Wagging Tails
Show Gundog Working Certificate
by Sharon Hennessey
Having had no real gundog training experience I decided, practically
about 15 months ago, that I was going to train Jack (Clandrift Dark Legend)
to the gun. I set about and found some training classes which I tried
to attend regularly. Slowly we made progress bearing in mind the poor
trainer not only had to train the dog but me as well, that was a feat
all on its own. My aim was to pass the Show Gundog Working Certificate
(SGWC) as I felt I didn’t just want to have a pretty boy, I also
wanted a dog to do what he was bred for, work to the gun. In October I
noticed that The Eastern Counties Golden Retriever Club was planning to
hold a Show Gundog Working Certificate on 5th December 2008 at Ampton
Shoot so I decided to give it a go and made an entry.
The next six weeks did not bode well as far as training was concerned,
as unfortunately I had a little stay in hospital and following that hubby
and I went on a two weeks holiday returning just before “D”
day. Well I was in two minds whether to go or not but in the end decided
that I had never done anything like this before, had paid my money so
would go along for the experience and treat the day if nothing else as
a training day.
We arrived at the Ampton Shoot, Gt Livermere, Suffolk which was hosted
by Peter Hammond and the Icklingham Syndicate in plenty of time. The day
was very cold and there had been a freeze the night before. To my horror
as we drove along the lanes there were birds everywhere, Jack had now
seen them and was getting excited, he had never seen so many birds as
unlike most dogs who take their SGWC we had been unable to obtain experience
on a shoot prior to the day. As soon as we arrived I got Jack out and
did a little bit of obedience with him some sit, stays and recalls just
on the lead to try and remind him that we were here to work and it was
not a walk in the park to play with all the other dogs that had turned
up. We all got our competitor numbers and were split in to two groups
and where allotted to one of the two judges who were Jim Gale (A Panel)
and David Barnes (B Panel); the outline of the day was then explained
to us all.
We
walked to the field which was ploughed and made heavy going and were lined
up besides the guns each group having 4 guns each. The beaters worked
the wood in front of us and flushed the birds out so that they flew out
and over the guns. The sky started to rain birds and we later heard that
nearly 100 birds had been shot. At this point the dogs had to prove that
they were not gun shy and would not whine in line so in turn each handler
was asked to remove the lead. I must confess I was a little nervous, not
only had Jack not seen so many birds but he had never been so near to
a gun before. I tried to cover up my nerves and pulled myself together
and told him to stay, heart pounding I took off the lead, and that is
where he stayed sitting calm and steady watching and taking in everything
around him. Now came the next test, to send your dog and pick up freshly
shot game something that Jack had never done before. One by one we were
called forward by the judge – we were told we could pick up any
bird and bring it back which was then tested to ensure that the ribcage
was in tact. This was going to be the biggest test for Jack, I dared not
think of all the scenarios that could have happened, would he not even
pick the bird up or would he pick the bird and be last seen running off
into the distance, my mind was in overdrive. The first two dogs and gone
and made it look oh so easy now Jack and I were being called forward.
I sat him up, took off the lead and sent him off, immediately Jack went
off to the right where he had marked a couple of cock birds earlier. He
picked one up and the judge said encouragingly, “Now just get him
to come back”, I whistled him and to my absolute delight he came
back placing the bird right in my hand, Phew, I felt I could breathe again.
The judge then took the bird and checked that it had not been damaged
in anyway.
Next we were asked to hunt and face cover, I in my naivety thought that we would do this separately. Wrong, all dogs were let off their leads together to clear the rest of the game from the field; Jack had never been in this situation before working with other dogs off the lead, I was petrified that he would now think that it was play time and go off to play with all the other dogs. No I was proved wrong again, he took everything in his stride and off he went into the cover to find other wounded or dead birds. Once we had finished both groups met at the pond for the final part of the test. Up until this point I had no idea how I was doing but I learnt that the judges had been telling people if they were unsuccessful so assumed that no news was good news.
One
by one, we all joined both judges at the water’s edge, a dummy was
thrown and the dog had to be sent to demonstrate that they would enter
the water freely, swim and retrieve. This is the one element that I was
most confident in, Jack loves water no mater how cold. I sat Jack down,
took his lead off and told him to stay; the dummy was thrown and hit the
water. I gave his command and he leapt off the bank into the water, focused
on that dummy he swam straight to it and returned within a couple of minutes.
The judge said to me “that’s the way to do it, he has done
that before” oh how pleased I was but had we done enough to pass!!
After the water test was completed we all returned to the cars and stood for what seemed an eternity whilst the judges consulted their notebooks and the certificates were written out. The judges then read out the names of all those who had been successful and to my delight Jack had now become Ir Ch Clandrift Dark Legend JW, I was so proud to have finally reached my goal - or is it the first rung of the ladder. I have so much enjoyed the ups and downs, and boy have there been many, of our training that I don’t want it to stop, so who knows where it will lead to we will have to wait and see. I am however, extremely grateful or all the help, training and encouragement I have received from Jill Whitwell, Maddie & Paul Burr and Dick Pettit thank you all very much