Update on Otto - January 2018

It's been a long while since I wrote an update on Otto but he's now 3 years old and a much more grown up boy.  Last year was a bit hit and miss as he picked up various injuries through silly accidents so missed lots of shows, working tests and training.

However he did make it to Wales for the Welsh Kennel Club championship show in August, coming second in the post graduate class.  This show is a special one for him as it's home soil, being just 30 mins away from the farm he was born on.  It was even more special this time as Otto's baby sister Jesse was also showing.

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Otto (& I) and Jesse with Robina (breeder)

He managed three Novice working tests, scoring well in the first two to finish in the top half of the competitors and then right at the end of the summer we managed a 3rd place which was a really nice surprise as the various injuries meant we hadn't trained as much as we hoped to.

The training we did manage to do was mainly with a new group set up by Brenda Moss and Larry Wilks of Arany Gundogs at the Commonleys Clay Shoot.  Brenda put on an excellent Natural Ability Test which included hunting and pointing partridge, a pigeon retrieve over a jump and another from water, a track of a rabbit off the leash and a gun sensitivity assessment.  Otto performed beautifully all day scoring really well, particularly with the pointing and tracking.

Otto pointing a caged partridge © Jennifer Hurley

When the shooting season started we were stopped in our tracks again with Otto getting injured for a third time, so we missed out on a shot over training day for newbies.  However once Otto was better Brenda & Larry invited us on a rough shooting day which was very educational and fun, I learnt a lot and realised I need to do a lot more training with Otto. 

Frustratingly Otto has started to not retrieve game properly, fussing with it rather than bringing them straight back.  Frustrating as his retrieving has always been his strongest part of the Hunt, Point, Retrieve.  Best advice for now is to take a break and revisit game next year to see if he grows out of this...  I really hope so!!

A couple of videos of Otto pointing some pheasants in the summer.