Giving away / picking up trained / part trained gundogs

[Lloyd90]

How many people here give away dogs ? A mate of mine always seems to come lucky and gets in dogs that just aren't going to make trial standard , his last dog was like this and he was a cracking worker and he payed around the price of an average pup for him. Had him about 2 years before the poor boy died of cancer unexpectantly.

He went to the trialler and bought a pup about 8 months that was a good pup for rough shooting but wouldn't trial and the bloke gave him an old dog about 5 yr old that was an ex trialler that was retired. All he said was he was keeping the papers for himself and would phone my mate if he ever needed to use the dog for stud ... well needless to say my mate was a bit chuffed

Is this a big thing people come across in gundogs ? I have only ever had 2 dogs trained by myself for myself. I wouldn't like to spend ages/months/years training a dog just to give it away ...

Mind you I doubt I would ever say no if I was offered one

[beth.james]

I know of a few trainers that will give away their older dogs to definite good homes once they've finished competing etc... Saves money rather than keeping a dog in the kennel that they've 'finished' with. Might sound callous but it's business to them and they know their dogs will have a good retirement... It's just a different way of lookng at things

[Lloyd90]

I know of a few trainers that will give away their older dogs to definite good homes once they've finished competing etc... Saves money rather than keeping a dog in the kennel that they've 'finished' with. Might sound callous but it's business to them and they know their dogs will have a good retirement... It's just a different way of lookng at things

Not saying its a bad thing... I'm actually a lil jealous of my mate getting good dogs so easily ... mine have been a right nuisance at times

The man I had my lab off kept her sister but she just didn't have the drive for trialling and he phoned me and asked if I knew anyone who wanted her. He charged the same for her as I payed for mine as a pup and she was around 2 year old fully trained , I'd of had her if I hadn't of still been training my spaniel. She went to a man who has his own shoot down Carmarthen and is worked all season so has a much better life than she would of had sat in the trainer's kennels . I was just wondering how common it was

[beth.james]

No I didn't think you were I just know some people can get sensitive when it comes to any 'business' aspect of dogs sometimes

Without any evidence to base it on I'd guess it's pretty common, just got to have the right contacts or get in touch with a trainer at the right time I had a more extreme case of this, I bought in a young bitch at puppy price because it was 'useless' and wouldn't retrieve... She moved onto puppy dummies from tennis balls today

Where are you based then?? I'm just south of Carmarthen

[Lloyd90]

Ah very nice work

Im just outside Bridgend, in a small place called Kenfig, next to kenfig nature reserve, although I am currently in Lanzarote as have been living here for 6 months, get home in 4-5 weeks. No doubt my spaniel and labrador are totally ruined by my family (even thought they pretty much were already )

[cjaus]

How many people here give away dogs ? A mate of mine always seems to come lucky and gets in dogs that just aren't going to make trial standard ,

I got given 2 of my dogs that way a good few years ago, and i couldn't be happier with them

[beth.james]

Aw nice, I was down that way training last Friday by the estuary, lovely bit of common land there.

In Lanzarote with work? If so, lucky you! Long time to be away though Yea bet you'll have 'different' dogs to come back to How old are they?

[ollie]

i hate the thought of dogs being treated like a comodity(spelling?), all animals for that matter!! I know there is many ways to look at this but that is my opinion, if you choose to take a dog it should be till the end, also people should seriously consider the responsability of having one in the first place before hand

[alpha]

3 of mine have been rehomed to us and 2 are belters and 1 may make a steady beating dog but has issues I seem to know a few people who retire their dogs to amateur homes like ours where the dogs are happy new owner happy and previous owner happy
Seems to be a win win win situation I love my 3 boys to bits and would never if been able to get the lab to the standard he is the only heartache is that you don't get to share your life with them for long enough as most times they are older dogs

[beth.james]

i hate the thought of dogs being treated like a comodity(spelling?), all animals for that matter!! I know there is many ways to look at this but that is my opinion, if you choose to take a dog it should be till the end, also people should seriously consider the responsability of having one in the first place before hand

I totally respect your opinion and I'm not trying to argue that. But when you say all animals, are you taking in cattle, sheep etc?? That to me, is very much the same, both entities are businesses, just dogs have a higher emotional sensitivity attached to them with them being pets to a lot of people. I 'love' my dogs to bits, and currently don't have any that I plan to sell (anytime soon), but I look at them from a business point of view when I need to. But that's because I run/compete my dogs as a business, a lot don't, they have a dog to work for them throughout their lives and the training is a hobby, so I appreciate that people seemingly within the same group 'gundog training' can have different views of things. Sorry, starting to sound like I'm putting an arguement forward definitely not meaning to

This is an interesting topic to see how people see things, hope it doesn't descend into mud slinging