Falconry dogs still on course...ha ha.

Really bad pun, sorry. It happens to the best of us.

At any rate, W. and his sponsor came out to see the larval falconry dogs that they will be working with in the future. Ran everyone on the rabbit except Jim, who I expected to have a job interview (but might have been rained out for tonight). W's sponsor liked most of them, thought I was coming along fine, even though I think I've been slack, and thought they had fine drive for the job. His vote was for Malcolm picking it up the fastest, but Gonna possibly being the dog most used. We'll see - I figure each one will be a different training challenge, and having 3 trained to do the job is useful, since I can herd with one and send one off with them to hunt, if need be, on a crisp fall bunny filled morning. Disadvantage to how the pups work so far? All but Speedy don't bark, called opening, when on the chase, or when they have it in a pile. I think I can train that, especially for squirrels and rabbits in brier patches.

What was really interesting about his eval of the dogs? I'm not sure he knew shelties, and didn't seem to have a preconceived notion of what they "should " work like. He just looked at them as larval hunting dogs, thought about their drive, scent capabilities, and watched them work. It was really great to hear him critique as the pups worked, and I thought it was immensely helpful.
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So drop on flush, get used to hearing "HO HO HO HO HO" at the flush (to call the raptor's attention to the prey), followed by recall. Hide and seek recalls, and road breaking/boundary work. That's our falconry homework, along with trailing and more coursing. So far, so good.