Discovered this site last year when I got my first springer pup and have found it to be a treasure trove of information for a first time gundog owner, from Wullie's diaries to all the cordial and honest debates about positive vs balanced training (and the spectrum of what "balanced" means to different people..!). I kept meaning to get around to creating an account and posting but had a lot of learning to do first.... so was gutted when the site went down a few weeks ago because the hosting fee had lapsed. Couldnt contact anyone except Steve Moorhouse, the nice gent who hosts the site through his company Albany Hosting. So I've just paid the hosting fee to reinstate it until November (the fee was actually due last November and Steve was kind enough to give the site a grace period until this month.) Hope there are still people about on here and hello if you are...
Hello and welcome!
A huge thank you for paying this year's bill, it's much appreciated, I hope you enjoy the forum - we promise to be nice to you for a whole 8 months!
In life, it is important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
Hi and thanks for paying the fee, I didn’t realise it was overdue. The forum isn’t anywhere as near active as it once was but there’s certainly loads of useful info archived on here, and some not so useful!
Hi both, nice to e-meet you. Yes I've been reading the old threads for a few months - they are great to give a novice a general idea and for benchmarking practice. Why do you think it activity has waned over time?
Shame - unlike fora, the gundog material on tiktok/ig seems primarily for advertising rather than educating purposes... I don't think you can take much of it at face value
I have not been on facebook so can't comment on that.
Youtube can be ok if you tread carefully but there are still lots of pitfalls and there is no sensible discussion to be found in the comments
Nutter wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2026 12:42 pm
Shame - unlike fora, the gundog material on tiktok/ig seems primarily for advertising rather than educating purposes... I don't think you can take much of it at face value
I have not been on facebook so can't comment on that.
Youtube can be ok if you tread carefully but there are still lots of pitfalls and there is no sensible discussion to be found in the comments
One of the reasons we've kept this going; none of the other media have easily accessed historic stuff, this is a good place to search and has lots of points of view re different methods. The only real issue with any of these on-line things is nobody can see your dog and the way you interact with it and some of our powers of description can be lacking - it's easy when you know how!
In life, it is important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
To me the big difference between this forum and other social media platforms is everyone here is polite. Welcome Nutter and thanks for picking up the tab. If I can help you in anyway just ask
I'm suspicious of people who don't like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn't like a person. - Bill Murray
CockerCanuck wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2026 7:32 pm
To me the big difference between this forum and other social media platforms is everyone here is polite. Welcome Nutter and thanks for picking up the tab. If I can help you in anyway just ask
With the girls in charge they wouldn't dare be otherwise...
In life, it is important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
. Welcome Nutter and thanks for picking up the tab. If I can help you in anyway just ask 
