can make out seem to confine their shooting to a) skywards at weddings, or b) desert lizards called 'dubhs'- that a .22 subsonic would be about the correct round for. With a 7.62 it's a matter of looking for the bits... The ex-pats don't get to own or shoot anything...

I haven't picked up a gun in almost 30 years,or trained a dog in that time either. But I used to do a lot of both, and with nothing to do here in the dunes have been lurking on this site for over a year just for the fun of reading it. But lately I've been getting the urge to respond to the odd thread ( on dog training mostly), so here we are...

Perhaps it might be an idea to get some paper and pattern your gun at different ranges? Saying to use this or that choke is all very well, but what you want is a consistent and even pattern, and not all guns/ chokes behave the same. If you find one or other of your two chokes inconsistent, or over wide or tight, you'll then be in a position to know what it is you're looking for. Just my tu'ppence worth...

Hi, I've registered with pigeonwatch specifically to respond to your question! I used to farm, and for a number of years was training border collies almost semi-professionally for either trials or farmwork (depending on the individual dog's abilities or limitations). I also ran them in trials up to national level. So I know a bit about the breed. The first thing I'd say is that you can train up a border collie up to do pretty much anything, so yes, you could make a passable gundog from one. However, there are some massive caveats. 1) They're super sensitive and very easy to ruin. Your average gundog breed will forgive and forget even the grossest transgressions on the part of the handler. But border collies never get over any loss of trust. 2) They won't do what they don't want to do and they're too intelligent to bash through pain. Consequently I have my doubts about how a collie would face thick cover. In point of fact, a lot of modern bred-for-trials dogs won't even face determined livestck with much conviction. 3) The dog would be under-employed. I always inquire of people who ask about border collies as pets 'Would you keep a Porsche 911 to pull the caravan?'because it's a valid comparison. Yes, the Porsche could probably do the job, but there are far better towing vehicles, and it would be a crime to waste such a car's potential by hitching a caravan to it. If you want my advice for what it's worth, it would be to get a dog that's bred for the job. There are lots of breeds out there, and they'll all make better gundogs than a border collie would. Just as importantly in your case, they'll almost certsinly make better house dogs too. When it comes to collies, what a lot of people forget is that while you can take the dog off the hill, you can't take the hill out of the dog. A dog that, for generations, has been selectively bred to run 50 to 80 miles a day on an open hillside and respond to complex commands delivered from half a mile or more away never really comes to terms with the energy and stimulation restrictions of average pet life. Chasing a frisbee (or even retrieving a pheasant) is not a substitute for bossing 200 sheep on a Perthshire hillside, or diving in to sort off twins from singles in a fank. And that's why if you go to any rehoming website there are always masses of border collies of up for adoption. In the house, they're square pegs in round holes and the result is disharmony all round. It's extremely saddening to see. Get a spaniel. Fun, bulletproof to train, relaxed at home when there's no work, but absolutly loves what it does when there is. What more could you want?