Gundog Training Forum

There a few open trial flatcoats in the west country including one which is about half a mile away from me now!!! And that one worked a full season in my picking up team. It also won the Flatcoat FT Bitch at Crufts this year........

I'm pleased to hear there are still some good working flatcoats ..... hope they don't breed themselves into a corner. There used to be 3 or 4 people who worked them up here but I haven't seen a flatcoat at a shoot for donkeys years now.

Wullie

I've got a mate south who has always had one as a shooting dog but he was telling me it's getting increasingly difficult to source suitable pups & even then there's a wide divergence in how they turn out. He's had some great ones & others that were a bit dippy, but they all did the job. Had another mate locally who loved them as a rough shooting dog & his last one came from a breeder in Scotland who had a team of them for picking-up, but that was a good while ago.

Naj

A few years ago I went on a shoot where one of the other pickers-up had a flatcoat and a cocker. The cocker was a bit of a hooligan and occasionally buried his retrieves, but the flatcoat was an absolute 'gentelmans gentelman', very placid, would handle easily at great distances, and was reportedly a doddle to train. He was the only flatcoat I'd ever met and I was AMAZED when I joined internet fora to find that they have a reputation for being scatty and slow to mature.

Since then, I've met another flattie on a different shoot who also had the same traits of being very laid-back and easily handled- an 'old mans dog'! Maybe someone's breeding them down here to be this way?! Neither of the dogs I met would be any good for trialling, but as a hassle-free picking up dog I thought they were lovely.

I think the main problem with the Flattie is that people make direct comparisons with the Labrador, which is better suited for test/trial type training & work. For picking-up & general gundog work it's as good as any other dog, if you can source the right stuff.

Naj