WalkedUp

Agree completely, my dogs have to swim hundreds of yards across the estuary against the tide in sub freezing conditions and so I need them bomb proof for water from puppy age. If one is using a dog to retrieve lowland then the dog will almost never encounter difficult swimming conditions.

I am very similar, I am fortunate to have marl pits all around my house but travelled 30 mins to the perfect pond for the puppy’s first time. Shallow bottomed, small beach, can’t run around it. We’re now in the marl pits near me but soon will need the brooks 10 mins away to retrieve over. I took the pup to the beach last week to just practice walking into and along the surf, without breaking stride. These are all best done in warm weather so that by the time the water is icy the pup is a confident swimmer and isn’t fazed by the cold. My friend’s GSP was sliced open on corrugated galv sheet that had rusted into a ragged saw just below the surface. Also it isn’t very controlled on a shoot day if you don’t want to scare ducks when crossing ponds etc. I like my dogs to slink in silently like crocodiles, and not make any wake when swimming.

An accurate observation 👍 To explain why I didn’t cast the puppy off as I would normally in this situation: geeing pups up and releasing quickly ensures their over excitement exceeds any nerves about swimming. I concentrate on entry and swimming rather than the other aspects. Any visual distraction (looking anywhere but the dummy, your hand or face etc) can cause hesitation in a young pup. If a pup is particularly hesitant about water, or even retrieving a dummy, I will tease with the dummy dragged on the floor (like a cat toy) the quickly tossed with the young pup allowed to run in. The steadiness can be put back in easily enough once the premise is established. Now that he confidently retrieves from water a proper cast off is used. The pup is hears the command ‘side’ as to align to the handler (me) whilst the handler faces the direction of the dummy. (To train this in a pup you walk in a direction to heel then sit to a pip, followed by ‘side’ so the pup slowly learns the correct form.) The lead is removed from the dog and secured to the handler, the dog makes eye contact with handler, wait 5/10/20 seconds to avoid the dog ‘predicting’ the command, bend down crouched to the side of the pup, slowly raise arm in direction of travel, a flick of the wrist to lift the hand accompanied with the command to retrieve releases the dog. It is all slow, calm and steady. The cast off procedure is reinforced on retrieves as the pup knows the dummy direction and learns it is aligned to the arm. It is taught specifically so that the dog can be spent in different directions (for blinds) or for a specific dummy in a seen or memory split. On a shoot day you triage runners not belly up birds and so casting becomes critical as the belly up birds laid in the field will be visually apparent and tempting to the dog wanting to pick a bird. With water retrieves or any aspect really, I tackle the little parts separately and bring them together into larger pieces as the dog’s experience increases. Eventually water retrieves are just retrieves that happen to be in or over water and need no accommodation.

Thank you. I am aware of the danger and don’t think I’ll use the pup on them. This one is my third crow dog and I’ve never had an issue, although I have had a crow put a nasty hole in my hand. She’s used to picking them up over the shoulders. My old dog used to barrel into crows full pace to knock the wind out of them, batt them down flat and then pick them over the shoulders.

A very good idea… would never have found this “dead” bird without a dog that doesn’t have its nose onto the floor.

I have two in my safe currently, I wouldn’t worry about it.

Noise in background is the farm yard dogs

A censure of the negative publicity, that some people for whom shooting is a way of life will not just meekly accept this attrition without at least voicing their opinion and standing up to be counted. Demonstrate that companies and bodies that persecute fieldsports for cheap politics will be called out and made to defend their actions. Yes we may be a minority but some of us are prepared to take the time and effort to support fieldsports (admittedly it is the few, most on this thread seem depressingly reluctant to show solidarity in any way).

Exactly 👍

I am away for the week with someone who is high up for UU, first thing he mentioned to me is that ‘thousands of your lot have been writing to my boss’. Even if UU don’t reverse their ban on lease renewal we need to set an example of them, exposing their woke pandering as a warning to other land owners.

48 other fish to choose from that trip so there was plenty enough to let him practice!

My eldest makes you look like a master sushi chef…

A keeper once invited me onto the landlords’ day to help the old boys fill the bag. It was just me out of the syndicate and the shoot captain had always handled money and cash directly. It already felt weird but I asked the keeper how much, and he said ‘oh don’t worry just give me a drink’. I turned up with a bottle of port and a bottle of gin. All the landlords were passing him over wads of £20s and I looked a naive pillock to be handing over a couple of bottles instead. 🙈

I have a wooden stool cut down so that I am semi stood up, but with my weight rested on the stool between activity. I automatically alternate shooting sitting down or standing up depending upon the approach of the bird. The one thing I do not do is move a muscle until it is time to kill. Standing, twisting and mounting is all part of the swing for me and becomes a single fluid motion upon the silent B of the Bang when I decide to ‘go’. It took me a long time, too long really, to realise that the key to building a bag isn’t knowing how to shoot, but when to shoot.

The Walton Centre is the specialist centre in the north for brain and spinal surgery. Not the prettiest part of the world but you will be in very good hands, if you paid privately it would be the same specialists and very probably in the same place. Best of luck, but it will be absolutely fine.

I have to give her some tolerance, after all we have only been together for 20 years so she’s still settling in really 🤣

My friends know that I am a glutton for this… my wife calls or texts me annoyed every time I am out (which is quite often) as I always end up chasing just a few more.

I was taken by a client to Ascot a couple of weeks ago, they were surprised I don’t gamble and had never even played the national lottery. I tried to explain that it wasn’t a puritanical stance, or a mathematical posturing over those who do, but simply I prefer my money in my pocket and have an awful lot more things I would rather spend it on. When fishing earlier this week one of the Scottish guys described a gentleman from Edinburgh as ‘tighter than three coats of paint’, I thought … I can’t be far off that myself.

Is there a maximum time until renewal that one can apply to renew? My pal’s license renewal was delayed due to him not adequately accounting for the medical report timescale, was wants to put his renewal in 4.5 years ahead of the end date…

He shot this on December 24th 1938, on the estate he was born on. A few years later he was in the navy, commanding a destroyer at Scapa Flow against the Nazis. The old boy’s health is failing now but hopefully my son will be able to take his within his great uncle’s lifetime.

We are visiting my wife’s uncle and he has a rather fetching pheasant, the first he ever shot. My eldest will soon be of an age to shoot game, any ideas of cost or advice on recommendations. I know to pop the whole bird into the freezer but other than that I’m clueless.

Successful trip on the boat, not included in the shot are the various gurnard, plaice, dogfish, spurdog and octopus that we caught, plus the tidlers we let go.

Yes, the boys are up too. They were disappointed with my returning empty handed from the stalk but we have plenty of fishing to fill the larder. We went out for a lovely meal at the Borgie Lodge Hotel tonight. I had to ignore lots of recommendations as the boys eat real meals and are into good food… they had venison with dill to start, with a side of rosemary baked Camembert, then shank of lamb with fresh mint and rosemary, no dessert. I wish I had eaten like them when I was young. The eldest (8) was trying to break into the shank to get any marrow out after it had been picked clean.

Out on Sika in forestry yesterday for a mixture of stalking and high seat. A dozen single hinds or hinds and calfs seen …. no stags.