West Country Gundogs
About Us
West Country Gundogs is about providing working gundog tests, competitions and training activities for working gundogs and their owners of all ages and experience. From juniors to seniors, from never-done-it-before to seasoned owners and gundogs. Our activities are of open classification i.e. anyone and any gundog may enter, e.g. sprockers, with a simple turn-up-on-the-day entry system.
Our purpose is to provide action and good fun; good-spirited competition; training progression and relaxed entertainment for owners and their gundogs. All this through relatively informal straightforward friendly competition and training experiences.
Your wish may be to work your dog, or run in formal gundog working tests or even one day aspire to enter a field trial. Our goal is to provide chances for you to start out, to learn and to practice. To give a place where you can enjoy handling your dog to test your skills, to build your dog’s experience and to stretch its ability to perform as you consolidate your own training. We also want to provide a social network to give you chances to get to know like-minded gundog owners, to find and get involved in training groups and activities.
West Country Gundogs is quite simply an informal group of enthusiasts whose aim is to promote working gundog tests and activities in the West Country. All in the interests of the gundog community. A networking opportunity for gundog owners, also for gundog event sponsors who may wish to use this forum to promote their activities or events.
After the expenses of promoting our events have been taken into account, residual surplus monies received from entry fees will be donated to charity.
Volunteers
The really important people are our Volunteer Helpers, without them the tests would not happen. It takes a surprisingly large number of people to run an event and we are fortunate that there is a burgeoning army of good people who love to help.
They do it all – from stewarding to looking after our visitors, dummy throwing, entry administration at the welcome marquee and so on. An army marches on its stomach so there’s a volunteer helper running the catering marquee with tea and coffee, always on hand, and lunch to keep the volunteers going through the day. It all goes towards keeping the action running smoothly and to make for a tip-top day.
Organisers
West Country Gundogs is simple - it's not a club, society or constituted organisation. Simply an informal bunch of people - the many fantastic volunteer helpers who make it such a happy event among whom you will find Stephanie Milne and Jim Penaliggon who do their bit to make the arrangements in the background enabling the helpers to weave their magic on the day.
Volunteer helpers are always welcome. Anyone with a wish to take part in the behind-the-scenes work to stage the event is most welcome to join us, please pick up the phone or find us on Facebook @WestCountryGundogs.
Judges
Judges set the tone of these events. With their kindly cheerful way of putting competitors at their ease, the more expert competitor can fly, the less experienced has the comfort of being enabled to have a go to gain some experience in a mini-test and build confidence.
Coaching is always on hand. After the test, judges and stewards are there to help, advise and answer questions.
Photographers
We are fortunate that photographers joing us each year to capture the events in the competition and make their images available to competitors. They produce wonderful photographs. Almost all the images we use are by them.
If there is a picture you would like, please contact them via our Credits page.
Photographs and videos remain the property of the photographer and must not be copied or used without their permission.