August is here and that means training. Plenty of running in “dog training areas” in the mountains for fitness, but important also that the dogs experience bird situations too. There is always some polishing to do, and good that the excitement of the first birds has passed by the time the competitions and hunting begin for real. Last week Perdiz and I travelled to Janne and Jenny Bodell of Viijagarens in Sweden and took part in a training course in collaboration with Kristina Edh of Zettertjärns. What a fabulous training! The hunting terrain is perfect, plenty of birds (ptarmigan) so the dogs got lots of experience on birds, but not so many that it is unnatural. Perdiz had to make good use of her impressive search. Kristina has much experience to share and gave me useful tips both on how to improve Perdiz’s performance, but equally importantly also mine. Perdiz was matched with another Zettertjärns girl, Yakira and hunted “against” her for much of the time. Very useful for me to sharpen my competitive edge and practice getting my dog into the bird first.
Perdiz and I ended the course with a good bird work resulting in Perdiz taking point in dense bushes. She flushed on my command from a distance towards me. While the bird (with me standing in the way of where it wanted to fly) danced on Perdiz’s nose as it tried clumsily to fly directly up, she sat on the whistle. She rounded off the performance with an elegant apport. What a way to end a successful couple of days.