My german pointer, Loisgte, is 15 months old now and it is time to start introducing her to grouse. We went for a lovely walk this morning and got two lovely points out of her.

It was very hot and what little wind there was was swirling around so they were difficult conditions. Her first point found her upwind of the bird which I then disturbed when walking up to her. And she bumped one cock bird which was sitting tight and she ran into. She also did a lovely point and brought me into a spot where a bird had clearly been sitting until only a few minutes before we got there; what I would call a near miss, but all credit to Loisgte she stood absolutely solid until I arrived, put a collar on her and was able to slowly encourage her in. Her only real transgression was to set off in pursuit of birds she bumps if I am not close enough to exercise control. You are than caught in the dilemma of how to correct the fault without deterring her from returning after having given chase. All ideas welcome.

It was hot work on a hot day and the greatest disappointment was the small number of grouse we saw. It is not surprising after the terrible weather we had in the breeding season but it is frustrating how hard it seems to nudge our grouse numbers upwards. We will do a proper count of both black and red grouse in a couple of weeks time but I am not optimistic about breeding success this year.