Friday 3rd July 2009

The Signal Centre.
19:30. Bright & sunny, 19c, with breeze from south 2.
Chris and Coco.
I decided to show Coco what I wanted. I took the pair to an adjoining paddock and let Chris have a good gallop around. He was looking hard but I had him fooled. We then walked into the paddock where the bird was, a good hundred yards away. Chris hunted well, he even sort of quartered this relatively narrow piece of ground. I saw him drawing on the bird and let Coco off but I was too early. Before he had pointed Coco was jumping all over him and I had to put Coco back on the lead. Luckily Chris had lost track of the bird in the excitement so  he cast about a couple of times and then he pointed the bird. I had Coco slightly behind him and to one side so that he could see the flush when it came. Coco was looking in the direction of the bird . He was standing up on his toes and looking hard,……..with his nose. To keep his concentration I clicked Chris in a bit more and triggered the launcher. Coco started when the bird flushed but he made no attempt to go in probably because I had the lead tight and I was blowing Chris’ drop whistle. It worked well and some progress was made.