The woodcock are back. The woodlot where I frequently train Ginger has been devoid of game for quite sometime. The wet fall flooded the area driving the woodcock out early last year. The area has drained, and the temperate weather has brought the bird back in. As you can imagine, having birds to run your dog on is good for a bird dog, and Ginger is no exception. Yesterday, a 200 yard swath of cover gave us 12 woodcock flushes. Today we trod lightly, only working half of the area. We were treated to 4 real nice flushes.
The warm up of the weather also means that all the remaining ice on the water has melted. Naturally a young spaniel will want to swim whenever it can. Here too, Ginger is no exception. So swim she did. But not freely, as I'm sure she would have liked. I set up a couple water blinds, and with hand and whistle guided her to the retrieves. They could have gone better, but for her first blinds of the spring, I'm happy.
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