Yesterday he took me out for a nice long walk in the snow, but just when I was on the scent of a good rabbit he made me stop and pose for this photograph.
Another thing, when he takes me out shooting I'm not allowed to run in... I do anyway, he so rarely hits anything I have to make the most of it, sometimes I just run in when I hear the gun go bang, that makes him really mad.
I suspect he has another bitch somewhere which he goes off and plays with. This season he has been away on several trips without me and always comes home smelling of other dogs. Recently he went away with lots of bags for a long time and came back in a really good mood and was phoning everyone for days talking about Bobwhite Quail, whoever he is! He was stinking of dog after that trip, it took me at least 30 minutes to read his trousers.
Now he has his new studio I have more room to sleep and don't get tripped over or buried anymore, when I get really bored I run around the huge floor space with my bed in my mouth which makes him really moody.
1st Nov
He's been off again, he came back suntanned, so it must have been a long way away from Wales. His tan only goes as far as his neck which makes me believe he has been hunting or fishing he never takes his shirt off. The smell when he came back were very odd, a bit like that roibos tea he has in the kitchen cupboard.
Anyway all is well, he took me away shooting recently to Tiree. I had to mix it with three chocolate Labs, bloody rough sorts too. Boggy the nutter of the pack thinks that any goose shot in the Northern hemisphere is his by title deed, but I have other ideas, I can clear a few fences too when I put my mind to it!
It was a great break from sleeping all day long in the studio. I got to retrieve all sorts of stuff, geese ducks and snipe, I left the hare chasing to Erin and that nut Boggy, they do it so well! My master must be getting old he started moaning about a bad back and kept muttering about how his next dog would have handles ????
" I didn't make her do this... honest!"
The last week of the season was so busy, three solid days of shooting. Mopping up days where he gets a chance to shoot at low birds but still misses loads, then woodcock shooting where I get to snigger when he stumbles down slopes and gets ripped by brambles and then misses another easy bird! He claims it doesn't matter that he misses so many, but I've seen those sad looks of envy when he sees others shooting so well.
On Saturday, now that the season is over, he was out sorting out a duck box on his flight pond. I don't get it, he spend the season shooting (at) ducks and then as soon as the seasons over he pretends he likes them and wants them to breed on his pond.
So now it's all over for another year, he's back and grumpy in the studio. He is involved in another book this year something about all the grouse he has missed. He took me out so that he could get a publicity shot for it, dead boring!, I had to sit for ages looking interested whilst he tried to look important... why can't I have a normal owner
Me and the poncey show off!!
It's OK for him he seems quite happy painting all day long and shouting at Jeremy Vine on Radio 2, for me it's just very boring. I dream of frosty mornings and 'running in', those days seem such a long time ago. He never takes me when he goes fishing, can't understand why, he knows how much I love water. He went away the other day to Scotland for the Shooting Times Woodock Club Dinner, again he knows how much I like woodcock and I never say no to dinner either.
When he paints he never talks to me, the only time I can get any reaction out of him is when I waft a strong one into the room even then he just opens all the windows and shouts at me.
We did do some dummy training the other day, but hey, he can't fool me it's not the real thing although he's always happy when I bring it back to him.... so who's the dummy then?
There is just one thing that gets on my nerves, he seems to doing everything right on the training front, it just makes me our master feel clever, which is not a good idea. As soon as I can get a few moment with him I will give him some advice on running in, making lots of noise on shoots, coming to heel very very slowly, dropping pheasants half way back for a fresher one, and making him jump with a bark when he's hard at work.
Watch this space!
Dec 21st 2007
Actually I've decided that Zac is a bit of a dude, he wants to play with me all the time and we make a lot of noise in the studio and get so excited that we fart a lot. A few things get on my nerves, he shows off by crossing cattle grids when I have to jump the fence or wait for the gate which makes me look dull, and he walks to heel far too close to his masters leg.
This morning we went for a good walk up to the local marsh and whilst Zac and I had a good sniff about the artist took a load of photographs with his camera.
25/1/08
I've been here for four months now and, although I wouldn't have chosen to be an artists' dog because he spend too much time drawing things and not enough playing with me, it's not a bad life.
Corrib is a grumpy old thing but she lets me "pretend fight" with her and most of the time, I think she likes me. I make her less grumpy by playing with her but in turn that make our master more grumpy. When we get excited we both fart a lot which really gets him cross and he runs for the window with streaming eyes.
Now and again I like to show him how much I love him by finding a pair of his shoes to have a good chew.
The other day he came home with a big turkey thing that he claimed he shot (somehow don't believe it after all Corrib has told me). Anyway the big creepy thing looked a bit spooky so I decided to give it a wide berth. He then gave me a woodcock wing to pick up and I was happier with that and he seemed very pleased when I picked it up and brought it back to him.
I do have one complaint, every morning Corrib gets her bowl of food but I have to go and hunt for mine. He does help me and he is getting better at giving me directions but it's all a bit unfair. When I do eventually find it I have to eat it all up very quickly unless he decides to hide it from me again.
Every now and again he and Corrib go off together and come back smelling a bit like that ugly turkey thing. Corrib tells me that when I am older I will be able to join them.
8/6/08
I love water!!! , for a while I used to get scared and when I did jump in my head went under, but now I stretch my neck as far as I can and just go for it with one big jump. I retrieved a training dummy off the island in the pond for him yesterday and what did he do.... he chucked it back again. Maybe he doesn't like it anymore but I brought it back to him again and he seemed very pleased.
I've decided sheep are bad news, I used to like chasing after them, particularly the lambs who run almost as fast as I can. But it doesn't make him very pleased. He told me off lots for doing it and Corrib just wagged her tail. Then one day he took me down the field to a pen and lifted me in. Inside were two sheep and their lambs, boy the sheep got stroppy! one of them even chased me and butted me in the bum. That was it I, was out of there... "huh! sheep what are they good for ...absolutely nothing" sounds like a good song that.
Now we go for walks through the sheep and I remember that pen and so I look the other way. Mind you, the berries they leave behind don't half taste good, particularly the sloppy ones like ice cream yummy, and then I go and show him my green teeth, I don't think he likes that much, oddly it's the only time he doesn't want me near him.
Zac"When I turn my head like this it makes him go all gooey"
Corrib "I wish he'd stop trying to look brighter than me, just wait till the season starts. I've done it all me,
geese, ducks, grouse, snipe, golden plover, woodcock, pheasant, partridge and socks, the lot! "