Training a rescue gundog
In the wrong environment that “fur baby” puppy will grow up to wreak havoc. But can rehoming with an appropriate family undo the damage?
It is bad luck for Britain’s gundogs that they carry the hopes and dreams of a nation on their furry shoulders. If we buy a black labrador, surely the mortgage on a country cottage will follow? With a springer spaniel lying in front of it, the microwave is almost an AGA. And having a cocker makes you a member of the county set. But, sadly, no gundog can fill your shelves with pots of homemade jam or blag you an invite to appear on Countryfile. Instead, that little bundle of status symbol rapidly grows up to be no more or less than what it is: a gundog. As gundogs do, it chews;
it retrieves (steals); it hunts (chases); it follows scent (runs away); and generally goes stir crazy because its home is not in fact the rural idyll of fantasy.
This is the moment when a gundog finds he must set out in life like a reverse Dick Whittington, leaving the city streets behind to find better fortune in the countryside. Luckily there are lots of rehoming organisations and individuals out there to rescue Dick Springer and get him into a good job in the rural workplace where he can beat, retrieve, dog-in and generally be a gundog. The dogs seize the opportunity with all four paws. After months or even years shut away in urban flats with little stimulation or exercise, the working genes spark into life in the right environment and rescuers report their delight at discovering they have a top working dog in the kennel.
In fact, so strong is the rescued gundog’s drive to work that he will often push his rescuers in the direction of the shoot. Sara Wadey admits she and husband Paul’s lives have been changed completely by their two rescue gundogs, Rusty and Tai. “Although Paul is from a farming family we hadn’t really thought about getting involved with shooting, but Rusty was so good and had such a good pedigree we thought, ‘let’s see what we can do’. It was Rusty that got us into it. Today, we are in various shoots and we have made so many friends through it. I have started having shooting lessons and I’m planning to buy a gun. I think Rusty just opened up a whole new world for us. Rusty is KC registered so we took her to be professionally trained and my husband learnt at the same time. Then, with Tai, Paul did the training himself – we even took him out on a pup’s day not long after he came to us and then shooting the following season.”
Nobody is complaining about the wonderful flair and drive they have discovered in their rescues. Julie Warboys, who picks up on Sussex shoots, has four, including a springer, a lab and a cocker. She says: “Together we do 75 days each season. Originally, I worked rescue lurchers and people get to know that you rescue so I was told about this little cocker in a flat in Portsmouth and how she was climbing the walls. Well, she now lives for beating. People get these cute little puppies but often they don’t want to know about the adult dog. Kuga was referred through Spaniel Aid UK, and she had been shut in a bedroom in Bristol. She had become possessive and aggressive and she wouldn’t let them in the bedroom. To be honest, she was a nasty piece of work when I got her. Now
People get these cute puppies but don’t want to know about the adult dog
she is fab. Having something to do, giving her a job – you have to give them something to think about, keep the brain happy. She must have been so frustrated shut in that bedroom.”
This is the scenario reported repeatedly by the rescue organisations. At Spaniel Aid UK, chairman of trustees Nicola Kebbell stresses: “People think rescue dogs are damaged and that couldn’t be further from the truth, they have just been in the wrong homes. Max, for example, had been sold to a family in the middle of Birmingham and by the time he was eight months old they didn’t know what to do and he was getting snappy and growling. But there was nothing wrong with him, he was just a pure, working-bred dog that needed to work. We get a lot of male dogs coming to us between nine months and two years old when they are mature and starting to assert their dominance. We had a cocker that was ‘too mad to train’ and she is going to be a cracking little worker.”
What concerns Kebbell is the sudden dramatic increase in the number of workingbred gundogs coming up for rehoming. “Nine years ago we were looking to rescue a working springer and we couldn’t find one – those working-bred dogs just never came into rescue.
It is a new phenomenon and that’s why we started Spaniel Aid UK. It wasn’t planned. As a group of friends we started a Facebook page to advise people against rehoming or offering giveaway dogs through non-official sources and we were getting asked: ‘Can you take the dog?’ That was three years ago and we have rehomed 1,000 dogs. I think the problem is that spaniels become fashionable when people like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge get one. It means people are buying spaniel puppies and they are not suited to them.”
fur babies
The social media trend for referring to puppies as “fur babies” isn’t doing working dogs any favours. Anybody who imagines a smelly, hairy, ballsy, two-year-old, male, workingbred, black labrador or spaniel is some kind of cuddly toy is in for a rude awakening – with only people like Judy Bowden of Buddy’s Rural Animal Rescue to help them out of the nightmare. Bowden finds it hard to conceal her frustration. “People fall in love with the spaniels especially. They like the idea of the fur-ball puppy. But we are seeing a lot of very well-bred working dogs – some with outstanding trialling pedigrees. I feel breeders are to blame for placing top-notch, bred-to-work dogs into family pet homes with people who don’t have the lifestyle for the dog. They are not lap dogs, they have to be out in the field doing something positive and they need the mental stimulation of working. Yet when things start going wrong the breeders don’t take the dog back. We are rescuing dogs that have been muzzled and never allowed off the lead. Their owners are actually a bit frightened of the dogs. You meet somebody and they say I have a working cocker and they don’t work it – it is an invitation for problems.”
