A question for shooting people pleasee

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MoodyMare93

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Helloo,

I was walking my golden retriever and 7 month old german shorthaired pointer bitch through a field the other day when the farmer stopped his tractor and shouted 'WAIIITTT!!' I nearly had a heart attack as i thought I'd somehow misread a sign and been trespassing for the last god knows how long!! Turns out he had seen my gsp and wanted to say how lovely it was to see one and how amazing she looks :)

He then said that his brother is the manager/ owner person of the near by shoot and that my bitch was exactly the type he liked and he had a couple of dogs he would LOVE to put her to (obviously not old enough yet). He also invited us to take part in the shoot this season (I did say she's definately not ready yet and I dont have a clue what to do but he said not to worry and that she'll stick with the older dogs who will show her what to do... gulp!!)

So, basically, I just wanted your knnowlege and expertise on EVERYTHING about the shoots and what I/ she will be doing as the closest I've got to it was helping my dad feed the young pheasants in the pens when I was little!!

Many thanks for any help you can give and sorry for the essay!! x
 
Before taking any dog out on a shoot I would try to join a training club for gun dogs.
Farmer sounds a bit dotty saying what he did and you do not want your pup getting into bad habits.
 
Well what a lovely compliment but you'd ideally want to have a test of her working ability, which would entail a good training class and a lot of experience out on shoots, as well as good results from relevant health tests for her breed, as well as good looks. And I would say anything under two years old would be a bit young for her to be bred from. Hip and elbow scores should only be taken after 12 months.
 
LOL - almost the exact same thing has happened to me! I was walking the dogs across the moor when some random bloke on a quad bike came up and started chatting - turns out he was a gamekeeper for a shoot I hadn't been on and asked me to come picking up :) Which I did and it was a lovely shoot but extremely hard on the dogs!

You need to find out what sort of shoot it is - small syndicate, rough shoot, large commercial and what role he has in mind for you - beating/picking up etc.

Give him a ring, chat to his gamekeeper and go along for a few days beating without the dogs to see how it all works, get to know everyone and enjoy it - the social side of shoots is great ;)

If your dog is just 7 months old then that is a brilliant age for you to get to grips with how shoots work and what is expected, then find your local gun dog club and start some training classes next summer once your dog is over 12 months old. Next season you can introduce her very slowly - just an odd drive here and there and by the time she is two yrs old you will be ready to get her working properly :)

Its a great thing to get into and you will end up hooked! :D
 
Thank you very much for the replies - sorry if I didnt explain myself properly - obviously I wouldn't breed from her under 2 years old and I would have to REALLY like the dog he was talking about and it would need the right temperament/ pedigree/ hip scores/ working results. (As it is, I've already decided not to breed from her before shes 4. I've already had 5 people say they are definately interested in a puppy - including her breeder, my uncle and my mother. She would be hip scored (her parents were 0:0 and 0:2) and heart/ eye tested and has a v good pedigree with great show/ working results and is THE loyalest best friend I could wish for)

Also, I was a bit wary about what he said about just letting her get on with it... I will definately be going along myself anyway and if I do take her this season then she will stay on the lead and watch for the first few meets until I know what she has to do and can decide if she is ready or not... even if its just to get her used to the shooting noise as she can be a bit of a wimp!!

So basically I think what I was really asking is what is a gsp's normal role in a shoot? And what would she/ I be asked to do? Oh and how well trained does she need to be? We are doing the Kennel Cub bronze test next month so its not like she doesnt have SOME form of training but what does she actually need to know? The person who does the training class I attend with her on a tuesday goes to gundog training classes which I could go to too but I wanted to see if you lot could help first :)

Thanks again
 
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