Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Supplementary written evidence submitted by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation
We would greatly value being invited to give oral evidence to ensure that the committee hears the perspective of owners of working gundogs, particularly if the committee is to consider dog breeding regulations (BASC responses to recent consultations in Wales and NI attached). More than 61,000 BASC members own one or more working dogs. In the latest BASC working dogs survey, of the 18,000 members who responded, 15% owned three or more working dogs.
Professor Bateson’s report has one reference to “hunting” (working gundogs); “Hunting dogs were selected for setting or pointing when scenting gamebirds; others were bred for their abilities in retrieving or flushing game”.
The work and breeding of these dogs is still very much relevant to modern game shooting, an activity that annually support the equivalent of 70,000 full-time jobs and is worth £1.6 billion to the UK economy.
It is important to understand the need for working dogs within live quarry shooting. The desired aim is to harvest game in a sustainable and humane way. Working dogs are an important part of this process, BASC’s code of practice for picking up (quarry retrieval) states:
A good team of pickers-up is essential to the enjoyment and success of a day’s shooting. It is also essential to avoid suffering by wounded birds and the wastage of game. Everyone who shoots live quarry should ensure that there is always a dog available for retrieving.
Organisers of shoots, too, must also ensure that adequate provision is made for retrieving shot game. Ideally one picker-up should be available for each Gun.
Traditionally, picking-up is carried out immediately after each drive. However, when a bird is wounded it should be picked up immediately to ensure there is no suffering, provided it is safe to do so.
Respect for the quarry is fundamental. Remember also that game is food. All freshly killed game should be handled in a way that ensures the meat is subsequently fit to eat.
There are many different dogs doing a variety of work in the countryside. A good working gundog will display many different attributes, using a retriever as an example it’s job is to bring shot game back to its handler; it will have natural ability such as being able to mark (this is to see where game falls), it should not make any noise when working and sit quietly by the person shooting waiting until it is sent to retrieve, importantly it will have a “good nose” to swiftly find any wounded game, further it must have a soft mouth. By this we mean that it picks up game tenderly without damaging it, which is essential as shot game is ultimately destined for human consumption.
Whilst training will help develop these attributes, if a dog does not have them and the temperament to enable it to be trained then it will not be a good gundog. Responsible owners will only breed from those dogs which fulfil these criteria and avoid breeding from those which do not.
Alongside this natural working ability owners essentially will want to breed from dogs which are the healthiest and most able to work. Alongside the obvious facts of observing the health and fitness of individuals and a particular “strain”, there are modern health tests which are now used by to help assess this. Amongst these, hip, elbow and eye tests are commonly used.
In conclusion, ability, temperament and fitness to work are essential for a working gundog.
October 2012