Live game training day

[jeff8861]

Folks help ideas suggestions please. I would like to organise a live game training day in the north east of England for 12 Labs and handlers.

I've thought about commercial shoots or a syndicate shoot but I guess these would be expensive and not viable. Guns would not be issue as the majority of the handlers shoot.

Look forward to hearing your ideas.

Thanks Jeff.

[scotslad]

Not really sure wot info ur looking for??

 

If ur not going to shoot on a commercial shoot where are u going to shoot?

The best bet is finding a gundog friendly keeper (usually a mate) these days can be a real pain for keepers showing enough birds without too many in 1 place and not running on in front. Also the places dog handlers want game is usually the places keepers don't want game

Most keepers could/would rather put on a full driven day easier than a dog day and make more money for shoot with the larger bag.

 

I've shoot on quite a few, the usual ones i go to either bring in extra guns either purely to shoot or work spaniels which are steady and don't retrieve and shoot, unless ur handlers are pretty good/experienced they're prob better off only handling.

Are u intending all 12 dogs to be in the line at same time? Or more like a FT and call a couple up at a time?

Possibly u might be better of with fewer labs and making cheaper by having guns and non retrieving spaniels and spliting the costs, the more labs the more u need to shoot to get a retrieve each, for 12 labs u'd have to shoot 24 head just for 2 retrieves each, that could be £600-700 worth, if u get around £24 a bird doing very well most will be almost 30

 

Dunno wot its like in NE but a real shortage off estates near me willing to do this, i've had quite a few commitee members of various clubs ask me to reccomend new grounds for runing FT's on, it is a real struggle

May be different in ur area thou.

 

Also might struggle to get a sat date now as i'd imagine most shoots could be gettin full date wise and esp if a Sat

[bigbird]

We're going to do that next season here for spaniels.

There must be some on in your area you could go to Are you a member of any clubs?

12 labs is quite a large number although I guess they'd run in pairs. Thing is though if handlers are paying for the day they're going to want experienced guns who a) can shoot well and b) aren't going to pillowcase them at 20ft which isn't going to present much of a challenging retrieve

 

And +1 everything that Scotslad just said

Edited September 29, 2015 by bigbird

[jeff8861]

I was hoping a friendly keeper or shoot captain may be able to offer us a deal. I can get some ground and a bit of game but it's over 150 mile away Also I think a commercial shoot will be too expensive. We will have a about ten dogs and i would like them to get at least 8 retrives as this is umltimaty a training session we want the dogs to suceede

[PERCE]

http://www.reiversportinggame.co.uk/#!hospitality-and-pricing/c1upp

 

I think that your expectation of the numbers of game shoot on a day like this is high, I think you'd be more likely to achieve 50 head & even then I think you'll need spaniels in the line. I also think that you'd need to have 4 guns paying + 10 handlers. A mixed spaniel / retriever day might be the way to go. I've shot / worked a dog on several of these types of days, they've been very hit or miss, particularly if the keeper doesn't totally grasp what you need. I think the words 'novice dogs' quite often scares the **** out of them & they don't take you to ground where there's a lot of game. I shot on a spaniel day once & we ran all the dogs for one flush, that was a hare that we weren't allowed to shoot, not at all what you need for young dogs.

[scotslad]

Do u know wot u want and how u intend to run the day?

Or have u shot in them before?

 

To keep the price down u need people who do not want a retrieve, 4guns/4 handlers cost u 50% less per retrieve than 8 gun/handlers and u get more retrieves

 

I'd second wot perce said.

There is no way u will get 8 retrieves each with 10+ dogs, ur talking about an 80 bird day, walked up, that the sort of size of day that u shoot at the spaniel champoinships with 60 odd dogs runing, and to put that on keeper manage an area specially for it and have a team of stops keeping the birds in the cover. Is a massive ammount of work

To get 8 retrieves u will really struggle when u get more than 4-5 dogs there

 

All the spaniel days i shot on have been ran exactly as a FT would be 4/5 guns shooting with a dog working each side.

 

With the labs we usually just all line out in a big long line with all the labs at heel and they just pick dogs at random for each retrieve, usually the novice dogs in middle of line and open dogs at end so ur sending dogs from 1 side to oppisate side. So a 20-30m walked up bird becomes a 100-200m retrieve.

Seen some of the lab boys with 2-4 dog walking to heel perfectly and shooting too.

 

To get a 30+ day walked up takes some organising by the keepers esp if ur only wanting 1 bird down at a time, if u can do a mini driven type day makes it easier to increase the bag.

I know 1 shoot i used to pick up on the FT boys would delibertly stand 2-300m out of position so they could get soe nice long retrieves, whereas we we stand all nice short easy retrieves

 

Prob a lot easier to ry and fill spaces on 1 already organised even if only a gun to get the idea and get a few contacts of wot other estates run days like that.

I've seen some days where keepers where pullng there hair out the phrase 'herding cats' was mentioned, some dog folk can be hard work at times so many keepers won't put a day on unless u know them

[jeff8861]

Thanks for the input and advice folks it's appreciated, may have to do a bit tinkering

[scotslad]

Hope i've not put u off.

 

But i've been amazed the ammount of very experienced dog folk at me for contacts/ground (as i live work dogs on shoots in a slightly different area to them) as they are really struggling to find ground for FT's never mind training days and the few decent ones are well booked up.

 

 

To be honest most shoots won't make much/any profit of putting on dog days so u need to find a keeper (ideally a mate) who is intrested in dogs. Plus the weather can ruin a day even on good ground with a good keeper, birds won't come out a warm dry wood on a stinking wet day

 

Never hear of it being done before but possibly u could combine a working test type thing with ur training day, so throw odd dummies/pistol shot as well as the shot game so dogs get more retrieves (althou not game) in as near to the real thing envirinment as possible. Never heard of anyone doing it but don't see why won't help space theday out esp if dummy kept in game bag beside a shot pheasant

[mcs1972]

try the test trials and training days. No trivia! Group on facebook... there was some days in the north east advertised...

[jeff8861]

Thanks for the advice folks may have to re jig a bit of the program

[kent]

That's s big day and like perce said you will need flushing dogs

How about off season rabbits? Or a lot smaller boundary day?