Dog whistle politics

Geoff Garrod on what he does to condition his trusted companions to his way of doing things

- Geoff Garrod

A day’s shooting without at least one dog by my side just wouldn’t be the same. They are great companions, can alert you to approaching birds and save you an awful lot of legwork. I’ve always owned dogs; they just make a day more enjoyable for me, provided they are steady and under control. Many of us would have seen a hide disappear across a field with a dog that is too eager and not fully trained. Not only is it annoying, but it can also be very dangerous when you have a loaded gun in play.

I am no expert, but I know what I need from my dogs and have developed a way of training them to my requirements. They don’t need to be field trial standard, but they need to be steady, to stop and return when I whistle them in. These are the essential traits for me. Picking up and hunting for pricked birds comes later, a great deal of which is learned in the field when a younger dog works alongside an experienced one. I am not saying that you don’t need to work on and train your dog once it’s steady, you do, but you can’t beat having them in the field with you and letting them watch the experts.

Early work