Hi, Probably going to make myself sound very silly but hey ho........ Just looking at misty-pups post of pictures of the dogs out shooting, and was wondering what the term 'beating' actually means, also 'picking up' but im guessing (probably wrongly) that is when the dogs retrieve the bird. Dont know anything about gundogs and how they work, so was just thinking i could educate myself a little By the way this is purely just out of curiosity, no urges to have any gundogs ;-)
Picking up, is as you say, when you take your dogs out, and use them to retrieve game. Beating is when you and other folk, form lines, to push the birds over the line of guns. There is often a flank, that just walk into position and flag to make sure the birds fly the right way. Sometimes, there are also stops at the front of a drive, to make sure the birds actually fly, and not just run down towards the guns! Hope that helps a bit! If anyone else, has a better way to decribe beating, then be my guest, I'm not so good at explaining!! xx
On two of the shoots I attend they have dedicated teams of pickers up and teams of beaters ... and the dogs that pick up don't beat and vice versa .... but on one small shoot I attend the dogs are in the beating line and then at the end of the drive those that can are used for picking up.
