Sam was improving in a full day of dog training with others performing well at retrieving dummies and birds but exhibited his normal failing of crunching the birds by mouthing them.
A gale was blowing with cold and rain the other aspects to cope with but Jim became disillusioned after his dog misbehaved and he got two bootfuls of water from straying out of his depth
Sam benefited enormously from an important experience of humanisation later which, being kept outside, he normally lacks
Today was wet, windy and very cold but this did not stop us training all day with a full schedule. We all slept well, and Jimmy was not too affected by my snoring though we did stay awake very late putting the world to rights! It was a better day for Sam after the aggression of yesterday and he did some good retrieves upon both dummies and birds.
**"Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
The estate in which we had hired the cottages had now finished the shooting with the end of the game season and so we could get some pheasants and pigeons and use their woods and cover to make some blind retrieves. Sam got one of each after a good hunt in both cases but exhibited his normal failing of crunching the birds by mouthing them. His dummy retrieves were made at the end of the day on the salt marshes and sand dunes of the nearby nature reserve. He was also good at crossing inlets and swimming when needed but found nothing when quartering.
A gale was blowing with cold and rain the other aspects to cope with, but I had brought waterproofs and kept warm and dry. Jim became disillusioned after his dog misbehaved and he got two bootfuls of water from straying out of his depth. These doubts developed into arguments with the trainer and a confrontation with Ben whom he beat up a few times. A long drive later to find a pub in which to meet, drink and, eventually, eat and we allowed our dogs inside to lay in front of our log fire. Sam benefited enormously from being petted and playing with Ben and I managed to keep him under reasonable control. Others handled him and fussed him so that he had an important experience of humanisation which, being kept outside, he normally lacks.