Working together, we agree your training goals, these typically cover a wide variety of obedience issues. If you have a specific query not mentioned, do get in touch, I’ll be happy to help.
Location:
Workshops and special training events are run at a 250 acre private livery estate located at…
Mote End Farm, Totteridge [map link]
Woodland Walk
Saturday, 25th April, 11:30-13:30
Varied woods, bridle paths and a secret meadow, including heel work, seen and memory retrieves, steadiness, hunting in cover and lots more.
Patience is a Doggy Virtue
Saturday, 6th June, 11:30-13:30
Super brain concentration training session to teach your dog to be steady, when to move and when to remain still, including emergency ‘stop’.
Look, Listen & Trust Me
Saturday, 27th June, 11:30-13:30
Teach your dog to want to listen to you and take directions; stop, left, right, back and forward. Build trust, partnership and connection, focus, attention and core obedience skills.
Picnic-Apocalypse
Saturday, 11th July, 11:30-13:30
Learn how to confidently control, manage and redirect your dog’s focus for happier and stress free Summer walks to avoid any embarrassing picnic apocalypse!
Reliable Recall – date to be decided
Strategies and training exercises to motivate your dog to come back to you, away from other dogs…or squirrels…or going to play with strangers… or running off with someone else’s ball!
Walk with Me – date to be decided
Focused and fun training session to teach your dog the true art of correct ‘heel’ behaviour with and without the lead.
Leap of Faith – date to be decided
A fun workshop training you and your dog to trust each other, including seen and memory retrieves over obstacles; logs, jumps, ditches, through woods and over water.
Hunting for Treasure – date to be decided
Teaching your dog to use their nose to seek and find, building on your bond, teamwork and partnership. Using the benefits of brain training and scent training.
In the Hand – date to be decided
Fun workshop teaching your dog to pick up an item in their mouth, hold on to it and bring it back to your hand – no more bending down to pick up or lost tennis balls!
SCURRY – Workshop
With special guest trainer, Paul Martin
Saturday, 30th May – 12:00-14:30 at Mote End Farm
Have you ever thought to yourself what is a Scurry? How do I compete? And how can I win a scurry with my dog?
I am thrilled to welcome Paul Martin, an experienced Scurry Competitor and his superstar Labrador Nala, to Mote End Farm to run this fun, fast and exciting Scurry Workshop.
Since Paul started Scurrying in 2017 he has either won or been placed in over 150 scurry competitions and in 2022 won the BASC Scurry League Championship.
- Open to all dog breeds, ages and experience, not just gundogs! – come along and enjoy this fun session with your dog.
- Build on your teamwork and partnership
- Improve your dogs confidence, control and training
- Positive training methods
- 12:00 to 14:30
- Parking and toilet facilities
- Cost: £95
Come and join us at The Scurry Workshop to learn how to compete and be successful in scurries. There is no pressure on you or your dog in the session and every retrieve will be demonstrated by Paul and Nala. It’s all about fun and enjoyment!
A dog scurry is a very popular, fun and fast-paced ‘have a go’ retriever competition, often held at country shows, fairs and BASC events. It tests a dog’s speed, focus, and obedience by challenging them to retrieve a dummy – often thrown into cover or over obstacles like hay bales – against a timer. The fastest time to retrieve the item and return it wins, offering fun for all dog breeds, not just gundogs.
What happens at a Scurry:
- The dog and handler wait at one end of a course, (sometimes a long corridor constructed from netting and posts, often with hay bales as jumps along the length).
- A dummy is launched (depending on the venue and appropriate setting, often a blank shot is also fired), the moment the handler sends their dog to retrieve the dummy a stopwatch is started.
- The Scurry can be set up in a variety of ways; for straight forward seen retrieves or to retrieve a selection of specific dummies, or blind retrieves (hidden from the dog) and sometimes jumping over hay bales or similar obstacles.
- Unlike formal field trials, Scurries are usually open to any breed, age, or experience level of dog.
- Scurries often have novice and open classes, making them a welcoming entry point into dog sports, notes The Field in this article. They provide a great, low-pressure way to test a dog’s natural instincts, according to Field and Fireside.
The workshop will consist of various individual scurry set-ups of seen retrieves and blinds, culminating in them being combined into one scurry course mini competition to finish!
SPANIEL – Beginner Gundog Workshop
With special guest trainer, Nick Ridley
Saturday, 9th May – 10:00-15:30 at Mote End Farm
- Training especially for Spaniels – harnessing your spaniels natural instincts;
- quartering, scenting, hunting, retrieving
- steadiness, stopping on the whistle
- delivery to hand
- Positive training methods – fun and motivational teamwork to build on your bond and your dog’s motivation
- 10:00 to 15:30 – including breaks for both dogs and handlers
- Parking and toilet facilities
- Cost: £170
Nick Ridley is a highly respected gundog trainer with specialist experience working with Spaniels. A renowned dog photographer and author of several books on photographing animals and training gundogs, including the highly successful Spaniels which has gone on to be an international best seller.
