Building that skill set

Youngsters are the future of fieldsports and David Tomlinson is keen to see greater efforts to encourage aspiring junior gundog handlers

LIKE MANY CHILDREN, I always wanted a dog, but it wasn’t until I was 12 that my ambition was finally realised. I earned the privilege of having my first dog by walking a neighbour’s cross-bred spaniel, Pip, every day for more than a year.

I took him for a walk on the local common when I came home from school. I never missed a day due to rain or snow, so proved to my parents that I would be a responsible dog owner. I wonder how many children today have to undergo such a test.

Pip was large and black, with an independent streak. Looking back, I have a suspicion that he was deaf, but I never considered that at the time. He may well have gone through life pretending to be deaf, as he had a happy knack of ignoring the whistle. We were the same age and I suspect that Pip soon worked out there was no need to do anything that I wanted him to do.

Dogs are pretty canny when it comes to working out whether to obey young handlers, as I was reminded on a family shoot earlier this month. There were lots of youngsters out, but only one was handling a dog, a tall and handsome fox-red labrador.

The handler was aged eight and not much bigger than the dog, which probably weighed the same as she did. The dog was clearly her pride and joy. However, he was a very powerful animal and really too much of a handful for such a young person to cope with. On the first drive, the two of them disappeared down a hedge, the dog towing the girl.

I believe that youngsters are usually better at handling ponies than they are dogs. Many are fearless on the back of a pony and those who started riding at age three are often accomplished riders at eight, as anyone who has been hunting during the Christmas holidays will confirm.

It’s often the young and brave who show the oldies the way. Of course, a rider has a bridle and reins to control

“Riding a pony is great fun, but handling a gundog is much more serious stuff”

a horse, while sitting on its back makes a considerable difference.

With dogs, it’s rather more challenging. For a start, dogs are considerably more intelligent than ponies and they seem to sense that youngsters haven’t got the same authority as older people.

High-pitched young voices lack the authority of an adult’s, too, and a dog that sits instantly on command when told to do so by an adult may take a lot of persuading to do so when its handler is aged under 10.

It’s relatively easy to spot a talented young horseman or horsewoman, even when they are still in single figures, but it’s rare to find a an accomplished gundog handler of similar age. There’s another reason, too. Riding a pony is great fun, but handling a gundog is much more serious stuff, so I’m sure that most children, given the choice, would opt for a pony rather than a dog.

Challenge

One of the many classes held in the BASC ring at Crufts is for the best young handler. This is divided into two: under 14 and 14 to 18 years, the former competing for the Mustwork Trophy and the older children vying for the Captain Heilgers Perpetual Challenge Cup. The same dogs frequently appear in both classes, with different handlers, of course.

When I first watched it, I naively thought that it might test the handling skills of the young people taking part, but I hadn’t noted the wording in the programme. The judges will, in their opinion, choose the best

“matched pair”. In other words, it’s got little to do with handling, more about presentation, with the children taking part invariably dressed up as miniature shooting people, complete with tweeds and flat caps. It’s both entertaining and fun, especially for the boys and girls who take part, but not to be taken too seriously.

This year’s Crufts does include a rather more serious international junior handling competition, “bringing together young handlers from across the world”. Finalists have to demonstrate their handling ability and rapport with unfamiliar dogs that they have met less than an hour before the competition. They do get to choose the breeds they would like to handle.

Confidence

It sounds interesting. Would it be possible to do something similar with working gundogs? There are a number of fairs and shows that have junior gundog competitions. The Scottish Game Fair has a class for handlers aged 11 to 16. It is designed to give confidence to young handlers with straightforward retrieves. The only guidance is that dogs have to be steady off the lead.

In 2014, the Great Wall Motor World Series of gundog tests included a Gundog Junior Handling Championship, but as far as I am aware there has been nothing similar since then.

If children are both sufficiently talented and have the right dog, there’s nothing to stop them competing against adults. Last year, 16-year-old Amy Collier handled a dog in the IGL Retriever Championship, a remarkable achievement. We need to do everything we can to encourage more young handlers like her, as they are our future.