Why gundog training is for everyone, especially pets.

Every March, when Crufts rolls around, it’s easy to see how significant our gundog breeds are in the wider context of the dog world and just how many owners have opted to get a dog originally bred to find and retrieve game.

Over the decades, social influences and different types of shooting have led to the evolution of a variety of different gundogs, and today, the Kennel Club recognises 38 breeds within the gundog category.

From a Crufts point of view, alongside the other 185 different breeds of dogs that can compete for the coveted Best in Show title, the top three breeds entered in 2025 were all well-known gundogs, including Golden Retrievers (509 entries), Labrador Retrievers (485 entries) and Cocker Spaniels (418).

And while Suzie the Cocker Spaniel might only have made it to the finals for this year’s Best in Show, as a breed, the Cocker Spaniel has racked up more of these top titles than any other, with seven wins in total, in the 86 years the prize has been awarded.

Showing aside, looking at the Kennel Club registration data from the last 10 years, on average, 95,793 gundogs are registered each year. 

As well as representing 38% of all puppy registrations, this makes gundogs by far the largest breed group, with Utility coming in second at 61,320 average registrations per year, and dwarfing the other five breed categories, which sit at around 20,000 registrations on average per year.***

More gundog puppies will also be born and unregistered, and more still will fall into the non-Kennel Club recognised breeds and popular crossbreed categories like Cockapoo and Labradoodle.

Despite the gundog breeds accounting for such a large percentage of dogs, gundog training is far from the top of most popular dog training disciplines. 

While times are changing, too many pet gundog owners are still missing out on the joys and benefits of breed-specific training because they automatically assume that gundog training is exclusively for people who want to work their dogs in the shooting field.

In this month’s blog, we’ll take a look at the dangers of not doing gundog training, the benefits of getting involved in breed-specific training even if you don’t want to work your dog on a shoot, and what hobby gundog training involves for beginners.

What are the problems with having gundogs as pets?

Gundogs have been bred for hunting, flushing, and retrieving game. They share many common attributes, such as the instincts to hunt, chase, and capture prey.

Over the decades, they have also been bred for their sociability, friendliness, intelligence and trainability (biddable nature). These traits have made them extremely attractive and desirable for families.

And so, a large proportion of the gundog puppies born into the world every year head off to family homes, destined to be pet gundogs with no expectation of working in the shooting field.

Now, there is no shame in owning a gundog breed and having absolutely no desire or intention to work them on a shoot. And there is no doubt that gundogs do make excellent pets - when their in-built, genetic “gundog” needs are being met.

But there is a growing danger that more and more ‘working line’ dogs are missing out on vital opportunities to do what they were bred to do as they end up in pet homes with owners who don’t realise the importance of gundog training, even for non-working dogs.

You might have bought your pet Labrador, Golden Retriever, Spaniel, Setter, or Vizsla with the expectation that they will simply fit into your everyday life like any other breed of dog.

Before they arrived, you might have imagined them sleeping next to you while you work from home, having a leisurely stroll on your daily dog walk, or inviting them to accompany you on trips to the local dog-friendly pub and days out to the beach.

What you’ve got instead is a ball of chaos and energy that struggles to settle anywhere, let alone somewhere exciting like a busy pub.

A hunting machine that pulls you from scent to scent on what has now become known as the daily drag.

A dog you don’t trust off-lead in the local park or countryside because you’re never sure if they will come back when you call them.

Indeed, owners who are uninitiated to a gundog’s way of thinking and naive to their hunting prowess do struggle to teach reliable recall and loose lead walking or heelwork in the presence of distractions such as wildlife and scent.

We all remember the desperate cries of Fenton’s owner as his Labrador failed to recall, choosing to chase deer through Richmond Park instead.

But on top of that, with no outlet for their innate desires to hunt, chase, and retrieve, pet gundogs are more susceptible to developing lasting and damaging behavioural problems.

Sadly, we have seen it all: resource guarding, constant frustration barking, obsessive shadow or tail chasing, destructive chewing, and general over-arousal and over-excitement.

Why pet gundog problems can’t be solved with more exercise

Many pet gundog owners think that they can simply tire their dogs out by giving them plenty of exercise.

However, allowing a gundog breed to free run for two or three hours a day is a recipe for disaster.

Gundogs were bred to work all day, week in, week out, during the shooting season. More exercise will only help to improve their fitness level and will create an athlete.

What’s more, letting them off the lead to go “self-employed” and do whatever they want repeatedly teaches them to disengage from you when out and about. No wonder they don’t want to stay close or come back to their “boring” human when called.

Similar problems also occur when owners focus only on the retrieve e.g., throwing an endless number of balls for their pet gundog in the park.

Yes, the dog is more likely to want to be with you (well, your ball), but it will still be getting fitter every day, and you will soon create a “wired”, adrenaline-filled, ball-obsessed dog.

As long as they are getting plenty of mental stimulation and brain work (such as short daily training sessions), our gundog breeds only need 20 to 30 minutes of exercise per day.

Even those pet gundogs participating in other activities such as scentwork, canicross, agility, and hoopers can still present owners with challenges for the same reason.

While training activities engage their brains and ensure they get plenty of exercise, they still do not allow them to express their natural behaviours.

