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Phrase used by Walker570 “ never tell you a lie in the field. “


Agriv8
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Now then was going to message Walker570 direct - but thought this may have others scratching there heads ( or might just be I’m a bit thick )

when you use “never tell you a lie in the field.” can you explain what it means please ? Been around working dogs most of my life on many different shoots ( usually beating rather than shooting ) and don’t ever recall hearing this.

ta Agriv8 

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33 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

The good man himself will have to give the definitive answer. From working HPRs I take it to mean when the dog shows scent it will stick to it and then when on point it will produce a bird. In other words no false points. 

Cheers walked up did that did cross my mind then thought about strong willed dog and not being able to train out a unfavourable action PS before this is taken the wrong way Walker570  ! THIS IS NOT REFERENCING  YOUR  DOGS !?! I have seen your videos posted on here ! You must have put some hours in to your companions 

atb Agriv8

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3 hours ago, WalkedUp said:

The good man himself will have to give the definitive answer. From working HPRs I take it to mean when the dog shows scent it will stick to it and then when on point it will produce a bird. In other words no false points. 

Yep, you are absolutely correct. Thought it would have been clear but probably those who have not worked HPRs or any pointing breed may have been  "scratching their heads"  .  However I have also owned ome very good labs over the years and they where truly honest in the field as well.

I did not know I had put videos on ???? You must have someone else in mind.  I think I have posted a couple of stills of my dogs sitting behaing themseleves. 

At the end of the day I suppose it down to traing and how you yourself interact with your dog. Mine have always lived in and been treated as family...good mates and they knew I would move heaven and earth for them and they enjoyed doing the same for me.  It's called Partnership, I suppose.

 

A short story... On a shoot I ran down near Crickhowell I had a retired local farmer who acted as our Keeper and one day when doing some outlying hedges I clicked my GSP up a long uphill hedge. Mole set off up the hedge and the wind was perfect blowing straight through the hedge at him. He reached the top , stop, turned and gave me a look which I knew meant "Nowt there Dad" so I indicated to him to come in which he did. The farmer was dubious and asked another member to send his two spaniels up the hedge, they workd as spaniels do and rummaged through that hedge to the top to reveal NOWT.  I said nothing and none of the others did but I am sure Mollie had a smug look on his face.  He was 10 months old when I took him on he had had no traing at all but turned out to be a killing machine. If he said there was something there then you could bet your bottom dollar there was and my old lab Muffin clocked this as well and they consequently worked as a team..spotter...flusher.

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Thank you - Walker570 for taking the time.

it a phrase I am not able to use on my sprocker we are still learning each other.

I really like your 3rd paragraph. I bet that sums up most of us on here and our 4 legged companions it’s a bit like kids we know it a bumpy road but you work your way through the rough !

Thanks Again 

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Ps edit to add it was WalkedUp who posted vids of his pals working a 200 yard blind retrieve  must put my reading glasses on in future apologies

But Walker570 and WalkedUp are close and you Both have stunning dogs IIRC

Agriv8

Just a small point on your lad  mole my dad had a similar experience with a disruptive lab he took on at about 12 months ( virtually untrained and untrainable allegedly )she turned into his best dog and god she had a nose ! Remember dad leaning against grouse but in sideways rain and hail talking to colonel Dawson, might take her a while colonel but shell find it the wind and rain had distributed the sent track but she worked and worked kept picking up bits of scent her patience and equal stubbornness she finally picked it. she made sure she swaggered past The Colonel who gave the slightest nod towards my dad and that was thanks enough. We packed up after that drive one of the only times I remember us being rained off

Agriv8

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Don't want to get into silly stories and hyjack the thread but I will.  High up the side of a mountain above Glanusk Park one morning I was a standing gun and a pheasant came of the top and I gave it both barrels thinking I had missed it I looked down at my Lab Muffin who was following it with his eyes and eventually looked up at me as to say I know where that is. Now below us a field away was a dry stone wall leading into a 30 acre fir wood. I clicked him on and he vanished down the field.   The drive finished and we moved along to the next drive off the same high bank. A shoot member commented that Muff had not returned and I quietly said, "well he aint found it yet".  We had almost finished that next drive when someone shouted , "your dogs on his way back and has a cock pheasant".   The Game Keeper, the late Stuart Jarvis chipped in and said " Yes, he's probably fetched it from one of my release pens" and the party erupted with laughter.  Muffin was the best dog I ever owned.

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I love old stories like that and it’s in the dog section so why not carry on

one of the ones I Remember was one of the back guns had shot an old fox that tony our keeper ( and my dads best mate ) and keeper from next shoot over Terry had been after  for at least a year or two.

it was loaded in the trailer with us beaters dogs and everything else. Terrys dog was one of the best behaved and well trained dogs but she kept whimpering and growling at this fox much to terrys dissatisfaction!. 
 

Sure  enough further up the road we realised the fox was still breathing and starting to snarl back!

The syndicate I beat at now 4 (terry is one and my old man is one of the others still meet up and ‘ keep the birds in ‘  my old man’ he’s riddled with arthritis but determined to keep hobbling about it’s a social event as much as a shoot. 

one of the reasons I started going with my old man I was at Tony funeral I realised I only say these people I grew up with in such sad times so made a promise to see them when they were at there happiest while they still can! 
 

most of the time tellin is youngsters how hard it was in there day and what we are doing wrong !

finally it’s only right that favourite memories of our companions go down in word always said we need a do obituary section! To help with the grieving !?!

