I had a long training walk over Adams Hill, Clent with Jack today. As he is progressing nicely, I had made some notes for myself in an attempt to be a little more professional. All went well as he retained his 100% recall, stopped to his whistle even though his back was to me and was keen to follow my basic hand signals. He retrieved two dummies improving his delivery after I had hidden my hands- a tip I picked-up here. On the way home, back up the hill, I decided to throw two more dummies- which I normally would not do. I was aware of a couple of gents nearby, one who clearly had a WCS and also of a tractor- cutting back some of the grass but travelling in  a direction away from me. Jack sat rock-steady as the first dummy bounced into light cover. He raced out on command, located the dummy and raced back down the hill towards me. As he got to my hidden hands he saw the other Cocker, dropped the dummy at my feet and ran off to play. "almost the perfect retrieve" the man with the WCS called and apologised for the distraction. I was almost  proud as punch and foolishly threw another dummy. This time Jack found the dummy in thicker cover but dropped it immediately and then disappeared from sight. Worse the tractor had turned towards us and the bracken Jack was sent into. I ran in to find him and there he was all for legs in the air rolling in fresh poo..... I yanked him out by the collar as the tractor got to us....!!!!!

I was cross with him- he was plastered. But I was more unhappy with myself. You live and learn I guess.