Why gundogs are the ultimate companion
Welcome back. To me and to you.
As you may have seen from our recent Facebook post, Hail and I needed a little break, to get back in touch with our gundogging life… and by crikey, has it been good for the soul!
It’s funny how the things in life that make it worth living are the things that don’t get done when it all gets too much. That’s one of the great things about gundogging. It gets you outside in the fresh air with your best mates, four and two-legged. In my book, there really isn’t anything that can top that.
For some time now, I’ve been pondering why I love this gundog sport so much. What makes it different to the other dog sports that I’ve done? Well, quite simply put, it’s the dogs. Granted, they aren’t the only reason I love this sport, we can’t forget the wonderful people, the beautiful locations or the pub; but the dogs in this sport are vastly different to the dogs I’ve experienced in my past life, and I thought that warranted some unpacking.
So here goes… this is my attempt at understanding why gundogs might just be the best kind of dogs. And in true me fashion, I couldn’t possibly do that without a few tangents thrown in for good measure!
In the Field
I think the best place to start is with a true story.
Over the Easter weekend, we had the pleasure of competing in the Canterbury Kennel Association’s Novice Walk-Up and Novice events.
I have to admit, I didn’t have high hopes for our performance. Dog training has been one of the last things on my mind of late. We’ve had a fair bit of flux going on at home, and winding down a school term as a Dean with marking and parent-teacher interviews doesn’t leave a lot of cognitive bandwidth for much more than feeding myself and making sure that I’ve remembered to wash my hair!
I went into the weekends trial prepared to take whatever came our way, as I strongly believe you can’t expect a great performance without the dedication and effort to back it up. In our case, we definitely haven’t had either of those in recent weeks, so Hail could have pulled any old rubbish out of the bag this weekend… but bless her, she didn’t.
We started with the Novice Walk-Up on the Friday. It’s one of my favourite events, despite being the most challenging. It tests all of the skills we train for in a more dynamic setting than a standard pigeon trial. There are other dogs and handlers on the peg, there’s movement, nominated birds, and it can all go belly up in a split second.
Hail did me so proud, making it through to the final round with the top six dogs (four Labs, a Goldie, and us). She was the last dog to run in our set of three, and we ended up bowing out because we ran out of skill for the blind… hence why this is still my top training goal for 2026!
On the Saturday, we had the Novice. After our runs the day before, I was feeling a little more optimistic. Hail had shown me that despite our lack of training, she hadn’t forgotten how to play the game with me. A bit of a relief if I’m honest.
We had a pretty good Novice Land. It was two single marked birds. Hail was steady, did a fairly good job of marking, and delivered both birds back to hand without munching them. I have to admit, this is the first weekend of competition where I wasn’t consciously thinking about whether or not she was going to crunch the birds. A true sign of just how far she’s come.
Josh and I had a family commitment later in the afternoon, and I was hoping to have the Novice Water wrapped up before we had to head away. Alas, that was not to be.
I felt a little disappointed as Hail had put in a pretty respectable effort on the Land. It would have been a shame for her to not complete… but our day was saved by our dear friend, Mike!
He caught me before we left and offered to run Hail in the Water section. I’ve never had someone else handle Hail in a competition, or in training for that matter, so I wasn’t sure how she was going to go. You have every hope that you’ve trained the dog well enough to be picked up and run by someone else, but you never really know what’s going to happen when it comes down to it.
I had no doubts about Mike’s abilities. He’s done an excellent job of training his two Labradors, Betty and Cash, and he’s a calm, no fuss sort of handler who just lets the dogs get on with it. Exactly what Hail needs.
As we drove away from the trial, all I hoped was that Hail was going to behave herself until I was able to collect her later on that evening. The next thing I knew I got a message, some hours later; Hail had placed third in the Novice!
Proud as punch was an understatement.
Fireside
When we arrived at Mike’s house to pick up Hail, I knocked on the door and I was delighted by what I found.
Hail was happily inside, chilling out with Betty and Cash like she’d been there her whole life. In fact, she’d felt so at home that on her arrival she’d raced up to the front door from out of the ute. On being let into the house, she’d then leapt over the back of the couch and snuggled down with Mike’s wife for the evening! Ever the respectful houseguest!
