Accidents Can Happen

The shooting field can be a dangerous place for working dogs, says David Tomlinson, with vehicles the biggest threat to their safety.

IT’S EASY TO forget that the most dangerous thing you can do with a gundog is to take it shooting. On three occasions I’ve had to rush a dog of mine straight to a vet. Each time was because of an unavoidable accident in the shooting field. On two occasions fallen branches were the cause of the injury, and there is nothing you can do either to anticipate or avoid such incidents.

The worst accident was when a sharp stick impaled itself in my springer’s chest, penetrating some 6in between the skin and the rib cage. Mobile phones were then in their infancy, but fortunately a fellow beater had one so we were able to call the vet to give advance warning that we were coming. The spaniel was on the operating table within 25 minutes. She came home the next day, heavily stitched but otherwise in remarkably good shape, and was working again three weeks later.

Of course, the biggest threat to working dogs on shoot days comes from vehicles. Working a dog close to roads is always a worry, especially if you aren’t confident that your stop whistle will really halt your dog. I have been on a number of shoots where drives have been perilously close to roads, making picking-up impossibly dangerous. I recall one drive where the shot birds were actually falling on the road, creating a serious hazard for passing vehicles.