Found It, Fetched It - Gundog Training for Family Life

Your dog is flat out at home for about ten minutes a day. The rest of the time they're on your heels, bringing you a toy or sighing at the back door, and the minute you take them somewhere new they behave like they've never left the house. LWDG Group Expert Claire Denyer and I get into the art of doing nothing, and why the dog who can switch off at home is the dog who switches on for you when the lead comes out. You'll hear why an obedience stay at the pub isn't the same as a settle, the mistake almost everyone makes the second their dog finally lies down, and the advice my uncle gave me that involved a park, a pack of sandwiches and no training at all. Claire lives with a house full of Labradors aged two to twelve, and every one of them settles every single day. If your dog treats every new place like the best day ever, start here.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

So there's a thing I see all the time with our members, (and if I'm honest, I do it myself) , which is you look at your dog and see the bit that's not quite working, and you just go and do training that is working instead. Foundation certificate, there's a wobble in something and the answer is "we'll go to novice anyway," and the wobble's still there; it never went anywhere, you just stopped looking at it.

This week I LWDG Group Expert Claire Denyer, and I pull that apart and work out where the line actually sits, because not everything you're avoiding matters, and some of it really, really does. Claire's got example after example: the boring stuff at home you let slide because it's "just the house," the fearful dog everyone wants to wrap in cotton wool when what they actually need is the opposite, and the bit about symptoms versus root causes properly stopped me in my tracks.

If you've been hoping a problem's going to sort itself out, don't skip this one.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

Half past nine at night and it is still too warm to take them out. The ground is baked solid, the tarmac has been a hot plate all day, and every group you are in is telling you something different about water, about heat, and about whether you should be training at all right now. LWDG Group Expert Abi Reed has spent this whole summer working around exactly that, getting up at twenty five to five to beat the sun and moving everything else indoors. She walks through what heat is actually doing to your dogs, why the car is the part almost everybody forgets, what water really does and does not fix, and how much genuine training fits inside the one metre of space around you. If you have cancelled walks this summer and felt like a bad owner for it, this one will settle that. Hot weather does not mean no training. It means different training.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

Every plan you had for your dogs this summer is probably still sitting where you left it, underneath thirty degrees of heat nobody could train through. That is not a lost season. It is a pause, and LWDG Group Expert Claire Denyer has a lot to say about how you pick it back up. Stay for the heat conversation too, because if our summers keep doing this, getting our dogs ready for warm weather stops being optional. And Bark to School kicks off Sunday. Free, all of us, four days. Come and get your rhythm back.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Generic advice can only ever stay generic. The moment somebody watches you train, the answer gets specific and the stalemate breaks.
• A hot summer did not undo your training. It paused it, and pausing is not the same as going backwards.
• If our summers keep looking like this one, preparing our dogs for heat becomes part of training rather than a footnote to it.
• Small cohorts exist for a reason.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Family Dog Services six-month gundog training programme, details on the Family Dog Services website

Claire and John can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]

Bark to School, free registration at ladiesworkingdoggroup.com/bts

Field and Fireside, providing giveaway prizes during Bark to School

LINKS

LWDG Membership: https://ladiesworkingdoggroup.com/

Bark to School (free): https://ladiesworkingdoggroup.com/bts

Free content library: https://ladiesworkingdoggroup.com/free-content/

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

This episode of Found It, Fetched It features pharmacist and Lyme Resource Centre trustee Arlene Braley and vet Ian Wright (chair of ESCCAP) discussing tick prevention and tick-borne disease risks for dogs and people. Arlene shares her son’s long, severe illness after an unrecognised tick-borne infection, motivating her Lyme charity work and emphasis on knowledge and early action. Ian explains UK tick species and life cycle; peak activity now spans much of the year; practical avoidance (staying on paths, protective clothing, repellents); pet prevention products suited to lifestyle; and the importance of post-walk tick checks. They outline correct tick removal with proper tools and avoiding stressing the tick. Arlene describes human Lyme signs (EM rash, summer flu-like illness, fatigue, headaches, migratory joint pain), the need to document rashes and history, relevant NICE/Royal College guidance, and that there is no prophylactic antibiotic after a bite; they also mention the Tick Surveillance Scheme and available resources and tick-removal tools.

00:00 Ticks Are Everyone’s Problem

01:07 Meet The Guests

04:02 Arlene’s Lyme Story

07:27 Tick Threats Beyond Lyme

09:22 Tick Life Cycle Explained

11:20 Avoiding Bites Outdoors

12:33 Pet Preventatives That Work

15:24 Tick Checks And Hotspots

17:41 Tick Season Is Longer Now

18:48 Safe Tick Removal Basics

20:59 Symptoms After A Missed Tick

23:10 Early Detection Matters

23:53 Chronic Lyme In Pets

25:17 Tick Prevention Planning

27:29 Humans And Tick Risk

28:54 Wait And Watch Signs

29:18 Rash And Early Symptoms

32:34 Disseminated Lyme Symptoms

34:20 Advocating With Your GP

38:02 Treatment Guidance Basics

39:44 Tools And Tick Removal

41:43 Surveillance And Outdoor Safety

44:43 Wrap Up And Resources

Link to ESCCAP : https://www.esccapuk.org.uk/page/Ticks/7/

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

Abbie Reed of Riverlily Working Dogs joins Jo to break down what a charity working test actually involves, from the admin behind the scenes to what your dog needs to be able to do on the day. They talk through the six tests you're likely to face, how judges assess you differently to an official working test, and why your own mindset does more heavy lifting than your training log.

