Del Bower is the Manager of Otter Nurseries Lymington in Hampshire.
He has had a keen interest in country pursuits for many years. His first working gundog Jess an English Springer Spaniel was a rescue dog who he trained up for the shooting field. They were an inseparable partnership and she used to go to work with him everyday when he worked in forestry. Del and Jess were a regular partnership and could be seen on many shoots for over 8 years in North Hampshire and West Sussex area.
He has had a keen interest in country pursuits for many years. His first working gundog Jess an English Springer Spaniel was a rescue dog who he trained up for the shooting field. They were an inseparable partnership and she used to go to work with him everyday when he worked in forestry. Del and Jess were a regular partnership and could be seen on many shoots for over 8 years in North Hampshire and West Sussex area.
After her sad loss Del went for 10 years without a dog until he moved back to the New Forest area and took up country pursuits again and along came Meg a springer spaniel puppy who became a new member of the family. Meg was so different from the easy going Jess!! So Del and his wife Katy joined a gundog training club and started to learn about training gundogs again right from scratch.
Fast forward 5years and Del and his wife have added another springer - Ruby bred by Sandra Blake a trainer with Purbeck Gundog School which his wife is training, as well as Bramble – a Working Cocker Spaniel from Corbinsbere Gundogs.
Bramble is a bundle of Joy- very lively!! Del has learnt so much since those early days with Jess!
Del is now regularly training with Bramble at local gundog clubs and thoroughly enjoys working her at his local shoot at Ashley Clinton. He has also had success competing at various local working gundog tests. He now enjoys writing about his experience with Bramble and his love of the countryside, his observations and the trials and tribulations of training a gundog.
 A Journey with Bramble.... My Working Cocker Spaniel: Written by Del Bower. I'm feeling restless, and I do not exactly know why. Spring with all that comes with it, has barely begun. The restlessness I think is properly because I am missing the winter months and with it the shooting season and hanker for their return. I know I need to be patient though for it will soon come around again. For now I need to just enjoy what's in front of me. I stand and marvel at the acres of woodland laid out before me. Woodlands which will soon have a magnificent green canopy shielding everything below like a protective umbrella. In the months that follow the green will eventually give way to yellows, oranges, reds and gold in the autumn, but first it must lift itself and wake fully from its winter slumbers. Looking around I can see the hawthorn hedge-line, the coppiced hazel, the mighty oak, and majestic beech, and here and there you can see the scattered evidence of the previous year. As we go forwards and enter the woods we can see the woodland floor covered with the beech-mast, acorns and nuts, laying about everywhere. I look out from the cover of the woods into the recently sown field I see a rare site of a stoat scurrying about his business on the edge of the headland before darting back into cover and safety. From the trees, and hedges there is the call from the choir as a casual morning chorus starts up from a number of its residents; and there as always from a well-chosen perch a robin is staking his claim to all that would take notice of him, of course there were none who were. In the spring air you can feel the seasonal change. Soon the familiar call of the cuckoo, who since last summer has long been silent; will once again return along with many other of his migrating feathered friends from their winter abodes. For now it isn't a time to be thinking of autumn or the winter months for I know its a long way off. The arrival of autumn will herald the start of a new shooting season and before then there is a lot of training to be put in with the spaniels. Last season highlighted some issues that developed into problems as each shoot day passed. So as the days get longer it's time to make the most of the extra daylight and take the dogs back into the training field to work on those issues. The stop whistle was a major problem with my working cocker spaniel Bramble, the little madam who took on an air of I know best as each drive progressed during the season. Like so many dogs that experience the shooting field for the first time, they go up a gear. With the scent of game under their noses, the hunting drive kicks in and we need to learn how to mould that in our dog and not suppress it. With this in mind I set out with Bramble at heel. She stays steady without pulling and we walk through the woods and out the other side. Taking the track next to the field I could see her nostrils twitch as she picks up the scent of its residents, a herd of cows. Even from where we were on the field edge we could hear the sound of the cows browsing the spring grass, snorting and blowing softly between mouthfuls. We walk on until we reach the training ground, and as we enter I looked around and it seemed we had the world all to ourselves. The early spring morning seems solitary, the green field was ours to do as we liked with. Sitting Bramble up, I throw a dummy out into the grass. It touched down, bounced once and settled. Bramble sat and stares forward marking its resting place twenty or so metres away. "Get on" she leaps forward like a sprinter out of the blocks. She has so much speed, she eats up the ground in seconds and I have to hit the stop whistle before she completely covers the gap between me and the dummy. Her momentum carries her forward a few more strides and then she turns and looks at me quizzically. I quietly and without fuss walk forwards to where she is standing. Without being harsh I bring her back to the spot where she would have been when I had blown the whistle. "Sit". She does as instructed and I blow a single pip on the whistle to reinforce the command before returning to my position. Turning I wait to make sure she has settled, “get out". Again she is out of the blocks like a missile, she races to the canvas dummy, scoops it up in a single action and races back to where I stand. We repeat the exercise and this time on the pip of the whistle she slows, turns and after no more than a second or two lowers her rear quarters to the ground. She's unsure, is this right dad? "Good girl" I call and go forwards and stroke her head, and you could see her visibly relax. I return to my spot "Get on" she's off again her shorten tail twirling like at propellor driving her on. Again she scoops up the retrieve and delivers back to me. Watching a dog pick up a retrieve cleanly, turn and come directly back to the handler and make a clean delivery to hand, is something to behold. Standing there watching Bramble now, so fast and stylish, it never stops drawing admiring glances from other handlers at training classes and I stand there now with a big grin on my face, this is what I love about gundog training those little moments of success. With success there is also a lot of downs though so I need to move on to the next problem and not get lost in the moment. After being sent for a retrieve Bramble will hurtle back at lightning speed and leap at me from a distance – catching me squarely around the midriff. This is unacceptable, and I'm not really sure what caused this. I do know that I am properly at fault though as in the early days in order to obtain a good delivery, I encouraged Bramble in early training to jump up with the retrieve. I think if I was to enforce the stop whistle 100% both on the out run and on the return I might be able to crack two problems in one, so next time out we need to move on. So we leave it there on a high before she starts getting bored or sloppy. Taking the track I head homewards taking the long way around the field boundaries, not that this way is very much longer but rather because this way one avoids the bridge, the stream and the ducks and with it the temptation for Bramble to splash through the water and get refreshingly muddy and wet.  |
RSS Feed