If the move from gun dog training to the field seems a daunting prospect then perhaps a Novice Cold Game Day will help bridge that gap?
I’m a novice gun dog handler, who has never been on a shoot, so it felt like a rather big step to move from the comfort of the training ground to a shoot day with inevitably more distractions and a highly stimulating atmosphere. I think my main concern was what if my dog, Olive, got so excited by it all that she ran off and wouldn’t come back to me? Would I be horribly humiliated, have to endure disapproving looks and cries of ‘control your dog!’? It seemed like a potential nightmare best avoided!
However, I came across Sporting Situations advertising their Cold Game Shoot Simulation days on Facebook and it was the following statement that caught my attention “Zero pressure/ zero judgement…these days are designed to help people make the transition from training to the real thing”. Perfect! This was the stepping stone I needed. So, I made the call, had a good chat with Adam (the host) about what the day entailed and booked my training day in the beautiful North York Moors.
It was brilliant. Olive and I had the best day! With a bacon sandwich and brew in hand, the small group of 6 handlers was given a presentation on shoot terminology, etiquette, what to expect on a shoot and the roles of the dogs and their handlers. Absolutely no game shooting knowledge necessary, this presentation covered it all from the most basic of details.
Next it was into the beaters’ trailer (a cattle trailer with straw bales) to be taxied to our first exercise. This gives you and your dog the experience of going into a space they are probably not used to with other people and dogs and seeing how your dog reacts. In our case, after a minute or two of the dogs deciding whether they were more comfortable on or off the straw bales, they settled down and off we went.
Throughout the day we undertook a variety of exercises over a variety of grounds. Firstly, we simulated a beating line/ walking gun line on open grass land with the dogs walking to heel (on or off lead, it’s the handler’s choice) and then stopping to sit the dogs steady for each to be given a dummy launcher retrieve. After a break for lunch, we were taken to another part of the farm for blind and marked cold game retrieves with gun shot at a distance. Again, this was open land with plenty of wildlife providing lots of distracting sounds and smells. The final exercises consisted of 2 or 3 dogs simultaneously hunting for cold game in an area thick with Christmas Trees, followed by another walking line with dummy launcher retrieves in maize stubble.
Congregating back at base there was a quick debrief before reluctantly leaving this lovely part of the world. The feedback was universal, everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the day. The reason for this was that we had spent the day training with like minded people and had been working our dogs in a fun, friendly and non-judgemental environment. Each dog had achieved something, surprised us by exceeding an expectation and highlighted areas to concentrate on in our future training. Overall, it had been confidence building for dogs and handlers alike.
The day was exactly as described and it was such a good day out that I knew I’d be booking again the following year, although I didn’t know yet that Olive and I would encounter a big problem in our training a few months later.
So, a couple of weeks ago on a pleasant and more importantly dry February day, I headed back to the North York Moors with a completely different goal but that’s another story for another blog!
The two Novice Cold Game Days I attended were run by Sporting Situations, based close to Pickering, North Yorkshire.
https://www.facebook.com/sportingsituations