Fit For Purpose

Can you work a trialling dog in the beating line? Is one job different from the other, and should you train them the same way? Ryan Kay gives his view on this much debated subject

- Ryan Kay

I regularly have new customers turn up for a lesson with a firm requisite in mind, a clear picture of what they want to achieve with their dog and what they will be using it for. And that’s just perfect, because my first question at the start of a lesson always is: what is your end goal?

Until we know what the end goal is, we have nothing to aim for. Some owners are quite particular and already have a clear and unblemished image of what their dog should be doing once it’s trained, with an exact discipline within the shooting field in mind. So if the request is a ‘peg dog’ then a peg dog we will aim for, with no diversifying! And that’s good, I like that. It means I can be black and white with the instructions and the dog can receive black and white training – which is always what a dog wants.

However, I find that the majority of us, and indeed most new clients who turn up, want the dog to step in and out of several disciplines – peg dog one day, hunting dog the next, picking-up the day after: an all-rounder. And with that demand, a nonchalant explanation of what is desired sometimes arrives with the owner, one that often contradicts itself.

It goes a little like this: “I don’t want a trialling dog, Ryan, I just want it to hunt nicely in front of me, stop when I blow the whistle and retrieve when I say so!”

“That is a trialling dog,” I reply.

“No, no… I just want it to find game for me, not hunt too far in front and come back when I whistle it… you know, something I can shoot over and go beating with.”

Again: “A trialling dog then?!”

What they usually mean is they’re not looking to train the dog to a trialling standard. I do recognise that, but it suggests that already we’re happy to settle for flaky or sub-standard dog work.