Seven-year-old puppy

A man in a homburg politely stepped aside to let me pass with my wheeled suitcase.  The man's small dog stepped aside with him as my suitcase popped over the seams and cracks of the sidewalk.  I walked by and I caught the dog's quick glance up toward the face of the man, who was preoccupied with his thoughts for the day.  It was a quick glance.  Looking for assurance.  The wheeled suitcase might have been vaguely threatening to the dog, who was thus comforted by the total indifference of his master to the contraption.

There was a time when Larsen would have sought the same quick reassurance perhaps for a wheelie suitcase bouncing over an uneven sidewalk.  Not long ago, it seems, he shied from a snowman and would not walk past, until finally he worked up the courage to sniff it and then pee on it.

Today, Larsen would be as indifferent to the snowman as the man in the hat was to my suitcase.

However, here and there puppyhood shows itself.  After dinner, Larsen will pull out the most obnoxious of his squeak toys to gain anyone's attention .  He will bring a shoe from the closet and drop it with a thump to demonstrate how bad he has suddenly become.  Once such behavior has been demonstrated, I'm obligated to drop to the floor and lead him on a merry chase through the house, grabbing at him as he growls and bites me and as we torment one another in joyous play.

Happy birthday to a seven-year-old pup as he tries to instigate evening mahem.

Genuine steady

Maybe it's been my time running Zelda or maybe it is something inside Larsen himself, but there is a genuine connection in our outings.  This connection was electric today when Larsen was steady - - sitting, no less - - to two birds at Tim's.

Tim's plan was as follows:

First, we quartered Larsen on an empty field.  The field turned out to be not empty after all, as two of Tim's pigeons landed and strutted about.  Larsen got wound up as he got closer to the birds, but we continued to quarter.  The birds flushed themselves, so we heeled Larsen off the field.

This led to step two.  Larsen was put onto the place board and we walked around him.  A radio played in the background, and kenneled dogs whined.  The effect was to disturb tranquility.  Tim shot his starter pistol and, on occasion, tossed a pigeon into the mix.  Larsen was interested and eager, but ultimately settled down.  That was important, Tim said.

Now for step three.  I kenneled Larsen in the car.  Tim and I visited with Tim's little boy, Carsen, and we let Larsen cogitate on everything that had occurred.  Tim said that spaniels are thinking dogs and that Larsen would consider the events of the day.

Finally: step four.  Tim put out a bird and I quartered Larsen.  The wind was at our back, so Larsen found the bird coming in to me, not far off.  Tim shot and missed and I pipped the dog in.

On the second bird, Larsen flushed the bird and sat, as he had done on the first.  I kept my eye on Larsen and Tim shot the bird, which came down a good 40 yards off.  Larsen lost sight of the bird, so we enjoyed a hunt-dead.

This was an outing with two genuine sits-to-wing-and-shot, a hunt dead, and a successful retrieve.  This is real progress.

Yes and No

Zelda and I had good success at the ESS Hunt Test in Bowman, Georgia, but not so at the Bokin Spaniel Test this past weekend in Batesville, SC.

We hunted a thorny, close area on Saturday at the Boykin test.  The field provided a good test of a clumber spaniel's steady, nose-oriented hunting style.  Zelda was steady to her birds, but had the misfortune to flush a sucker bird - - a 20-foot flier that landed on a line between me and the dog.  As Zelda sat, I hesitated to send her for the bird or even call her back because I did not want to be flunked due to "encouragement."   In the few seconds this goes through your head, Zelda resolved the condition by pouncing after the bird.  The bird flushed, Zelda sat, and then was sent for a nice retrieve.  After deliberation the judges determined that the self-dismissal was a break.

On Sunday, Zelda flushed three birds that flew in directions that precluded a shot.  She was steady on each and was passed on her land effort.  We did not fair well on the water blind, which was set at a very obtuse angle of about 140 degrees.  This primed the dog for bank-running.  Worse still, was that a bucket of birds was positioned on the bank (180 degrees) about 20 yards from the dog.  Confused, Zelda entered the water but would come ashore.  She finally ambled to the bird bucket and fetched a bird for me.  Amusing, but not what was wanted, so we were dismissed.

At both the Boykin test and the prior-week's ESS test, Zelda hunted with me.  Coming around to my whistles and hand signals.  A genuine hunting experience.  My improved skills are reducing the volume of bees buzzing about my head as I manage the dog in the field.  I am now eager to try my improving capabilities on Larsen, and hope to have him in the field this coming weekend.