The drier work is getting easier - the control faults I think have now all been ironed out; I even managed a whole day without a stoppage (despite three breakdowns in part of the system) Laughing Funny how little things like that seem to become important.
We had a good day at Hampshire Gundog Club's Open show - a grand entry of 13 brittanys - not bad for an open show when two days later there were only 20 at a champ show. I have to admit I put it down to the hard work done by my wife who went and personally talked to prospective participants some weeks ago. Certainly a record to HGS to have so many britts. Catja was up to her usual tricks of being a vache normande, Ellie showed her socks off and took her class whilst Fresco seemed to steal the judges heart and took the BoB slot. Unlike his mother he has 'attitude'.
Training wise I am still working on his sit to fall and sit to shot. The problem I am finding however is if Fresco sees the dummy or the pistol he becomes a bit sticky as he awaits / anticipates a retrieve. I felt with a trip to France imminent I should give him a go in an open field on his own. I am pleased with the result - he was running nice and fast and flat to a good distance. A spell in the woods changed his pattern to much closer work. He is a pleasure to take out; however as there is so little game on our ground this year I have yet to see him point anything from being on the run, he has found the odd bird and sat at the flush, but always from the other side of the bush to me! Not a good way to approach a TAN but the best I can do at the moment - I would like to have seen at least a few just for my personal peace of mind.
Took a young Britt and his handler out the other day - they were suffering from the age old problem of the dog doing its own thing. As always one can never reproduce the circumstances when you want to - but when the dog was hunting it was obvious there was no rapport between him and his owner. So we did some work on that. By the end of the morning the owner was amazed not only at what the dog could actually do - but also that I was able to demonstrate the dog really wanted to be with him. A very satisfactory outcome.
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