Scentwork is a passive indication, whereas hunting is active. Agility and canicross may be physically active, but they are not what these dogs were bred to do, and so they can still lead to frustration-induced behavioural problems.

The best dogs thrive when owners combine these dog sports with gundog work.

The benefits of breed-specific training for pet gundogs

Gundog training is not every pet gundog owner’s cup of tea. It is very outside and in the real world - in all weather and covering all terrain.

Owners may also be reluctant to get involved in a hobby related to field sports due to personal beliefs.

However, incorporating breed-specific training and gundog activities into pet gundogs' daily lives is essential if you want to avoid the long list of problems associated with bored Labradors, Spaniels, and HPRs.

There are four different gundog breed categories, retrievers, hunting retrievers (aka spaniels), HPRs, and setters and pointers. They have been bred for different roles, so the first step is to research your dog’s breed and discover where they fit into this.

We can then use this knowledge to better understand how breed-specific training can give our non-working pet gundogs what they need to be happy and fulfilled dogs.

Below, we will look at some of the basic gundog behaviours. You’ll quickly see how a lot of these are just general obedience skills which will improve any dog-owner relationship. Where it’s less obvious, we have also added how training these will benefit you as a pet gundog owner.

Come/Recall

Teaching your gundog to return promptly when called is a vital cue for everyone’s safety. In gundog training, recall is ‘proofed’ around lots of exciting distractions and paired with very high-value rewards, which means that your gundog will learn that it pays to return to you even if there are scents, other dogs or wildlife around.

Heel

No one wants a dog that drags them about on the daily walk. Pet or working, if a gundog is walking next to your leg in the heel position, by the laws of physics, they cannot be simultaneously pulling on the lead!

Steadiness

Gundogs need to be steady and not run in on retrieves or when the hunting line has stopped for safety reasons. Teaching pet gundogs steadiness helps them self-manage their impulsive desires and can stop unwanted behaviours like suddenly lunging on the lead or running after a squirrel they’ve just spotted.

Stop whistle

We need to teach our hunting gundogs to stop to flush, and our retrievers need to stop to look at us for directions if they cannot locate a dummy or bird. For pet gundogs, the stop whistle, like the recall, is a safety feature. It’s an emergency stop that might prevent them from jumping a barbed wire fence or jetting off to greet a reactive looking dog on a lead.

Retrieve / Delivery to hand

We harness natural retrieving instincts by teaching our gundogs to fetch and return items gently and efficiently. This is of paramount importance when working to guarantee that all game ends up on the table as part of a nutritious meal.

If your pet gundog does not have a suitable outlet for their retrieving desires, you might have noticed their intense passion for picking up an array of household items. This can be a daily frustration - especially if your pet gundog is carrying your expensive shoes off to their bed to ‘kill’ and ‘consume’ them.

Teaching gundogs to retrieve on cue and to learn that not everything is theirs to retrieve can significantly reduce this activity in the house. Even if they persist in carrying, if you have taught them to deliver to hand, instead of destroying things, they should learn that it is more valuable to share their new treasure with you.

Hunting

We can teach our hunting dogs to put their noses down and follow scent on cue while staying close to us. This is used for finding and flushing game. While this doesn’t seem useful for pet gundog owners, the games and exercises used to teach our dogs this skill can help them to learn that hunting with us, and listening to us while hunting, is much more rewarding than going self-employed and becoming deaf to our calls.

Hopefully you can see how these behaviours will all positively impact your life. It should also be noted too that gundog training is great fun and a fantastic way to establish and build a wonderful relationship with your dog.

How to get involved in gundog training with your pet gundog

Even if you have no interest in shooting, gundog training as a hobby sport has so much to offer. 

It is not just about having an obedient pet and preventing behavioural problems. It can help you meet like minded dog people, is a good way to keep fit and active yourself, and there are also plenty of certificates to aim for and working tests to enter for those who like collecting rosettes and being competitive.

If you would like to get started with gundog training, we always recommend thoroughly researching any potential trainers to ensure that you are comfortable with the methods they use. 

All of our accredited trainers have successfully completed our Teacher’s Course and passed our full assessment process that is accredited by the ABTC (Animal Behaviour Training Council). They are also required to adhere to our Code of Practice, so you can be confident that these trainers only use the most scientifically sound and ethical methods of animal training and strictly prohibit harsh handling and any punitive tools or techniques.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a trainer near you, then our online training membership has been designed to help you get started with ethical, science-backed, non-coercive gundog training no matter where in the world you live. 

Even if you have never trained a dog before, we'll walk you through everything you need to know. From learning theory and how to use a clicker, to identifying what motivates your individual gundog, the equipment you'll need, how to plan your training and the practical steps needed to teach your gundog all the foundation skills.

If you would like more information about the membership, please click here: https://gundogtrainersacademy.co.uk/pages/membership 

***The average annual registration total for each breed group has been calculated from The Kennel Club comparative tables of registration for the years 2015-2024 inclusive as follows: Gundogs: 95793, Hounds: 22480, Working: 13288, Terrier: 19347, Pastoral: 13613, Utility: 61320, Toy: 20749. https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/media-centre/breed-registration-statistics/