Agriv8

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3 hours ago, Walker570 said:

DO NOT tempt me and start me off !!!!!   81 years of memories from when my mother carried me into the air raid shelte......no no no   there is not enough room on this forum

I think you could have your own thread. We all learn from stories. If you haven't had the chance to learn from your own experience, you might as well learn from other people's.

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Wow 🤩 what an awesome thread, have loved reading it from start to finish some really good stories! 
 

I grew up with pointer cross lab’s (pets not gun dogs as I knew nothing of shooting other than clays). As a very young teenager I remember walking them and finding it so cool how they would just stop and point and then flush pheasants, deer, rabbits etc.  At the time I just thought it was because they where dogs sniffing things out and wanting to chase, a few years older and a little wiser/knowledgeable now and I can’t wait to find my first working dog likely to be a gsp or gsp x lab. 
 

keep the stories coming folks they’re great. 

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One of my all time favourite points happened on Lamb Hill, Slaidburn in the Forest of Bowland. 

First drive was with a syndicate gun who was letting his friend shoot and decided to come in the beating line for a stroll. Really nice guy and we are chatting n the way out, he asked “are we going to see those German dogs actually point then?” I replied “not always, depends more on the bird sitting tight and the wind but let’s give it a good go”. The gun walked with me as my two dogs quartered the Moor in the sun, shimmering like grey mackerel. It is always pressure having a gun or the keeper on your shoulder as any mistake from the dog is looked down upon, less of a problem if you are one of 15 black labs but as the only two grey beasts you really worry about giving the breed and your dogs a bad showing.  I was working the old dog far out in loops covering a crossing backwind with my long dead (and all time favourite) bitch Dulcie kept closer in as it was her first season on game. The Moor is flat at the top with a small rise then falls away and opens out fully revealing a magnificent valley of lush purple heather, with a line of butts half a mile or more ahead between craggy rocks the other side of the bracken filled gorge a fast stream runs down. We lost sight of first the dog then the bitch as they each crested the ridgeline. In this situation you can sit the dogs on the crest to catch them up and then send them on once you can see ahead if nervous of the unseen dog being unsteady to a hare or bumping birds away from the guns. I ummed and ahhed but had just enough faith to gamble on them and let the dogs work their patterns fluidly rather than interrupt proceedings. However, as we crested the hill neither dog could be seen quartering - a heart in the mouth moment - fortunately both dogs were actually on staunch point, but 100 yards apart. Never being in that position before I hesitated for a moment then sent the young bitch in first. About a dozen grouse apperated from the heather around her.

The dog stayed steady far out to my right so I then approached and sent him in, producing a double-brood of well over a dozen birds. The sky had exploded with grouse and we flagged furiously to turn all of them towards the butts whilst they were climbing and before they could set their wings and slide past with indifference. The gun and I watched in awe as the covey of birds the dogs had found beautifully swooped over the Moor in front of us, rocketing over the gulley and then into a sustained volley of gunfire at the butts. It was magical and I felt so proud of the dogs, I couldn’t resist milking the moment ... “Fancy that, it looks like they can point after all”.

My current dogs are not at that standard for the moor. We have concentrated on lowland shooting for too many seasons and I long to get back out there though. A lot of hours and miles ahead if I want to do that again. 

Edited by WalkedUp
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Walked up don’t mind coming across a bit soft but a but that was quite a write up ! You paint a beautiful picture with your word almost poetic and thanks for sharing.

my pip worked the  moors three time now all tidy up days . She needs a grouse moor as she works so well you can see she in her happy place the mildest instruction from me. Her looks to me are am I doing ok dad ? A ‘get on ‘ or ‘away’ or ‘find it’ and a hand out left or right and she’s away. We are getting there in the woods but I think at the moment there are two many sents in a small area and it’s almost see her getting over stimulated I am a spaniel and dad it’s my job to check them all out and see if I can find it for you ! 
 

sorry we have digressed but why not you certainly brought a warm autumn glow to my Friday walked up and we are in  the dog section!

Walker570 share away if you got the time I’ll read em and I am sure many others will too, think of it as therapy without the bill !

Agriv8

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London best - my grandad was a tenant farmer there and would have beat on a number of shoots - he moved down wharfdale  before 1980.

there moors are still very active I walked round stocks resovior with the dog and family a few weeks ago still a huge number of pheasant and partridge about dog got very over excited ( but they feed grain direct onto track )

will find out if my dad can remember which shoots they went to

20 hours ago, London Best said:

@WalkedUp

I shot grouse on that very moor a couple of times in the early 1980’s.

 

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1 hour ago, Agriv8 said:

London best - my grandad was a tenant farmer there and would have beat on a number of shoots - he moved down wharfdale  before 1980.

there moors are still very active I walked round stocks resovior with the dog and family a few weeks ago still a huge number of pheasant and partridge about dog got very over excited ( but they feed grain direct onto track )

will find out if my dad can remember which shoots they went to

 

I may be able to say exactly when I was there by looking in old game books.  We went with Ken Aldridge of A.C. Sporting services.  
I believe Jack Charlton went with Ken and filmed the Grouse episode of the ‘Jack’s Game’ series there?

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