Whaaa!

Yesterday was... interesting.

I had to ride up to Wessex with my dogs, dad, and Jassen, who "discussed my educational future" as Jassen put it. Sounded to me like it was more like dad and Jassen discussing how much they drank during university. But he gave me some useful tips. My mom and Janna rode up with Janna and Jassen's dogs, Lincoln and Asia, who happen to be Pagan's brother and Earl's sister respectively.

We got there, got the birds, and there were lots of people out - Janice, Bill, Janna, Jassen, mom, dad, Tammy, Lorry (gasp - rebel. English Setters, not GSPS), and four adults and one kid - about my age - that we didn't know. Sue and Peter eventually came out with Sabre, too. This one guy, Lorn or Loren or whatever (sounds like old grandpa name but actually he looked young), was the owner of Dock, a puppy from Sydney's last litter. Another guy who's name I don't know and who said hardly anything during the six or so hours that we were out there was Lorn/Loren's friend, I think.

Janice was ecstatic with Dock's performance today. He apparently pointed a bird, and several times ran through camp carting one around and showing everybody. So that was cute, and good.

Pagan was first out in the field and did what she usually did. Hunted fast and decently ranged, found two birds, steady on both of them, to the flush. When they were shot, she'd sniffle at the bird, hesitate, pick it up, and drop it four feet from my dad. So while it was nice to see her good on mostly everything else, still not much progress on the retrieve.

I believe... Asia was out after that. When we first began to set up camp and the dogs were running around, she took off somewhere and it took us a while to find her. She got the shock after that, but MAN. She'll run right through the highest level, or come back, then turn around half way and run off again. So, she found and pointed two birds and eventually retrieved one, but was kind of out of control.

The kid - his name was Alex - eventually started going with Janna and my mom to plant birds, replacing my necessity, and he proved much better at it even though it was his first time. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. So I stayed at camp most of the time, trying to get my dog to shut up, at which I think everyone had a turn because she was pissing them off. Then one of the birds he was planting flew off into the woods, and he ran in and CAUGHT it. YAY. Everyone - LOVE ALEX! Wonder how he did it. I guess he's just that much more awesome.

At one point my father made me go out and plant birds with him and nobody else. I resigned to merely tagging the locations and holding the bird bag while he dug them out and did major dizzying overkill. Yeah, I wasn't prepared to have my technique criticized by a freaking crack addict who spazzed when he lost a second bird and couldn't catch it by crashing through the trees. SERIOUSLY. My mother calls it intense, I call it fucking PSYCHOTIC when you're so vengeful that you start going on about morbidly maiming that chukar "some day" because it escaped your WICKED GRASP OF DOOM! Yes, Alex, one day, that chukar will be sitting there, WAITING for you to "blow its brains out" with a semi-automatic. Then he started saying that we should buy a pheasant for him to shoot. Obviously to vent his rage. ALEX! TIME FOR YOUR HAPPY PILLS, MMKAY? (:

-coughs- ANYWAY. I was nice to every new person there today. Go me. Alex's mom is pretty easygoing, and his dad didn't say much, so I'm just going to assume that it's a chemical imbalance and perhaps not genetic.

Lalala. Lincoln did good, but didn't retrieve, but was good. Rawr. And Willow really impressed Tammy; a bit sloppy on the retrieve initially, like Pagan, but good on mostly everything else. We shared two birds and let Willow and Pagan out on both of them. Dad said they hunted well together. Willow found the first and Pagan honoured her, and Pagan found the second and Willow honoured her, and they both retrieved. Bill was skeptical that they were actually honouring, but you couldn't deny that Pagan honoured Indi when he let Pagan, Asia, Willow, Sketch (English Setter) and Indi out on the two birds that Alex and I planted. She was staring RIGHT at Indi and wasn't even in the right position to be looking at the bird. As they found that bird, Willow and Sketch found the other bird, but it wasn't clear whether they were honouring or not. Indi retrieved, and Willow retrieved. Asia was wandering around looking for her OWN bird!

And if Janice was ectastic with Dock, she was EUPHORIC with Sydney - which is an absolute insult to ALL of the rest of the dogs out there. She was WAY worse than any of them. Except for Dock, but the fact that Sydney's skill is comparable to the skill of a three or four month old puppy is friggin' sad when she's four years old.

Janice watched Pagan's run, and her only comment on it was "That was a sloppy retrieve."

Right. Well. Lets detail out Sydney's run.

Sydney started out with good pace and range, but soon it was obvious that she was just running around like a fool. She ran past the bush with the bird in it upwards of six times before finally deciding there might be something in it. She set up her point DIRECTLY OVER it, tail hanging limply down. Janice said "Whooaaa" and just stood there for a few seconds, during which Sydney started rooting through the bushes with her head. Then she walked over to the other side of the bush, and kind of half-pointed again. Bill said, "Pick her up and put her where she was before." and Janice snapped back, "I know!" and reached for Syd, who lunged at the bird and bumped it. Then she started chasing it. Janice said nothing and took her up into this clearing in the woods, which was heavy enough cover to be for advanced dogs, and Syd ran around like an idiot. They got the bird she had bumped and planted it again, and Sydney did another soft point. Bill flushed and shot, and after a lot of encouragement and some hesitation, Sydney retrieved the bird.

Janice's comments upon returning? "Wow, did you see that?? Awesome!!"

I could have snapped. That was an insult to our dogs when all she could do was criticize them. Sydney's skill is nowhere NEAR being comparable to the other dogs'. Her performance yesterday wouldn't have passed an FDJ test with the judges that Pagan, Willow, Asia, and Lincoln had. But Janice appears to think that she's ready to pass FD tests! FD is the next level up, with higher expectations in what dogs were required to do in FDJ, plus steadiness to flush and good retrieving. Sydney already has her FDJ - got it years ago when she WAS an impressive hunter. Now she's nearly useless.

More later, maybe. o.o; -is done for now-