The gundog competition season finished for us with a qualification to participate in the Champions Trophy on the 24th of February.
One may call it the “Retriever Championship” of the year as the best of all the retriever breeds compete at a high level. Rumi and I are invited and looking forward to the experience. Hopefully she will not come in heat at that time – we keep our fingers crossed.
I have had the joy of being invited to many different hunts this year – and many of my hosts have invited me and the dogs because they appreciate the diversity of the flatcoated retriever. They are of course specialists in working after the shot – working very keenly on lost birds and game. I have come to the conclusion that they are absolute perfect gundogs for goose hunting – being great on marks and memory’s.
I was invited to Friesland 3 times this year and I brought the girls on two occasions.
Our first was at Piet’s area and my friend Yvonne was also there with her lovely girl Ylva.
We started early with hiding in the cover for goose hunting. As I have explained earlier goose hunting is not only hunting but also damage control as they are living in the NL in very large numbers – spoiling a lot of fields and contaminating waterways with their co2 rich excrements. More importantly they apply pressure on other field birds as some are very aggressive and territorial. Economically it is a very expensive animal because the government pay out damage compensation to farmers and landowners who are affected by invasion of hungry geese.
Luckily I am a fan of eating goose meat – and willing to put the hard work into the whole processing of these big animals.
In fact is a very durable way of taking in proteins – no man made production facilities, no medication in the animals and they live a natural life in freedom. They die quickly without long stress and suffering of being transported or kept in poor conditions.
Hunters are often viewed at as bad humans who take pleasure in killing. After some years of assisting in hunting with my dogs – I think I might be able to add some nuance in this image. Yes, hunters do take honor in making a good and clean kill. Because it is the most friendly way to obtain meat. With the lowest possible suffering, using your human skills and focus. I think many people today are not aware how our food ends up in the supermarket and therefore we are relieved from the moral pressure of taking a life. The truth is that we are all in one way of the other hunters in our core nature. Hunting for food may be the lesser experienced action in these modern times but we all hunt after something or someone in life and we tend to do some crazy thing in order to obtain what we hunt for. It is a very strong motivation and drive in our human nature – wether we acknowledge it or not. For some reason, many of us who like to hunt on game find it important that we maintain the skill to feed our families – have knowledge and practical skills in and about nature. Hunting is 20 % shooting and 80 % caring for your field – creating a balanced living space for all wild life – counting numbers and keeping the flora in good condition. Hunting itself one may say is the cherry on top at the end of the year – after a long period of being in and about the fields. Knowing what is going on and communicating with farmers and officials is a big part of the task of a hunter who has a field/area under his responsibility. When there is an annual hunt on hare the amount of hares that needs regulation and/or the number of hares the hunt may harvest is pre-set. In my case it was one hare per hunter per drive allowed. This left plenty of hares in the field after hunting and still keeping the pressure on the fields low enough. 2023 was a very good year for hares.
But enough talking about the ethical side of hunting and let us get back to the gundog work..
Working the dogs on a goose hunt is really great – they often get to make some far retrieves and often they need to work extra hard on rough waterways – sometimes a goose is drifting off and a good dog like Rumi who trusts my instructions is such a pleasure to have at my side. Lotte has been out on geese too but surprisingly this little elegant girl has surprised me in being a really reliable “spaniel” on driven hunts. A hare that jumps out in front of her nose is a bit too tempting but if on a bit of distance she remains really steady in her task of searching and even deer she was able to resist.
The traditional pea soup is a Dutch thing one either loves or hates but I must say – Lieuwe’s version is the best I have had so far. I was lucky enough that he agreed to share the recipe (sorry only in Dutch language):
Erwtensoep: 500 gr spliterwten, 2 litr water (meer of minder voor dikker/dunner 2 uien wortel prei 2 aardappelen halve stronk bleekselderij 2 tenen knoflook 200 gr gerookte spekjes 2 schouderkarbonades 4 speklappen rookworst in plakjes 2 bouillonblokjes peper en zout naar smaak
For quite some time I have developed skills in processing geese, pheasants and ducks. But a hare is a whole new thing.. maybe it because it looks like a cat in some way, also the soft fur and the big eyes.. it is a different level to kill it if necessary and also to process it. Up until now I was reluctant- but I challenged myself to do the job myself. My chance to put my challenge into action came when Lieuwe invited me for a second hunt in Friesland. Rumi brought a hare that needed to be releaved from suffering. Poeh – that was indeed a next level thing. As I have not yet tasted hare to my liking – my dog friend Raymond was kind to show my how to proces a hare – so at Christmas morning me and my friend Josine (who has recently obtained her hunting license) went to Raymond for a lesson in cutting out a hare. He gave me a recipe too but it has not been tested yet.. to be followed ..
Of course Kaspar was also out hunting – more on his adventures later on.. for now I would like to thank Piet, Lieuwe, Yvonne, Marian and Jacqueline for the wonderful opportunities you have given me and the dogs to develop over the season. And Raymond for teaching me game processing skills 2.0.
Thank you to all hunters and fellow dog handlers for all the good and safe hours in the field together.
Flatastic flatcoated retrievers 