Nick has been involved in the gundog world for over 30 years and as well as photographing gundogs working in the field, he has been gundog editor for both the Sporting Shooter and Sporting Gun magazine and also regularly writes a gundog training blog for Härkila and has made numerous radio and television appearances. He has trained several his own gundogs and works them throughout the shooting season either picking up, beating or shooting over them.
Nick has produced a series of training videos following the training of two of his own Cocker Spaniels; Ted – Training With Ted and Percy – Percy’s Progress These and more, can be found on Nicks YouTube channel.
HUNT POINT RETRIEVE GUNDOGS – Workshop
With special guest trainer, Susie Zarpanely
Saturday, 16th May – 10:00-15:30 at Mote End Farm
“ Whether your goals for your HPR are as a pet companion or a working or trialing dog, I can help you… I look forward to meeting you on 16th May ”
- Hunt Point Retrieve Gundogs – specialist breeds workshop
- Practical training exercises: teamwork and partnership – hunting, scent, pointing
- Demonstrations: learn from watching Susie’s HPR’s in action
- Educational theory and breed understanding: bring your notebook and understand more about your breeds skills, talents and superpowers
- Positive training methods – fun and motivational teamwork to build on your bond and your dog’s motivation
- 10:00 to 15:30 – including breaks for both dogs and handlers
- Parking and toilet facilities
- Cost: £170
Susie began her involvement with HPR (Hunt Point Retrievers) in 1982 with a German Shorthaired Pointer bitch called Pepper, from the renowned Wittekind Kennel.
“ Pepper had enormous potential. Although I had shot over the breed, I knew nothing when it came to training. She chased deer in Richmond Park and brought me rabbits all before she was 10 months old, so I looked for training help, this was not the Labrador I was brought up with! ”
Susie and Pepper joined the Surrey and Hants group of the GSPC and the Chiltern Gundog Society, and only 10 short months later they qualified for Open Working Tests, winning overall 10 Open Tests. Pepper worked for invited syndicate guns who enjoyed shooting partridge over pointing dogs, she then joined the picking up team for the remaining season.
Susie has also trained the United Retriever Club puppy classes including a group of mixed Labradors and Flatcoats.
A GWP bitch called Gallae then joined Susie’s picking up team of two Labradors, two HPR’s … including one of the two Viszla’s she was also training for a friend at the time. Susie trained Gallae for shot over days with a view to trialling her. She gave Susie her first litter and Kewpond Gundogs were registered.
“ Six litters of mainly working dogs and numerous Labradors have contributed to my understanding and my love of the way working dogs respond… and the odd cocker has got into the mix too! “
As a result of regularly training her dogs in Richmond Park and referrals from pet dog trainers, Susie has helped a great many other people train their GSP’s and Viszla’s, whose needs were not met at the time by well meaning local village hall training.
“ Oliver, a Labrador, was my first trial dog then Gallae my GWP, both aquitted themselves well, Bailey followed their footsteps and so did Gallae’s daughter Chocy, she achieved no less than seven Guns awards, but never won a trial. Chocy’s daughter Teazle did get her Stud Book number and so did Cracker, a Labrador and my GWP heart dog Winter. ”
Susie and Winter pick up on a regular basis and take part in Shot over days throughout the season.
Introduction to working gundog workshop
With special guest trainer, Abbie Reid
- Working gundog training – harnessing your gundog’s natural instincts; scenting, hunting, retrieving:
- walking to heel
- stopping on the whistle
- retrieving
- delivery to hand
- Positive training methods – fun and motivational teamwork to build on your bond and your dog’s motivation
- 10:00 to 15:30 – including breaks for both dogs and handlers
- Parking and toilet facilities
- Cost: £170
It is a great pleasure to welcome Abbie and Riverlily Working Dogs at Mote End Farm as our visiting special guest trainer. Matlock and I owe much of our passion and gundog training to Riverlily – an excellent gundog training opportunity when they visit.
Riverlily train dogs and handlers to go out in the shooting field, beating, picking up and on the peg. Including owners who want to go down the competitive route to enter gundog working tests and trials and pet dog owners who are training for fun, to build a great bond with their family pet.
Abbie and her team combined have many years of experience working their gundogs in the shooting field and have won many awards in working tests and trials. Riverlily regularly organise charity events and ran the Euro Challenge at The Game Fair 2022 For more information please see their website and Facebook and Instagram
