A master of all trades
Gundog breeder and decorated handler David Templar was sitting in a pub one afternoon after a keepers’ day. “Everyone was talking dogs,” he begins. “All about this dog and that dog and what they could and couldn’t do.”
“My friend Rupert Hill of Camelwood Gundogs said, “Isn’t it amazing how dogs improve with death?””
That comment tickled David at the time and still does to this day. It’s one of his favourite anecdotes, to which he adds the following: “If you buy a Ferrari you can always turn it into a Mini, if you buy a Mini it doesn’t matter how much time and effort you put into it, it will never become a Ferrari.”
The former England captain has seen a lot of changes in the gundog world during his 30-year involvement in the sport, and I went to meet him in Gloucester, home to his Countryways Gundogs kennels to find out more about his