In this episode:

• What separates a charity working test from an official Kennel Club test, and why unregistered and crossbreed dogs are welcome
• The basic skills your dog needs before you enter: steady to shot, steady to a thrown dummy, a clean retrieve, and a stop whistle
• A walkthrough of a typical test day, from signing in and the exercise area to being called forward by the judge
• The six common tests you might face, including the double mark, replacement blind, and the water splash
• Why eighty percent of how the day goes comes down to the handler's mindset, not the dog's ability
• How volunteering or helping at a test teaches you faster than training your own dog ever could

About Abbie Reed

Abbie Reed runs River Lily Working Dogs in Hertfordshire, where she's organised ten charity working tests over the last twelve years. She competes and picks up herself, and she's spent years watching handlers of every level walk into the test ring, which makes her the person to ask when you're wondering whether your dog is actually ready.

Key takeaways

• You don't need a perfect dog to enter a charity working test, you need a dog who's had the basics installed and will have a go.
• Judges at charity tests are more lenient than official ones, but they still expect a certain level of control before you toe the line.
• A zero doesn't mean failure, it means you've found exactly what to train next.
• Volunteering at a test teaches you faster than training alone ever will, because you get to watch dozens of dogs and handlers instead of just your own.

Resources mentioned

Riverlily Working Dogs — Facebook (Friends of Riverlily Working Dogs, and Riverlily Working Dogs), Instagram, website currently being updated

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

Jo and Claire Denyer tackle one of the most common worries handlers carry quietly: the belief that a dog needs to behave better before it is ready to see a trainer. They cover why the opposite is true, what so-called difficult behaviour is often really communicating, and how the most challenging dogs frequently become the dogs of a lifetime.

In this episode

• Why your trainer needs to see your dog at his cheekiest, not his best behaved
• The warning moment most handlers miss in the seconds before their dog disappears after a scent
• Why difficult young dogs so often mature into the hardest working, most rewarding dogs
• How watching other dogs at group classes and charity tests fast tracks your own handling
• What displacement behaviours like scent marking and cushion humping actually mean
• Claire's recent case of a golden retriever whose recall problem was nothing like it looked

About Claire Denyer

Claire Denyer is an LWDG Group Expert and professional dog trainer who works with handlers and their dogs every week, from group classes and one-to-one sessions through to behaviour cases referred by local vets. She brings a rare mix of straight talking and genuine compassion, and her whole approach is built on helping the handler, not just the dog.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

Ten years ago, the LWDG was bringing in about two hundred pounds a month and felt more like a nice idea than a business. This week marks ten years of the LWDG and ten years of Claire Denyer's Family Dog Services, so to celebrate, Claire turns the tables and interviews Jo in a business blind date. They talk about the exact moments it stopped feeling like a hobby (a national award for one of them, a very muddy fall on her bottom for the other), the bit of the job they still find hardest, how training has changed over a decade, and where they hope to be in another ten years. It's funny, it's honest, and it's the story behind the brand you've been part of.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

You trained it and you were proud of it. Then one day, in front of people, your dog looked straight at you and carried on sniffing. Recall going wrong feels personal, like the dog is calling you a liar. In this conversation, LWDG Group Expert Claire Denyer explains why recall almost never breaks where you think it does. Claire walks through how to rebuild it from the ground up, why the cheese-word panic never works, and how to use a long line as a way to talk to your dog rather than a way to hold them. If your dog has been stuck on the lead because you no longer trust them, this is the episode that gets you both off it.

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.

If you've ever thought that giving your dog a flirt pole or a tug toy would stop them chasing squirrels, this one's going to shift something. Predation substitution training sounds like the answer, give them an outlet for all that chase drive. But as Claire Deyer walks Jo through in this episode, it's not that simple. Here's what actually works, why outlets alone fail high-drive dogs, and when PST becomes part of a real strategy instead of a band-aid. Claire's spent a decade rehabilitating dogs that chase on command and won't stop, and what she's learned will reshape how you think about drive, boundaries, and what your dog actually needs from you.

In This Episode

• What predatory drive actually is and why it's normal (not a flaw) in working dogs
• Why chasing a toy will never replicate catching a real rabbit, the limitations of outlet training
• How dogs behave completely differently when you're not watching (and why this matters for prey drive issues)
• The skills you need alongside PST: reliable recall, stop whistle, steadiness, and self-control
• How gun dog training fits into predation substitution training
• Why diagnosing the root cause matters more than picking a training method

Thanks for being here.

If this episode gave you something, a laugh, a lightbulb, or just the feeling that someone gets it, that's exactly why we make it.

📚 Not sure where to start with your gundog training? Grab the LWDG Gundog Progress Gap Map. Work out where you exactly where you are and what to work on next, no more guessing needed.