Keeper’s diary

Adam Cope tells Richard Faulks about the 'necessary evil' of dogging-in and how vital it is in keeping the birds put for the shoot

Dogging-in, and you can quote me on this, “is a pain in the arse”.

But it is a necessary pain. Fail to take it seriously and put in the hours, your shoot will suffer and you’ll loose no end of birds, perhaps 40-50%. If you have neighbouring shoots… well, they will love you if you’re not diligent. This year, especially with the mild conditions, has been “full on” and it seems that I’ve had to spend more time out with Teal than usual chasing birds back into the areas where I want them. The weather has a significant effect on how the birds behave. Mild foggy days seem to have the birds wandering most, but I do love cold windy days when they seem to want to tuck up in the woods and stay put.

Constant

My dogging-in routine starts at first light when the birds come off roost. Jubilee Wood is the one I have to work the most as it’s the nearest to my shoot boundary. If I’m not in place waiting for them, they’re off onto my neighbour’s shoot and who knows how many I’d loose. So I set an ambush and Teal Some fields are easier than others to spot birds, rape and sugar beet being tricky battle. If you push in from one side of the shoot it seems you make a bulge in the other.

After I’ve pushed in the main areas of concern, I then spend time around the shoot boundaries to learn where other danger points are for losing birds. What is in the surrounding fields plays a big part as to where I spend my time. Rape and sugar beet fields are a problem as birds are difficult to spot and easily lost in them.

Spending time around the shoot has many other benefits and this being my second year on it I now know where the birds want to be and at what time. I can monitor their movements, check on numbers, watch for predators and make sure that they’re fit and healthy. All of this information helps me to plan the sequence of drives on shoot days. If you can shoot them at a time of day that you know the birds will be there, it will save you much work trying to move the birds around to fill the cover plots. Obviously, the number of birds will change over the course of the

“Knowing your ground will allow you to spot changes”

season in each drive, and also where the birds want to be will change as cover plots thin out. Knowing your ground and being there constantly will allow you to spot these changes and adjust your shoot day plans accordingly. There is no point in trying to shoot a drive that is furthest from the roost wood first as it won’t have been filled yet but it may well be by lunchtime. Shoot it then.

A natural

I’ve been very lucky with Teal as it seems to come naturally to him and he’s not really needed training. He seems to know that I want him move through undergrowth and along hedgerows pushing birds out. He’s very thorough and won’t get too far ahead of me. It’s inevitable that there will be a few birds pegged each year, but he does have a soft mouth and the birds are easily released and seem to be unharmed. If you are training a dog for this kind of work, it would be very similar to the way you would train a dog for beating. You need to have a dog that hunts well and will come back to the whistle when needed. I now have a pup (Willow) who will start coming out with us soon. She’s six months old and I hope I’m as lucky with her as I have been with Teal. Hopefully Teal will “tutor” Willow and I won’t have to do too much training.

Chris Hope, one of my beaters and a great dog man, has given me a Ruff and Tumble coat for Teal and it’s fantastic (you can find them on the internet). At the end of a tough cold, wet day I put the dog in it and the material wicks the moisture away and keeps him warm while I sort the guns and birds out. By the time I get him home, he’s dry. It can also be used to cool your dog in the summer.

A sad day. The pair of Muck Boots I’ve been testing have finally given up the ghost. I’ve been wearing them day in, day out for about a year, including 40-plus shoot days. In my job, work clothes don’t tend to last long and for boots to last a year (no other pair have) tells you all you need to know about them. They will be sorely missed.