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The Tuffies Dog Diary:
3rd November 2009. This is a little diary following the lives of the dogs owned by me, Luise. I am the founder and Director of Tuffies and of course the working dogs are the basis of this company. Vulin is the oldest, she is nearly 11 years and works on the occational driven shoot as a beating and picking up dog. Alice, Hungarian Vizsla, is nearly 7 years and was my first HPR. She will do the beating a picking up, but is first and foremost working as a pointer. Tippex, German Wirehaired Pointer, 4 years, is purely used as a pointing dog. Gollum, new kid on the block, is a 7 months old German Wirehaired Pointer. I worked the pointers on grouse for about 25 days during this last season, which has just finished. The work now is very much getting Gollum trained and getting Tippex and Alice in shape for a few woodcock days. In the photo, Gollum's instinct tells him that the scent of a snipe is interesting and my job is to encourage him as he points the bird.Normally a dog will stand on point, but Gollum is just a baby still. |
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6th November 2009: Gollum ran on the moor yesterday, but there were so few birds, he didn't come across any in the space he ran. This morning, I took him on a patch, hoping for woodcock, but we found only pheasants and he did not point them. There was very little wind, so fair enough. We resorted to a bit of dummy training, which he quite enjoys anyway. |
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10th November 2009: Although Gollum ignored three woodcock this morning, he had his first proper point on a pheasant. I even managed to capture the moment. It is fascinating to see how the dog's instinct tells it to stand still. It then requires the handler to encourage the steadiness by praising and keeping the stand. Eventually he is allowed to "get in" to flush the bird. Let's hope he wakes up to the fact that woodcock should also be noticed. |
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19th November Gollum doesn't seem to get the idea about woodcock, so my strategy is now to bring Tippex out to find them and get Gollum to back her up, so he can stand in the "whiff" of the scent and get the idea from her. |
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22 November
Gollum still tripping over the woodcock, so I took him out in the morning and trained Alice and Tippex in the after
noon. We are taking clients out on Isle of Skye in December, so the dogs need to be a bit sharper. Tippex pointed
three woodcock perfectly and missed two. Alice found snipe in the boggy field where we ended the day . The dogs are
working with bright collars and bells so we can hear when they stop on point (or toiletting.....)
3rd December
It can be tricky to know where the dogs are when they suddenly are on point in the thick under-growth. For woodcock, we use bells, but it keeps nagging me that those sensitive dog ears are bothered by the constant ringing so close when the bell is on the collar. So I thought I would experiment with a harness so that the bells are just that little bit further away. Tippex doesn't seem to worry about the harness and I shall see if I can get a flourescent one. Here she is, on point, with her falconers bell on the harness.
17th December 2009
Just back from two days looking for woodcock on Isle of Skye. Not easy to get a close look on these elusive birds, but Tippex pointed several birds and I got lucky enough to see it and whipped the camera out. Most admirable camouflage.
7th January 2010
Back after the break, training the dogs. Gollum is young and needs lots of attention, but this snowy weather makes training a bit hard for walking and, for the dog, finding a dummy. The woodcock can't feed in this cold weather, so I am not looking for them as they are best left in peace to stick the cold weather out. Gollum found a little finch feeding on grass seeds. I took the photo, but he was told just to carry on. We don't want to chase round after little birds like that!!!
27th January 2010
I am still hunting Gollum so he can point birds, but I am now pushing his retrieving a bit on. He loves retrieving and all we do are "blinds" where the dog doesn't know where the dummy is. I send him out, away from me, in the direction of the hidden dummy and he must then go out in a straight line till he can scent the dummy or till I stop him on the whistle and makes him change direction.
I have also introduced him to cold game. A little partridge is put in a sock and Gollum is told to hold it.
I have now combined the training on "blind" dummies with the cold game, so Gollum is sent out in a straight line to find the partridge
I have planted.
However, here he has come off the exact direction and I stopped him to give him new directions.
FOUND IT!!! A rather stiff partridge is retrieved and delivered nicely.
PS: since then, Gollum, who was absolutely fine leaving the chickens in the garden, killed the cockerel!! What a b******** mistake
to make. I should have been a bit more vigilent.
21st March 2010:
I have been training Gollum religiously every morning, but not done enough on this diary. Sorry. I have been very busy with a nice
amount of woodcock in the area and Gollum and Tippex have benefitted enornously. However, I have also battled with Gollums new
found craze: hare coursing. It has been a very, very hard one to radicate and maybe the reason I have not written much.
Anyway, it's now spring and this weekend we have been on the moor hoping to find grouse. Very sad affair so far as it seems the cold winter has done its damage to the population on the local bit of heather.
Here is a little strip showing Tippex refreshing her self in the hot spring sun, using the remaining snow to cool her down.
Gollum hunts really nicely and I don't have to use the whistle for long periods of time as he keeps and eye of the direction of my body. I always get the nice glance as he runs past me:
Next week we are off doing "real" grouse counts, so fingers crossed that we get some good birds.
29th April 2010:
Lots of grouse counting has now been done and it has been a great chance to get Gollum tuned into the scent and to brush up on Tippex' obedience - or at least try to.
Here is Gollum on point, nose up and half crouching down. Rigid on point.
We now have to leave the birds in peace on the hill and the training has begun using dummies and teach the dogs steadiness, taking directions to an un-seen dummy and all the other diciplines such as negotiating the unfortunate barbed wire fences that seems to be everywhere.
Here is Tippex, commanded to sit on her bum while Gollum retrieves a dummy right past her nose.
And here are two different ways of getting past the fences. It kind of depends on your size and how high you can jump.
31st May 2010: Must have been worth the daily training...... Gollum won puppy and came second in Novice in the North of Scotland Gundogs Woring Test. He also won the Novice last weekend. Tippex came third in Open.
Gollum doing pretty well finding the grouse on the back wind. Here he was on point and we just walked toward him and put up the birds.
Alice posing on top of a hill in perfect point. The birds well ahead of her.
And Tippex doing her day's work.