A few words from our hostess

Vi bad vår fantastiska värdinna Sharon skriva några rader om hur hon upplevde vår vistelse i England:

We asked our fantastic hostess Sharon to write a few words about our stay:

"It was my great pleasure to host a group of handlers and dogs from Line Up Gundogs last year. I live in central Norfolk, an area which is mostly arable farmland with an abundance of small and commercial shoots.

It is very easy for me to get game experience for my dogs,walk up training days,trails and picking up.Between 1st and September and 31st of January I am out nearly every day. I have eight Labradors, a Cocker spaniel and a terrier. I compete in both trials and tests, do a little judging and indulge in my favourite pastime picking up as much as I can.

Setting up some days for the group took some planning. Jens and Sofia wanted their pupils to get as much game experience as possible, so with two experienced friends Chris Airey and Bob Babel I set about organising some fun!

I bought days just for them and found guns to shoot for us. First we had to get the dogs used to sugar beet as this is very different for them to work in and the walk up day would be in beet. We had some training sessions so we got to know the level of the dogs and handlers before we took them to the shooting field. We were very impressed!

We then took them picking up and explained how the drives worked and where we should position ourselves. We showed them how to watch for injured birds, the type likely to ‘run’. At this point we had to explain that we only send for ‘runners’ when the drive is taking place and the dead birds can be left until the end of the drive. We had to hold back their enthusiasm as they wanted to send for everything !

There is no need to disturb the guns when they are shooting to retrieve dead game .

One or two of the ladies also had to learn (a little reluctantly to begin with) how to despatch the retrieved injured birds. Very soon they began to look like professionals.

Blessed with good weather and fantastic guns and shoot hospitality we had some great days!

The walk up day in sugar beet was a huge success and several of the dogs took some very memorable runners. There were a lot of VERY big smiles that day.

Although we had rather a full house we all enjoyed the company of our Swedish guests, their good humour and their well behaved dogs. It was with genuine sadness that we said goodbye to them,the time had passed so quickly and they had all become good friends.

The greatest pleasure for us was seeing the dogs develop their ‘game sense’ and ability in that very short time. It was wonderful to see the handlers excitement and pleasure at finding lost game and their enjoyment in the whole English shooting experience.

Jens and Sofia stayed on a few more weeks to do some picking up, trials and training. It is good to have houseguests who invite us for dinner! We always miss them when they return to Sweden."

We could not have done this without Sharon and are ever so grateful to her for everything she has put into this project. Just the way she and Phil opened their home for us was amazing!
Sharon says that they miss us when we go, well I can assure everyone that I start longing to go back as soon as we leave! And when we do come down the driveway again, it feels like coming home...