Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Training by the book
Peter Moxon’s Gundogs is a classic work that certainly stands the test of time, says David Tomlinson, who cherishes his well-thumbed copy
AS BOOK TITLES GO, Gundogs: Training and Field Trials is not the snappiest, so it’s no surprise that it didn’t take long for the work to be known by the name of its author, Moxon. For generations of gundog trainers, Moxon has been their bible, and it remains just as useful today as it did in 1952 when it was first published. Of all the many gundog books on my shelves, Moxon is still the one I refer to most often.
Peter Moxon was Shooting Times’s kennel editor for 40 years, writing an entertaining weekly column based on his experience as a professional gundog trainer, field trial competitor and boarding kennel proprietor. Gundogs was his first book; it featured 36 black-and-white photographs, the majority taken by Horace Hall. My favourite is one titled ‘Picking Up’. It shows Peter, with pipe and trademark trilby, sitting with his two spaniels a few feet behind the waiting Gun.
Modern books are brought to life by their photographs, but Moxon hardly needed to be illustrated, for the text is not only wide ranging, covering almost every topic you can think of, but enhanced by the author’s numerous anecdotes. It’s one of those rare books you can’t pick up without learning something. I doubt if many people have ever read it from cover to cover — I certainly haven’t — but it’s a volume you dip into for advice.
Finding that advice is easy, for not only is it well indexed (something often lacking in books like this), but each of the 11 chapters progresses in logical order. As you would expect, chapter one starts by discussing the choice and selection of a gundog puppy. Moxon was first and foremost a spaniel man: he regarded the English springer spaniel as the ideal rough shooter’s dog due to its versatility and trainability, though the cocker was his second choice as a working dog. He rated labradors highly, too, both for their fast and stylish action, and their trainability “far above that of other breeds”. Hunt, point and retrieve dogs had yet to make their mark in the UK when the book was written, so he writes little about them, other than noting that German shorthaired pointers “are generally sound but highly strung”.
While the guidance on breeds is largely what you might expect, what is invaluable is the advice on picking a puppy. Interestingly, Moxon favoured picking the smallest puppy in a litter as long as it was sound and healthy, while if you have bred your own litter “I strongly advise you to run on as many as possible until they are six or eight months of age. By this time it should be possible to pick the most promising worker.” Sadly, that’s not a luxury many of us can afford today.
“Moxon was first and foremost a spaniel man”
Moxon is perhaps at his best when it comes to training, his technique just as sound today as it was 70 years ago. Tact and firmness were his watchwords, while he also believed in edible rewards, though in moderation. We take the whistle for granted, but in the middle of the last century there were still many trainers who preferred oral commands and didn’t use a whistle at all. Moxon was an advocate of the whistle as it “is far less disturbing to game than the
human voice... and undoubtedly more efficient”. Training a dog the Moxon way is all about patience and building up the puppy’s confidence. He advises using a 12- or 15-yard check cord for stubborn puppies, though adding that only about 10% of the dogs “require it at all, and these only for a few lessons”.
Moxon also emphasises strongly to anyone training a puppy the folly of punishing a dog, “when he comes up to you and never, never punish for an offence committed sometime previously”, adding that in early lessons punishment is usually unnecessary, and it should always be mild.
Field trials
As the title suggests, field trials are covered comprehensively, and it’s notable how little has changed with these competitions today compared with when the book was written. I suspect that Moxon would have his reservations about the current trend for handling to be given so much emphasis compared with a dog’s natural game-finding ability. In his opinion, “the ideal Field
Trial dog is simply a good, reliable shooting dog which through more careful and intensive training, has been brought to a higher pitch of perfection than are most shooting dogs”. It would take a brave man to disagree with him.
Shooting Times reviewed the first edition, saying: “We do not hesitate to say that this book is the best of its kind we have read. It is the work of a practised writer who is able to make his meaning perfectly clear and of an expert who not only has great confidence in his methods, but is able to pass on that confidence to his readers.” I couldn’t put it better myself.