Having been a moorland Gamekeeper for over 25 years on some of the most prestigious estates in the country, I have a real understanding and passion for working gun dogs. My role requires me to keep dogs that are hard going, easy to manage and adaptable to all aspects of a field sports. From the Glorious Twelfth of August onwards I am mostly out seven days a week with them - beating, picking up and “double gun” loading. The beating side of my job requires a dog that can hunt hard for hours at a time, under very little instruction from me, as i have to keep the beating line in order. They must walk to heel for miles at a time whilst we are lining out, sit and wait for the drive to start, then wait until told to pick up shot birds at the end of the drive. They must not run in and start picking up birds that the guns have marked down before being told to. Picking up also requires a hard going dog, to keep going through thick heather on the hottest of summer days, and like beating I will take out a minimum of six dogs at a time. Sometimes I take all twelve dogs out for bigger August shoot days - this means that control is paramount. Loading requires dogs that are rock steady, and will sit in the butt with no lead on whilst the drive is in progress. Birds shot will rain down all around the dogs but they must sit and wait until told to go and retrieve them. This is when the whole drive is over and the guns are back in their slips. I never take a lead with me so they must be trusted not to run in and start picking birds without instruction. We also do quite a lot of walked up shooting, with the dogs being shot over by paying guests. Another real test of the dogs ability. You do not want to be let down by a dog running off and flushing game out of shot, or worse - chasing game thats in shot! On top of all this, my dogs are used for counting the young grouse in July - hunting them up and flushing them, so we can get an accurate number of birds on the moor. As you can imagine, its quite tempting for an experienced picking up dog to try and catch young chicks as they flutter out of the heather. If any chicks are caught, we can not count them in the game book and we lose their commercial value. All in all, it’s a hell of a lot to ask of my dogs but I do ask it, and its very rare they let me down. I breed an odd litter to keep my kennels stocked up, and have a few of good stud dogs too.