Every dog has its day and this may be it (From Worcester News)

Every dog has its day and this may be it

9:57am Monday 4th January 2010 in

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RIGHT Chester, Bentley, Elvis, whatever your name is. You, the dog snoozing in front of the fire. Time for exercise to work off those Christmas pounds.

And we’re not talking walkies here, something far more useful – gundog training.

Now, if you happen to be a daschund, a St Bernard, a pekingese or a pug, you’re excused boots, but pretty much any breed of dog that’s built for the job and loves retrieving balls, sticks, etc, can be trained as a gundog.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to carry dead things in their mouths, because training is always carried out using dummies – small cylindrical canvas bags – and a trained gundog can always take part in field trial competitions, which use the same.

Of course, if you want to go out shooting pheasant, partridge, rabbits, or whatever, and have your dog bring them back, that’s up to you, but that doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all of gundog training.

Now for the news that will possibly make Elvis inch closer to those glowing logs. The Gundog Club – the national body for gundog training – is launching a new course for complete beginners in Worcestershire in February.

It will be held at the Hop Kilns, Upper Rochford, near Tenbury Wells, and will start at 10.30am on Sunday, February 21.

The course will cover eight weekly one hour lessons, consisting of seven training sessions and a final grade one test and it will cost a total of £158 plus VAT. But be quick, because there are only six places available.

The course is being advertised as suitable for retrievers, spaniels and what are known as HPRs – or hunter, pointer, retrievers. This last category, naturally, includes the various pointer breeds but also extends to others such as weimaraners, vizslas and munsterlanders. A point worth making is that your dog doesn’t necessarily have to be a pedigree breed to make a good gundog, there are plenty of cross-breds retrieving game very successfully, but if you have something like a pure bred labrador or retriever you know you are on the right track.

Having said that, it can come down to the character of the individual dog. I recall a few years ago owning two labradors that were brothers – same dam and same sire, one two years older than the other.

One would naturally fetch anything you threw, the second thought that was far too much like hard work and showed no interest whatsoever. He was an organiser rather than a doer.

However, it is important that your dog, whatever the breed, is trained in a way that suits it.

That’s why certain courses are designed for certain breeds.

Sam Austwick, training manager of the Gundog Club, said: “People often want to know if a ‘pet’ gundog can be a good ‘working’ gundog and the answer is absolutely, yes.

“The vast majority of successful working gundogs in the UK today are first and foremost pets. Most gundog owners do not work their dogs on a daily basis, even in the shooting season.

Most gundogs live indoors as companions and spend their evenings snoozing on the hearth rug.”

So, bad news there Chester, Bentley or Elvis.

If you see your owner e-mailing admin@thegundogclub.co.uk or telephoning 01428 717529 for information about the classes or to register, best snuggle up closer to the fire and pretend you’re asleep.