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The gun shy labrador that was cured in a season, and how it was done
A gun shy dog is unfixable, or so the received wisdom runs, and most keepers know a dog quietly moved on because a shot sent it under the truck. A first-person account published by Gundog Journal...
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Gundog training starts on the drive home, says Ben Randall
Any keeper, picker-up or beater collecting a puppy this autumn has been told to “just let the dog be a puppy”, and Ben Randall thinks it is half right and expensively wrong. Writing in Gundog Journal,...
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Gundog kennels: why a shed and bars leave a working dog wet and pacing
An 8’×4′ shed on a concrete base with galvanised bars and a gate is why so many working dogs are wet, cold and pacing, says Ben Randall, and a run with a view of the whole garden is a big TV the dog...
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Sporting Life: six months puppy-walking a future autism assistance dog
We have recently become guardians of a young cavapoo dog – a deliberate cross between a toy or miniature poodle and a cavalier King Charles spaniel. No, wait, hear me out. I know it’s not much of a...
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A dog that ignores the whistle should not be on a shoot, says Ben Randall
A gundog that does not come back when it is called has no business working on a shoot day, the trainer Ben Randall has said. What does an out-of-control dog cost a shoot day? Asked by the writer Maria...
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Born for the chase: how working dogs kill their quarry
Dogs are predators. All of them. Anything they joined the human race for involves that predator instinct, enhanced by selective breeding and training so that their desire to predate can be harnessed...
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A girls’ gundog training day at West Wycombe
Photographs: Melissa Bastin At the start of the summer, Amelia Kite, head of gundogs for The Country Girls UK, brought a group of handlers to the West Wycombe Estate for a full training day with me,...
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Saying goodbye to a gundog
The challenge of writing about gundog loss I’ve written a few fieldsports articles over the years. Writing them, it must be said, isn’t the most arduous or difficult task in the world – in fact, it’s...
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Out-of-control dogs: it’s best to act before the worst happens
We’ve all been there. We’re walking our well-behaved dogs when an uncontrolled lump of a canine charges at us, displaying body language indicative of wanting to blast us off the planet. Every district...
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Teaching very old tricks to new dogs: gundog trainer John Cook at 80
There is a Labrador in John Cook’s kennels at the moment that he describes, without hesitation, as one of the most difficult dogs he has ever taken in. It comes out each morning with its tail up,...
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Recall: the command your shoot day depends on
A dog you cannot call back is a dog that cannot be let off the lead, and a dog that spends its life on a slip lead is not really a working dog at all. With the grouse season opening on 12 August and...
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Cocker, springer or Labrador: which makes the best family dog?
Be it at a game fair, a client visit, or simply the supermarket queue, one question we are often asked is this: “Which breed makes the best family dog?” It is one of those wonderfully impossible...
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Work with the breed: a smarter approach to gundog training
If you want to keep training challenges to a minimum, look at what the breed type was originally designed to do, then look at the dog in front of you. You might expect a gundog to be impervious to the...
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Five of the best summer gundog kit buys for hot-weather training
Summer is the ideal time to lay the foundations of a reliable gundog, but as temperatures climb, keeping both handler and dog comfortable becomes as important as the training itself. Lightweight,...
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Voices in the forest: meet the Transylvanian hound
Long before we saw the boar, we heard the hound. The sound came from somewhere deep below us in the beechwoods, carried uphill through the damp November air. It was not the frantic barking often heard...
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Tips for your gundog’s first day in the field
If you have a young gundog and you have worked hard on getting the foundations right, you may well be thinking of taking the dog out for a day or two next season. It’s always hard to tell people the...
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A worthwhile investment
Since the first lupine ancestors of modern dogs padded across the tundra, seeking scraps around the fires of Siberian hunter-gatherers, there have been gundog training vests. Well, not really, but...
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Dark Angel crowned Crufts gamekeeping winner
A flat coated retriever from Devon was crowned overall winner of BASC’s gamekeeper classes on Gundog Day at this year’s Crufts in Birmingham. The Northesk Memorial Trophy, and the title of the Best in...
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Why gundog owners should go for goldies
WHEN MOST PEOPLE think about shooting, they usually picture a man with a labrador sitting at his side. For those looking in, this is a common generalisation. Labrador retrievers are extremely versatile...
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Filling up with the right fuel
My red setter Muckle and I are all but inseparable and his wellbeing is one of the top couple of considerations in my everyday life. When I was in the Army, he was allowed to follow me around all day...
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