When it has found scent it changes behaviour. Suddenly it turns into a motionless statue with its entire attention on the source of the scent. So strong is this concentration that only the most skilful of handlers can break trough it and call the dog back from the point. This is no play for the dog. For the dog this situation is pure business.

The avance has proved that the point was not false and the bird goes into the air. Is this play for the dog? Not for a minute. If it is steady it is because it has been trained to be steady. If it is not steady it tries to catch the bird. No matter how the situation developes, the dogs desire is not to play with the bird but to catch it and eat it in the first hand. If we have done the training of the dog correctly it has understood that the probability to catch the bird is better if the handler joins the hunt at this stage and makes a Bang with his long stick. Until this stage of the hunt we all agree that the dog is dead serious all the time. But then suddenly the opinions divide. From this on, when the prey has been killed, some of us insist that the work that is left to do should be play. Why this? Neil Armstrong was dead serious when he was shot up into the space. He was dead serious during the long trip to the moon. He was dead serious when he started to orbit the moon and prepared for landing. He was dead serious when during the landing operation. Did he start to play when he took the first step on the moon? No, just as our setter shows great excitation when the hunt has been successful and the bird drops in the shot Neil also showed excitement when he took the first step on the moon but he did not play. He performed the scientific tasks his superiors demanded him to do, collected samples from the surface and returned home. This is what out setter also wants to do, it wants to collect the bird and bring it to us if we dominate it. Had Neil been a free explorer and found a treasure of gold somewhere he for sure had made the best out of the treasure for himself. But now he was dominated by NASA and brought the samples to his superiors, his "handlers". His reward was the possibility to make the trip, to succeed and to please his superiors and the entire mankind.

The reward to our setter is even simpler. To be able to hunt and successfully present a game to the handler in return for praise and high appreciation.

I should come to the point now; why on earth should the last step of the successful hunt, the picking up of the shot game, be considered as play for the dog? If it plays it is because we train it to play with the game. It has no natural drive to play with the game like cats have for example. However it has a natural drive to play and compete with us if it feels it can do so. When is it most likely it wants to play fool with us? Probably in this situation that is the climax of a successful hunt, the situation that probably brings its ego more out of its skin than anything else in its life. Unless we train the dog that we dominate it even in this situation it is most likely that it will compete with us here in stead of serving us.