Last week we had a field lesson at Gamekeepers. First, Mitch set up a “big dog” T drill for Devon. The back pile was at least 80 yards and the side piles were at least 60 yards from the center. This was more distance than Devon had seen to date, so we were really pushing her. She did just a fantastic job. She slipped one whistle and had a no go toward the end of the drill, but other than that she did just great.
After the T drill, Mitch wanted to see some long marks in his front field. Devon got the first mark at about 90 yards. Mitch moved to another location to set up a mark about 120 yards long. As he was setting up, I heard a sound and in my subconscious I noted it was an animal sound. However, as it continued, my subconscious registered it was an “out of place” animal sound, and I locked in that it was a cat meowing. I turned, and sure enough there was a brown tiger cat meowing walking up behind us. I turned to see how Devon was handling this since she had no leash on and I wasn’t holding her, and she only had eyes for Mitch. Good girl!
So Mitch threw the bumper and I sent Devon. As she was going out for her mark, this friendly cat came and started winding its way around my feet. As Devon started to come back with the bumper, I yelled to Mitch about the cat. He was shocked and said most cats stayed away because of the dogs, and he asked what I thought Devon would do. I said, “Well, we’ll find out.” Devon has been around cats inside, but she’s never had one run from her. You should have seen the look on Devon’s face when she saw the cat at my feet. She was about 20 yards away when she saw it, bumper in mouth at a dead run. She made a quick decision and headed right at the cat, which smartly ran about 15 yards to my left (I can’t imagine what the cat thought). After removing it from my feet, she returned to heel and never bobbled her bumper – GOOD GIRL!
I yelled to Mitch and asked what I should do about the cat. He said take the bumper and release Devon to see what she’d do. So I did. As soon as I got the bumper and gave her a release word, Devon turned and took off toward the cat. The cat took off, with Devon in hot pursuit. It made a couple of bad cut back moves, and Devon almost had it twice. As soon as Devon had taken it close to the tree line near the road (this is a dirt road that barely gets half a dozen cars a day), I called her back to me. She looked over her shoulder like, “Mom! You have GOT to be kidding me here! I’m having WAY too much fun!” I decided to add a nick to my “here” and after a couple of light collar nicks, she broke off and came right back to me, settling in heel position. Mitch decided we didn’t need to worry about her retrieving a live duck if she ever got one, because she almost retrieved a live cat back to me!
Devon continued her marks, and then Mitch set up three site blinds, including one with suction to where Devon chased the cat. I’m so proud of my girl. She never once even looked toward where she’d run the cat out of the field but continued to work like a pro! She lined all of her sight blinds except the long one (115 yards) which she got on two handles (three whistles because she slipped the first one). Not bad for the first time handling to a blind!
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