Town & Country Dog Training

16/02/2025

Who doesn’t like a warm up with a bit of tennis ball distraction. These were quite advanced exercises and this groups first lesson after the winter break. Lovely to have you back and thank you for an enjoyable afternoon on the field and the great pictures courtesy of Nick 😁

15/02/2025

Some pictures at last since we started Training Term 1 in 2025. It has been incredibly wet of late but thanks to the size of our ground we can move around. The group this afternoon went to a more challenging piece of field. We worked on hunting, expanding on distance, confidence, increased steadiness and memory. Really lovely to see how the different Gundog breeds coped with the set tasks

31/01/2025

Taking it steady has paid off with this young dog. Throughout the season he has shown growing confidence in various shooting environments. I took him beating, introduced him to cold game proper, walked across shooting ground with running birds, ensured he was unfazed by shoot. So when he was finally allowed to pick birds on the day he took to it very naturally. If you take time and introduce your dog slowly and with common sense, you will have many years of joy ahead. After a little rest we will head back to the training field and work on upping the ante for times ahead

27/01/2025

24/01/2025

The shooting season is coming to an end but at the same time it marks the beginning of the return of our training classes. From this weekend onwards group lessons will recommence and I have just finished updating the calendar on the website. There are a few places available so please do get in contact if you would like to join one of our groups.

Monday Novice/Intermediate group 1 10:30am - full
Monday Novice/Intermediate group 2 10:30am - full
Monday Puppy 12:15 - 2 spaces

Tuesday Novice/Intermediate 10:30am - full
Tuesday Advanced 10:30am - full
Tuesday Beginner 1:30pm - full

Thursday Intermediate 10:30am - full

Friday Novice 10am - 1 space
Friday Advanced 2pm - 1 space
Friday Novice 10am - full
Friday Beginner 1pm - 1 space

Saturday Beginner 10am - 1 space
Saturday Novice/Intermediate - 2 spaces
Saturday Beginner 10am - full
Saturday Intermediate/Advanced - full

Sunday Beginner 10am - 1 space
Sunday Puppy 2pm - full
Sunday Novice 10am - full
Sunday Advanced 2pm - full

All groups run fortnightly. Schedules so far cover term 1 up to Easter. Once we have sufficient daylight towards the end of April evening lessons will return.
Watch out for the announcement of our training days - the first will be ‘Back to Basics’ on Sunday 23rd Feb.

Can’t wait for the weather to warm up so we can start making use of our water training facilities. It is all happening here at Town & Country Dog Training.
Looking forward to welcoming everyone back on the field very soon and to all the events in the months to come.
See our website for more details www.townandcountrydogtraining.co.uk
Contact us via [email protected]

13/01/2025

The new year is well and truly on the way. We have been a little quiet since the beginning of January but we are taking a short but hugely needed break from Somerset. However just because we are on holiday, training does not stop. New places, different environments, means I am keeping it basic with the young dog as there is already more than enough distraction. The L*z Graham Retrieving Roll comes handy as it is easy to carry and dogs, old and young just love it. Training schedules in Somerset will resume towards the end of January and we are looking forward to seeing everyone after the winter break.
Until then keep training 🌞

02/01/2025

The start of a New Year is always exciting and no doubt we are looking forward to what 2025 has to offer. To all clients, friends and supporters of Town & Country Dog Training, have a prosperous, healthy, peaceful and Happy New Year. Most important have fun with your dogs and enjoy training them - we do. After a break, lessons will restart end of January/early February - see you on the field soon, and there are always distractions

23/12/2024

Thank you to everyone who has supported Town & Country Dog Training in 2024.

We had a lot of fun on the field, great successes, lots of learning for handlers and dogs, sometimes a little frustration but more so lots of laughter.

Five years have gone by since I started this new venture and I have met so many lovely people with their dogs over time. Some came as complete beginners and now take their dogs to the shooting field, or compete. Others just wanted a well-behaved pet, and have achieved exactly that. I have clients who are now having another puppy starting the journey all over again.

And so it continues as we draw 2024 to a close and eagerly looking forward to the New Year 2025.

Alongside the regular group training for all levels from puppy to advanced, I will be offering a number of training days starting with ‘Back to Basics’ early in the New Year.

For now it is time to rest and re-charge until I see everyone again from the end of January onwards.

🎄🎄 Enjoy a very Merry Christmas and may it be a peaceful New Year 🍀🍀

16/12/2024

The final week of training before Christmas 🎄- we had a lovely lesson this morning with a lot of laughter. Still a lot of learning took place especially handlers discovering the intentions of their dogs once out of sight. We sent through a hedge via a ditch so a strong natural boundary and the dogs were left to retrieve and return from the other side. Some really positive experiences and motivation for the new year. Lovely bunch and what a great variety of gundogs

11/12/2024

As we are slowly turning our back onto 2024, I have been pushing the groups a fair bit to make the final lesson of the year particularly memorable. This was a walked-up exercise with a variety of retrieves build in. Lovely, challenging ground that got those noses hunting. Meanwhile some dummies didn’t quite make it to the ground. It is Christmas soon after all so we need some tree decorations 🤔

09/12/2024

Training has resumed after the storm - lovely lesson this morning taking these dogs to some more challenging ground. We were sending through the hedge onto the open field to encourage the dogs to hunt and work it out without having the handler visible. The confidence grew with every retrieve - great work

04/12/2024

When many hours of training pay off, day two in the beating line with my young dog. Today he was allowed off lead for a fair amount of the time. Walking up in line, honouring other dogs working, doing nothing for a lot of the time, just staying close. I always advise to introduce a young dog slowly and with common sense to the shooting environment. It pays off in the long run. There is a lot going on for about 6 hours of the day and dogs need time to learn and process the experience

28/11/2024

Taking this group to the next level of ground this morning and they smashed it. Not the easiest of dogs but everyone really excelled themselves. Good marking, good going on blinds and solving some long standing challenges. Happy days

25/11/2024

Three Spaniels on a Monday morning - full alert and no better start to the week. It was a lesson of addressing some individual challenges. Improve self-control, address walking at heel and overcome mixed messages when running different activities with your dog,
agility versus Gundog training. Lots of learning as always

21/11/2024

No snow in our part of Somerset, instead the sun came out at lunchtime and made a days beating a glorious day out. First time on a bigger shoot day for the young dog and he was impeccable behaved. A slow approach pays off

20/11/2024

Cracking morning and a bit of time spent training my own dogs. The cold weather made the old boys very energetic, they still love a retrieve

18/11/2024

And so begun another week at - Monday morning with a lovely group of very different Gundog breeds. This was a seen retrieve through a narrow hedge gap. It truly challenged some of the dogs and needed a fair bit of confidence building

12/11/2024

And then there was sunshine and everything looked an awful lot better. Tuesday morning was spend with some more experienced handlers and dogs. Taking the 3 D’s of Duration-Distraction-Distance we worked on marked retrieves (pictures), go back, get out, get on for memories. What looks like a straight line to us does not necessarily mean the same to the dog. Landscape, wind, light, distractions and much more can influence the retrieve. Lots to work on after today 😊.