Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Debutant gundogs
There’s lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting, says David Tomlinson
MANY YEARS AGO, I belonged to a small walkone, stand-one syndicate that shot fortnightly in the Sussex Weald. It was demanding ground, with small streams sunk in deep valleys while the woods were thick with brambles. Dogs were essential, and one of the rules of membership was possession of a suitable dog, though there were no stipulations as to how well trained it should be. On a normal Saturday we would usually have a dozen or more dogs out — mostly springers, but with the odd labrador and the occasional German shorthaired pointer.
The first day of the season was always one of the most interesting, not because of the bag (we seldom shot many birds in October, though we invariably picked lots of wild mushrooms), but due to the fact that it was generally the first day that new canine recruits appeared. These were the puppies that had been trained all summer and were now making their debut in the shooting field.
In many ways, these early
October days were ideal for puppies to get their first experience of the shooting field, as there were never too many distracting bangs to get them overexcited, while the cover was still thick enough to slow them down. However, it was also obvious that certain members of the syndicate couldn’t wait to bring their puppies out for the first time, even though the latter may not have been ready in any way for what was a baptism of fire.
Just when you should take a dog shooting for the first time is probably the most difficult decision you will ever make about your dog. Sadly, the old adage that the quickest way to ruin a gundog is to take it shooting is all too true. There can be few, if any, gundogs that became better workers because they were taken shooting for the first time when they were still puppies, whereas there are certainly many that are spoilt, if not ruined, by coming out when too young and not properly prepared.
The trouble is that there are no hard and fast rules about when a dog should make its debut. Age is important, but some dogs mature much more quickly than others. The most important factor is really how well prepared the dog is, not how old it is. I’ve met dogs that were taken shooting for the first time at nine months and never had a problem, and others that even at the age of two scarcely seemed ready.
Some, of course, never make it. I had a springer once that performed well in training, showing lots of promise, but could never be used as a picking-up dog as she found the
“The most important factor is how well prepared the dog is, not how old it is”
experience of a driven day just too exciting, with too many people, too many dogs and far too many bangs. She was, however, fine out rough shooting. I might add that she hadn’t been taken shooting until she was nearly two, and even then had been introduced gradually, standing well back from the action. However, her temperament just wasn’t suited to a driven shooting day.
I checked with the training books in my library as to when the experts think a young dog should make
its debut. All agree that a gentle introduction is ideal. Some suggest rabbit or pigeon shooting as a sensible way to introduce a puppy to the real thing, but both have disadvantages. Jeremy Hunt, in his book Training the Working Labrador, points out that “rabbits can be more of a wind-up for a youngster than sitting on the sidelines for half a day on partridges in September”.
Sitting in a pigeon hide is certain to bore a young dog, while getting a mouthful of pigeon feathers isn’t going to encourage its retrieving.
Honest answers
Margaret Allen, in her book In the Bag!, comes to the point quickly in her concluding chapter, titled ‘The Real Thing’. She insists that you need to ask yourself some serious questions and to answer them honestly. Does your dog come to you reliably under all conditions? Does he stop on the whistle at a fair distance in the face of temptation? Does he walk nicely to heel on and off the lead without repeated reminders? If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, then your dog isn’t ready.
Looking back to my syndicate days, I’m pretty sure that none of my
fellow Guns could have answered yes to any of those questions, even for dogs that had been shooting for many seasons. It’s easy to make excuses, but the dogs were all really pets that just a couple of times a month were asked to be shooting dogs. Practice makes perfect: these dogs didn’t get a lot of practice, though they did have a lot of fun.
There was a marked reluctance among my fellow syndicate members
to put their gun aside and concentrate on their dog instead. In many ways this was quite understandable, as their hobby was shooting and the dog was an accessory.
However, I’m sure they all knew that if they really wanted a steady, responsive dog, the only way to achieve it was to give up shooting for a season and to concentrate on their dog instead, but it was too big a sacrifice to make.