The most common problem that people have when gundog training is delivery to hand. It can go wrong for so many reasons: inconsistent handling, allowing the dog to drop what’s in his mouth as he’s padding around the house, taking the dummy out of the dog’s mouth too fast and because…
Gundogs
Can dogs read body language?
Body language is also key for communication, not only person-to-person and dog-to-dog, but across species as well. People have learned to ignore body language and posture. How many times have you asked a friend if they’re okay and they fold their arms, purse their lips and say “yes, I’m fine.”…
Gundog puppies: How to sell responsibly
For the one-bitch owner, the decision to breed a litter is often simply about wanting to keep a pup for themselves. But faced with a puppy pen full of fast-growing whelps, all too often what seemed like a good idea can suddenly turn into a puppy marketing panic. Rearing gundog…
Memory work in gundog training
Even if we weren’t before we’re certainly big into memory now. Hard on the heels of last year’s Great War remembrances we have the Magna Carta and Waterloo, to say nothing of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: which many will feel more keenly than the others. When…
Continental pointers in action
It was over 25 years ago when I first saw an HPR (hunt, point, retrieve) pointer working. I was photographing a spring pointing test and the dog was a German shorthaired pointer called “Basil.” I can clearly remember him casting out over a field of winter wheat, he was running…
Gundog Working Test returns to Chatsworth
The prestigious Gundog Working Test, sponsored by Eukanuba and R.N. Golden Limited, will host tests and activities for spaniels, retrievers and HPRs, and opens with a special field trial training day designed for these breeds. The popular pan-European International Retriever Team Event will take place on the Thursday and Friday.…
Gundog pack mentality
In the past, man used dogs to help him hunt for food and pelts for clothing, shelters and storage, whereas now, most hunting is done as a sport or enjoyable pastime. The way we view and use our dogs has changed dramatically over these long years, but just how much…
Gloucestershire gundog training
Norman and Sandra Onens of Kestrelway Gundogs are experienced gundog trainers and handlers and at their training ground, based near Evesham in Gloucestershire, they have developed a superb area for training not only novice dogs and handlers, but also dogs that are competing at field trial level. The ground is…
How do I stop my gundog from whining?
Mark Whitehouse says: Making noise and whining are major eliminating faults in field trialling events, and this could be one of the reasons he has been sold as a shooting companion You would expect him to have undergone a reasonable amount of patience training, but it is never too late…
Which dog is best for rough shooting?
Which dog for rough shooting? For many gundog owners there can be nothing more exciting and rewarding than shooting over their own dog. However, it takes hours and hours of training to produce a dog that will hunt within shot range, is steady to flushed game (especially ground game) and…
How to read a gun dog’s body language
Dogs are remarkable. Working them makes us especially aware of that, but still they frequently amaze us. What we now know of the process of domestication, which fossil evidence suggests happened something like 13,000 years ago, helps to explain why the human/dog relationship is so close and how dogs can…
Gundog Retriever Championships 2014
Windsor Great Park in Berkshire makes a superb location for the gundog retriever championships — which have been held there before — because of its history, its landscape and its accessible nature. It is a 16,000-acre rural oasis that has held urbanisation at bay, while its proximity to major airports…
Why it’s wrong to pick-up unshot birds
Sometimes it's all too easy for dogs to retrieve early-season birds that are exhausted rather than shot; but it's bad practice, writes David Tomlinson
The Givendale line of English springer spaniels
Dissatisfied with modern working springer spaniels, Peter and Bernadette may have successfully re-introduced a more traditional strain of this gundog breed
How to stop a dog fight
Three Shooting Times gundog experts consider the best way to stop a dog fight – and how to prevent it in the first place
How gundogs are used abroad
Nick Ridley looks at how the same gundogs are used abroad and asks why we use two breeds in the UK when we could just use one
Advice on spaying gundogs
To spay or not to spay? It’s a question that faces most of us who own or work bitches, and it’s one that I’ve changed my mind on in recent years. I have kept bitches exclusively for more than 30 years — I’ve got nothing against dogs, but in a…
Why you shouldn’t doubt your dog’s nose
Who are we to doubt the supreme sniffing power of dogs when they have 44x more scent receptors than us? asks Roy Bebbington
The healing power of dogs
By Graham Cox There are countless reasons why we so readily speak of dogs and humans in the same breath. Their special genius at reading our gestures and understanding our communicative intentions makes them so good at being in a partnership with us that there is no end to the…