running them altogether, I would spot the rabbit in the beam, hiss him on and he would just stand there watching them made no attempt to even move, they were long slips and probably impossi- ble to catch, but I was used to the bull x do or die dogs, who could get lucky now and then in such circumstances. The rabbit numbers were already starting to get low, and those that were left this far into the season were savvy to the lamp, so these kinds of slips were the norm by then.
I wrote my concerns on a different hunting forum at the time, views ranged from him being a jacker, to a thinker, to me giving him too much too young, I was gutted to say the least, as I said I had never had a dog do this before and really did not want it to happen, no matter how intelligent he was!
His second season he started the same, picking and choosing his runs, although he did pick up by the end of it, but then again it was more on land he was not used to. I made up my mind I had a thinking dog I had spoiled by giving him too many unobtainable runs, too early in his training.
The 3rd season was a bit of a washout, due to the snow and one thing or another, and to be hon- est I was concentrating more on Rudie at this time with him being a youngster and needing to learn.
At the start of this season I went to see the bone man, Boo has a very slight niggling injury; it would go away after rest and then come back again. The bone man had to click every toe back into place, and if memory serves me right, his back was out in 3 places and his neck in 2, the nig- gling injury was a damaged ligament, but thank god for it, because had it not been for that I probably would not have gone to the bone man and would not now have the 'new' dog I have.
At some point he must have swapped Boo for an identical replacement I can honestly say Boo is now surpassing the bullies for drive and determination, it is not unusual for a double somersault when he strikes, and the little monkey is even pulling on the slip when I'm out in company, something he never did.
The reason I am writing this .....
I decided to have a quick look out local, as it is another perfect lamping night. To cut an already long story short, I ended up in the rough field, the field Boo would pick his runs, and back to the very spot he constantly refused to run. Two rabbits sat next to the fence line, next to the woods. I have to lamp from about 100yrds away uphill, so Boo has to run downhill. I lamped and off he went with no hesitation, I was over the moon he was running but the rabbit was already ambling towards the fence, and I presumed he would lessen his pace knowing it would disappear into the woods, but bugger me he kept on going the rabbit panicked and run along the fence line into some stacked fallen branches. Boo did not hesitate to put on even more pressure and the rabbit shot back out, up the fence line a bit more, at this point they were out of sight behind a small hill, I kept the lamp on and back they came, again the rabbit went into the branches, again it came back out, at this point I am not sure what happened but it looked like Boo had gone under the fence, then back out again and caught the rabbit good style as it tried to get back through.
You know what, this little rabbit has given me even more joy than the first ever one he caught and I have no doubt he will do it again and again now. It just goes to show, not all jackers ............
Are jackers
http://www.thehuntinglife.com I Shoot and Fish E-Zine March 2012 25
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