She was pleased to see us, obviously, but she wasn’t desperate to leave, she didn’t seem overwhelmed, and she genuinely looked quite at peace with the rather impromptu house party that she’d been voluntold to attend.
This is the bit that makes my heart sing. And this is why I will likely only ever have gundogs in my life from now on.
The Ultimate Companion
I’ve had the privilege of sharing my life with a fair few dogs over the years. No two breeds have been the same, and no two personalities alike. I’ve loved each and every one of these dogs, for completely different reasons, and I wouldn’t change any of them… but, I’ve never had a dog as easy as Hail, and I put that down to her breeding. This isn’t a dig, just an observation. And it makes sense when you accept that the criteria for a desirable agility dog are vastly different to the criteria you’d select for a shooting companion.
Gundogs by nature are bred to want to work with people, and are also bred to be quite happy in the company of other dogs. This is part of their job description. The dogs that accompanied hunters on driven shoots, where there were plenty of people and other dogs to interact with, had to be sociable and agreeable. Which makes sense. No one wants a grumpy dog joining the team and creating chaos on a shooting day.
While Hail isn’t a Labrador or a Spaniel, and her HPR nature is slightly more independent, Weimaraners should still be social dogs. Sure, they might be a tad more reserved with other dogs, but they should definitely be tolerable of other dogs.
What I’ve seen over the last seven years with Hail is exactly that. She’s never a bother with other dogs, often choosing her quiet independence over full on interaction. But that suits me just fine. She’s happy to walk alongside other dogs in a Walk-Up line, sit in the back of a vehicle with other dogs, or muck around at the side of a riverbank or pond edge. There’s never any arjee-barjee, and that’s one of the things that I love about her. She’s happy to just get on with everyone, and as a dog owner, that makes life immensely more enjoyable.
Having had other dogs, who haven’t been as easy-going… (I wasn’t going to name names here, but anyone who’s met Spel will know that I’m referring to her specifically in this instance), I can quite unequivocally say that being agreeable is now the major criteria I have when selecting dogs. No more spicy dogs!
The other part of this story that hit home for me was having a dog that could be handled by someone else… and work as good as, if not better, for them than for me. I say this because her Novice Water score this weekend (91/100) is one of her best to date!
I’d love to claim that this was all me and 100% a result of the training… Sure, some of it probably is, but I’d be doing Hail a massive disservice if I didn’t acknowledge her drive and versatility as well. She loves her work and she loves people. It was a relief to know that, in a pinch, she will happily work well for someone else to the same standard that she has when working with me.
Weimaraners get a bit of a bad rap when it comes to this. Often referred to as ‘velcro dogs’ they have the reputation for being a bit clingy with their owners and being a ‘one person’ sort of dog. I think they deserve more credit that this. A true working dog should be happy to work for anyone, if they have the right amount of drive and enthusiasm for the work. I like to think Hail has enough of both, and this weekend went a long way to supporting my thinking on this.
Closing Notes
In all my years of running dogs in agility, I never had a dog that was able to run all that well for someone else. I’ve also never had agility dogs that didn’t have a bit of an unpredictable streak when it came to how they interact with other dogs. Even my ‘sweet’ old Dice loves to get involved in a scrap if there’s one going… even at almost 14 years old.
I don’t think it’s that I was a worse trainer back then, and I don’t think it’s that I had worse dogs. I just think that, the things I was looking for in a quick, responsive agility dog are no longer the things I look for in this stage of my life. Generally speaking, gundogs are extremely biddable, social creatures that are so driven to use their genetic talents that they make working look effortless. And who doesn’t want a bit of effortless in their mid 30s!
It’s one thing to be able to train a dog to a level where it can be run, and place in a competition for someone else with no preparation, but what’s more is knowing that your dog can so easily slot into the home and life of someone else when needs must, without drama. I also want it noted here that the dog that placed second in the Novice was also run by a friend that was not the dog’s owner either.
What the CKA Easter Trial did for me was highlight something that I’d been perusing for a while, but didn’t quite have the words to describe. It’s highlighted to me the versatility of gundogs, and what a pure joy it is to own one.
Field Notes & Follies 
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