The best-trained dogs

ONE of the consequences of writing professionally about gundogs is that, generally speaking, I see the best-trained dogs. These include the labradors that can be stopped at 300 yards on a single peep from the whistle, the spaniels that work from side to side like windscreen wipers and the pointers that only ever point grouse, never meadow pipits.

Of course, in the real world of working gundogs it’s very different. The majority of so-called peg dogs are really corkscrew dogs, because that’s the only way to stop them