The importance of pre-season gundog training

The first time I was invited to beat on a local shoot, some 15 years ago, I remember being amazed by how well trained all the dogs were. From that moment I wanted a working dog and to train them to become an impeccable, well-behaved, all-round gundog and family pet. Quite some ambition!

Reality Check

As I sit here typing, under my feet lies the now slightly greying black Labrador, the dog I had hoped would be my peg/picking up/beating dog, who’d also fieldtrial whenever required. 

I made the fundamental mistake of running before we could walk and pushing her too soon, too early. This was my biggest lesson as an enthusiastic but inexperienced gundog handler. If you’ve got a young dog you’re hoping will join you on the peg this season, the best advice I can give you is to be patient - you’ll enjoy your shooting and your dog more if you only take them out when they are properly ready. It took almost 6 years before our amazing first family dog would be able to enjoy a day’s shooting. 

Today, at the grand age of 12 she’s a demon in the field and is the first at the back door on shoot mornings, especially when she sees the polished Dubarry boots and shooting jacket, game bag and shotgun being loaded into the truck.

When Things Go Wrong

No matter how many hours we put into training our faithful companions when the wheels fall off, they really do fall off. When this happens, those hours put in over the off-season are vital, as I discovered one frosty December morning. The sun sat brightly on the horizon, barely breaking, a stunning bluebird day, though far from perfect shooting conditions. 

Jake wears the Dubarry Rosleague shooting coat (£499) and the Dubarry Wexford country boots (£429)

After the first two drives, the dogs were working nicely, sweeping up and responding to commands, but the drive after elevenses would test our training to its utmost. It was a drive that sits on a rolling Suffolk hill - yes, Suffolk has hills - with a solid belt of woodland and a thick strip of maize either side. At the bottom of the drive runs a narrow potholed farm lane, once seldom used, but in recent years it has become a rat-run for hurrying delivery drivers, especially in the approach to Christmas.

For this drive I stand with my back to a hedge with the farm lane behind us, only ever bringing one dog out during the drive, sending only for runners when safe to do so.

The horn sounds and the drive begins, flush after flush, game keeps coming. The keeper outdoes himself, the birds, crossing left to right, right to left, give the gun line a seriously challenging drive, especially in the bright wintery conditions.

As the drive continues my dog and I mark the falling birds. Just as the horn sounds to end the drive a partridge suddenly runs in the direction of the hedge and the lane, a simple runner for any experienced gundog. The running partridge suddenly takes flight. Whirring about a foot off the ground with a leg down, it heads towards the lane with a Labrador in hot pursuit.

When pre-season training pays off

At that moment a large white van hurtles along the lane, the partridge crashing into the hedge. All of a sudden everything seems to be in slow motion. A loud blast of the stop whistle, a bellow: “STOP!”
She stops on the hedgerow. She listens. She looks at the hedge but doesn’t move, just standing, waiting for her next command.

My heart was in my mouth; a cold sweat had come over me. I recalled her with two pips of the whistle, sat her up and praised her. Those hours and hours of steadiness and training drills ultimately saved her life.

Preseason Drills

There’s always an opportunity for training: for example, I use getting in and out of the truck as a chance to work on steadiness, asking each dog to get in on command, and not before! As highlighted above, this little-and-often approach can be a true lifesaver! 

I like to make use of different features in the environment to run different drills on our daily walks throughout the off-season. Suffolk’s long hedgerows, ditches, thick woodlands, vast open fields, and waterways offer some excellent training grounds. 

Hedgerows are perfect for straight-line training and directional drills; sending the dogs left, right or back to the dummy using the hedgerow to keep the dog on the right path builds their confidence in responding to my commands. Using the hedge as a barrier prevents the dog from straying off the correct line when you send them for the dummy. Start with shorter distances and then work up to longer retrieves.

Ditches always offer a great chance to practice blind retrieves, whilst our woodlands allow an opportunity to enhance those hunting-up skills. An enjoyable drill I use is to scatter dummies through an area of woodland. The idea is to replicate sweeping up after the drive has ended, so I run this exercise as a blind retrieve practice, either with one dog at a time or with all of them at once to focus on their teamwork and steadiness.

This has become a valuable drill, especially when after a drive ends, there’s often one gun that insists they have shot a bird that dropped on the horizon. There’s always a cheeky grin for the gun in question who asks, “Did you find that bird?” and you can reply “Yes Sir/Madam, it was near enough to wear you said it had landed.”

Simulated picking up days have also been invaluable this year. Due to a quieter shoot season this year, our first day picking up isn’t until mid October. These training days have proved excellent preparation for being on the peg or behind the line picking up, especially for our young dog, giving him a taste of what a real shoot day will be like and getting him used to the excitement of it all.

Fun For All The Family

I have also found conscripting our 6-year-old son as a dummy thrower can be useful most of the time, helping to replicate the ‘unpredictable’ nature of a day in the field. Adopting the same principles to my son as I do with the dogs, I make sure to always have high-value rewards in my pocket. Yes, there may have been a time when the six-year-old has eaten a dog treat or two thinking they were chocolates!

However when it comes to pre-shooting season fitness and training, late summer and early autumn evenings spent on fields and riverbanks, working the dogs with family and like-minded friends cannot be beaten. 

Training evenings like these not only allow time together working our dogs, but Suffolk can show some stunning sunsets, offering the perfect excuse once finished to sit and enjoy sundowners with a picnic and a cheeky gin and tonic.

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Words by Jake Woolf
Images by 3 Black Dogs Photography