This is the situation Clare Skelton describes: “Mack was three-and-a-half when I rescued him. He was an out-of-control, unmanageable mutt almost impossible to walk on the lead and dangerous when resource guarding – pretty horrible. But he was a soft dog in training. After nine months he was out beating and didn’t disgrace himself. Second season he has been a high-powered, hard-working beater, absolutely brilliant, steady, worked fast but close, through the hardest cover and so responsive he was a privilege to work and much complimented. He got distinction in his Kennel Club gundog certificate. It has seemed uphill, what untrained dog isn’t? Actually, I think he’s been easy, really. Despite having to treat him with kid gloves as he has a very sensitive nature and will always carry some of the issues from the past, he is a fab dog.”
Skelton’s experience in training working gundogs saved the day for Mack, but
points up an additional problem: that working dogs often don’t respond well to the fashionable techniques of pet dog trainers. Food treats, clickers, multiple halters, flexileads and other gadgets have little impact on a dog the family of which has, for generations, responded to the incomparable reward of knowing a good job well done. Bowden comments: “People get escalating problems and aggression issues but even if they bring in a professional pet dog trainer, they usually don’t have knowledge or experience of working dogs and I’m afraid it can end up with a good gundog being put to sleep. We go into the homes and interact with the dog and then bring the dogs into different environments and we don’t have a problem with them. We take these dogs out of that pet environment and put them with people who understand them and the socalled aggression issues are not there.”
This issue of lack of experience goes double for rare-breed gundogs, where even working gundog trainers may not have sufficient knowledge of the particular breed. Heidrun Humphries found this with her rescue Clumber bitch, Amy. “She was about 18 months when I got her from English Springer Spaniel Welfare just over two years ago. Her previous owner wanted rid of her asap. In his words, she was gun shy, wouldn’t retrieve and generally useless. I am quite used to the little quirks Clumbers can be prone to and so I started training her from scratch.” It turned out that Amy was perfect at being a Clumber, though perhaps a little misunderstood by an owner who was looking for something like a springer with fashion cachet. Humphries reports: “Last shooting season was her second season out working with me in the beating line on a big Exmoor shoot three times a week and also out rough shooting with my friends. I have also dabbled a little in competing with her in gundog working tests and last summer she won an open test for minor spaniel breeds.”
utter gem
Everybody involved with working gundog rescue has come to the same conclusion: there’s nothing wrong with the dog – but as for the humans! Chloe Carter remembers: “My first springer was a rescue. She was an utter gem. Never carried weight unfortunately and was always over excited because she was getting attention but she was an amazing picking-up dog. If you treat them right and give them the love they deserve... they will give you the world.”
Karen Sluman had a similar experience with her first springer. “She’d been a family pet and, sadly, due to a child being allergic they had to find her a new home. She was hands down one of the best gundogs we have ever had the pleasure of having in our lives.” Josh Whitman’s rescue springer believes no job is beneath her: “She has come a long way since I rescued her two years ago and now I take her beating and pigeon shooting. She also doesn’t mind coming when I go ferreting for rabbits. I couldn’t do without her.”
So a dog that someone else could all too easily do without becomes a countryman’s invaluable right-hand companion. Gilly Lewis sums it up best: “All my three are rescued. The little one was a mental mess. They have great fun all winter. We are not the best but we give it all we have.”
There’s nothing wrong with the dog – but as for the humans!
Disabled rambler Robin Helby was one of first purchasers 17 years ago. Since then, he has trudged across hill, dale and muddy field to his heart’s content. This is because the all-terrain Tramper is engineered to be as robust off road as on. It will take you comfortably and safely up and down kerbs in town, across rough, uneven country tracks, and through mud, streams and snow. And as you can see, it’ll do it for years (even allowing for unusual wear and tear). Today’s Tramper MK 2.
Refinements have been introduced over the years but you’ll find it’s still the all-terrain scooter that’s built to last.