Yesterday afternoon, I decided to make the most of the beautiful early spring weather and take Buster and my Ultimate Sporter for a half hours wander around my squirreling permission. We lazily walked along the hedgerows, but spotted nothing. Buster had a bit of a dip in the brook, then we went home.
I actually woke before Buster this morning, at 2:55 to be precise. We were both ready by 3:15 to go out for our usual early morning walk, but this time I had a surprise for Buster. I picked up my camo gun bag, it's the one I keep the Ultimate Sporter in, and Buster knows this. He immediately started to do laps around the house, he was just so excited that we were going on an early morning hunting trip, something we haven't done for almost six months now.
When we arrived at one of my farm permissions, I couldn't believe just how dark it was after getting out of the car. I waited for a few minutes to allow my eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. Then we started to walk alongside the first hedgerow. Arriving at a five bar gate, I rested my hand on the top bar and laid the rifle on my hand. Pressing the tail cap switch of my Deben Tracer torch, I could immediately see three rabbits at various distances, picked out by the bright white light. Shouldering the rifle, I selected the nearest to me rabbit. Just as I settled the aim point for a headshot, I spotted the black and white tip of Busters tail appearing in the very bottom of the sight picture. Fortunately, at this stage I hadn't yet pressed the safety button on the trigger blade. I have tried to get into the habit of pressing it just before taking the shot. Good job too. I could so easily have sent 8.4 grains of Air Arms finest lead, flying up my dogs backside. Needless to say, I lost any opportunity of a shot at any of the three rabbits, as they scarpered off with Buster in pursuit.
So, we carried on along the hedgerow until we reached the next field, which we entered, to try and stalk to a bank that is covered in brambles, about 75 yards from the entrance. There are a couple of trees, around 25 yards in, and another a further 10 yards in, so if we could get to the furthest tree without spooking the rabbits, even if they reached cover, I still had a shot with a maximum range of about 40 yards, well within my comfort zone on a still morning with a solid tree for support. On the walk between the two fields, I kept whispering to Buster "stay at heel, stay at heel, stay at heel". When the opportunity for a shot arose, I was hoping that my commands would still be in his head and that this time, he wouldn't go charging in. Reaching the furthest tree, I switched the torch on, only to see a couple of bunnies giving it legs towards the brambles. Unusually, they didn't even sit for a second when they reached the brambles, diving straight in and disappearing into the thick cover. I should imagine that Buster and I had got too close and the smell of dog and human was enough to spook them. Anyway, I casually swept the beam of the torch around to our right and spotted another rabbit, happily munching away on some grass. It seemed to be oblivious to our presence and presented me with a relatively straightforward, 30 yard shot.
This time Buster did what he should do and waited for the 'fetch it' command. Once commanded, he raced out to the rabbit and once there, he did his usual habit of hovering over it for a few seconds before picking it up. I think he probably inhales deeply, taking in the scent of the rabbit before revelling in the fact that he is just about to carry out his part of our teamwork. But, yet again, he showed some ring rustiness. He picked the rabbit up and started to trot off in the opposite direction. I didn't want to start shouting at him, he was doing his job but obviously wanted his bit of work to last a lot longer than usual. Eventually he bought the rabbit back to me, but refused to present it to me. After asking him to drop it, at least a couple of times, he decided to trot off towards the entrance of the field, still carrying the rabbit. I followed him, but made certain that he dropped the rabbit beside me, before leaving the field.
I thought it would probably be best to return back to the car, pop the rifle and rabbit inside, and then just take Buster for a walk. I didn't want to get too worked up about his behaviour, I also didn't want to chastise him when he was only doing what I've trained him to do, but this morning, in his own way. As we passed the five bar gate to the first field, I couldn't resist just shining the torch into the field. I was very surprised to see a young adult rabbit, feeding quite happily, and apparently totally unaware of our presence. I rested my elbows on the top of the gate, which allowed me a nice steady shot. I was able to follow the pellet all the way to it's target, as the light was reflected back from inside the skirt. A perfect strike and the rabbit instantly crumpled, not even the slightest twitch. Again, Buster waited for the command and raced out to retrieve the rabbit for me. Yet again, when he eventually returned, after taking a very long way round, he refused to present the rabbit. This time, we instigated a stand off, I wasn't going to allow Buster to carry on with the rabbit in his mouth, he wasn't prepared to drop it for me. After a minute or so, Buster realised this wasn't getting him anywhere, and he reluctantly dropped the rabbit.
We did go for a short walk after popping the rifle and rabbits in the car, it was the least that I could do. But it is looking like I am going to have do some refresher training with the old fella. I would like to think that once we get back into a regular routine, it will all come flooding back to him, and I'll have my old shooting partner back again. I still love him to bits though.
Mike.
