Enjoying a lunch of roasted Canard Savage after the family had left and I had spent time training Sam and then the evening watching Rugby League on the TV.
The weather continued with mist and fog overnight only clearing to give warm sunshine in the afternoon and so I again delayed my walk with Sam.
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Once the girls had left for school and Di for Bedford, I took him along the riverside path downstream. Another struggle to move the latest obstacles put in the way of access onto the Little Meadow and then some blind retrieves for Sam in the undergrowth.
He still lacked precision in taking hand signals but got the retrieve in the end from persistence. At least my return to titbits has improved his delivery of the dummy. A good water retrieve via a difficult and precipitative entry but he shook and dropped the dummy before delivering it again.
I then pressed on into the rough cover close to Wray House and there Sam found several pheasants in close hunting. The thickness of the cover did not really aid pointing but he did point one hen and would have been better on the others had I been closer up with him at the key moments.
I walked on past the moorings that are up for sale and then back via the village, concentrating there on Sam's obedience. The school-children were in the playground and ran up to Sam but I could not trust him to be patted nicely and so held him back.
Then the job of putting my duck into the oven and preparing the vegetables to make my own lunch, I scraped four new potatoes, halved them, and put them with the duck in some foil; then put some mushrooms in a pan ready to fry quickly when needed and some mixed vegetables in a covered saucepan.
To my office whilst it cooked, completing the formatting and archiving of yesterday journal efforts. Susanne was getting in the way somewhat but I soon had my lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it. A rest and then time for the dog again; this time Sam responding marginally better to directional control. I made a point of letting him meet as many other dogs as possible since Tuesday and he has done better with others as a result.
Tea with the family and then the evening watching Rugby League on the TV. It was a particularly satisfying match as the team with more initiative and skill beat the one that just fielded huge brutes who tried to pummel and intimidate the opposition. Stayed up a bit late watching a film whilst Diana had an early night.