Y FIRST experience of dogs and fishing was, looking back on it, quite amusing, though it wasn’t at the time. I was in my early teens and out walking my cocker spaniel. He was a keen swimmer in the pond on our local common, a stretch of water that also attracted coarse fishermen. On one memorable occasion he swam too close to one such fisherman, who told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t call my dog back, he would throw me in the water to join him. As the fisherman was much bigger than me, both the
