Our Journey

Handler- Toni Simpson

Dog – Ella now aged 17months

HOW IT ALL STARTED.

My husband and myself started clay pigeon shooting and really enjoyed it, we started talking about entering the shooting world but had no clue where to start. So our first step was to go to a shooting show. So off we went to the northern shooting show. We had a walk round then stopped to watch Darren from kirkbourne spaniels do his demonstrations. This is where we stayed for the whole afternoon. That was it we had the bug and we wanted to do it. So the search began for a working cocker spaniel.

I got Ella as a 8week old puppy with full intentions of training her to be a gun dog. I had no clue what I was doing as she is the first dog I have ever trained. I joined kirkbourne spaniels and at 5 months old in November 2022 our first novice class happened and our journey started. Ella and myself attended as many sessions as we could and the progress was amazing. Ella listened to all my commands and always returned with the dummy. When we wasn’t at training sessions we would go out and repeat what we had learnt in the previous session. We always covered all the basic (boring) stuff and I believe that is what has made Ella the dog she is now. Fast forward to January 15  2023 I decided to try the bronze assessment which would allow me and Ella to move into intermediate and learn more.  I had never trained Ella with anything bigger than a 1/2lb dummy, I discovered that 1lb dummies were used in the assessment but we still gave it our all. Sadly we failed as Ella wouldn’t pick up the dummy. This only made me more determined. So I stayed in novice and started training with 1lb dummies. This proved to be quite a difficult task for Ella as we discovered she only has a very small mouth. So the negative thoughts set in would she ever be able to do it, would she ever be able to retrieve a bird……. I had to give my head a shake and just keep training and say we will cross those bridges when we come to them. At the end of January I was given the opportunity to start a 8 weeks training plan, I knew this would be things Ella hadn’t done before but I was willing to give it a go and be completely honest with my feedback on how each task had gone. I will be completely honest there were some testing times throughout the plan but with Darren’s help we overcome each problem, ironed them out and eventually nailed all the tasks we were given. So week 5 of the training plan started and Ella started spitting the dummies at my feet and not delivering to hand like she had always previously done a few days in and she was still doing it this was really upsetting me and I actually sat in the middle of the field where we train and cried wondering what I had done wrong and why she was doing this. I was just about ready to throw the towel in and pack in the doubt had set in…. I wasn’t a good enough handler to train a gun dog, Ella didn’t like being trained to be a gun dog. So where do I go from here….  I was advised to have a couple of days off training and just make things fun so that is what I did, freedom walks throwing a ball and generally letting Ella do her own thing. Then I tried again just starting out with basic marked retrieves. They was better but still not the Ella I knew that came running and jumped into my arms with the dummy. Then all of a sudden everything was brilliant again she was giving me the dummy. So I pushed a little harder again all was fine.

Then came the 25/3/23 and I had booked to retake my bronze assessment. The nerves that was running through my body on this day was massive, but I managed to keep my cool and do the assessment. We nailed it we PASSED with a merit I was so happy. It wasn’t perfect, it could have been better. Ella’s heel work has never been the best this is something we have had big struggles with both on and off the lead. On the 1/4/23 Ella and myself entered our first novice working test we finished with 24 points out of a possible 60 and to some people this may seem rubbish but I was happy so so happy.

Now it was time to start with the intermediate training. Wow! What a massive step this was everything was so much more challenging but Ella and myself buckled down and put the hours in and we progressed quickly. We hit a few speed bumps along the way. Ella’s first time jumping a obstacle wasn’t great she couldn’t get over, there was lots of things that needed plenty of work but I wanted to succeed so I put the effort in to make things better.

In June 2023 Darren came and asked me if I would join other handlers in a team to represent kirkbourne spaniels at the national gun dog team challenge. As most can imagine being asked this so early into our intermediate training and Ella only being almost 12 months old was nerve racking but we said yes and promised that we would give it our all.

July came and it was time to travel to Richmond for the team comp. We competed over 2 days and the tasks set were somewhat challenging but we gave it our all and completed both day. We came away with lots of positives and plenty of stuff to work on. Sadly our team wasn’t in the placings but we had a amazing time.

In September we took our silver assessment and now train in the advanced class with kirkbourne  this has been very challenging at times and we always come away with new things to learn.

Ella and myself have just started our first season beating and picking up this has gone well so far with only a few mishaps on the beating line one of them being Ella thinking she knows best and taking herself off to flush birds so she had a good talking to and I think we have it under control. On our first picking up day Ella retrieved 2 hen pheasants this was done with ease and returned them to hand. On our second day she retrieved a cock pheasant this was also done fantastic.

This dog has made me proud every step of the way and I cannot wait to continue our journey………..