On Sunday 11th June we held a Kennel Club Working Gundog Certificate assessment day on dummies. One of the participants, Alicia, very kindly provided this feedback on the day.

On the 11th of June Agnes (7.5 year old Flatcoat) and I attended our first ever assessment day at Loxwood with Vale & West.

The day was well organised and ran smoothly, a challenge for the organisers I am sure given the test requirements.

We started with a social walk down a track through woods to an open field where we would complete a simulated drive with half the field beating and half sitting steady before retrieving. The area that the dummies were in was well marked with poles, handy given the long cover!

The assessors provided calm and confidence, taking time to explain each exercise to every participant in turn. There was no pressure on handlers or dogs, in fact to the contrary there was a great deal of support from Jules and her team as well as the assessors.

A brief walk to the area where the water retrieves, retrieve over an obstacle (ditch) and mini drive took place gave a moment to clear the head and relax a little.

It was a very warm day but we benefited from solid cloud cover and the dogs were given plenty of time to rest after each exercise. Though I think a few handlers were tempted to go for the water retrieve themselves!

The ground at Loxwood was varied and gave realistic working scenarios.

We were marked not ready thanks to a cheeky shake off from the water, but this did not detract from a thoroughly enjoyable day where 95% of our training came together beautifully.

I would certainly recommend the day to anyone considering giving it a go, I wish we’d put our big girl pants on sooner.