Earlier this month, my friend Vic and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Highlands for a week of gundog training under a highly experienced A‑panel retriever judge (I know — how lucky are we). As always, the training was exceptional. The ground was demanding, with cleverly designed exercises that made full use of the terrain to test the dogs on every level. Day 1 began with some straightforward marks, which then developed into a sequence of seeing a mark, turning off to pick a blind, and...

As a child I was absolutely obsessed with dogs, so Crufts on TV has been part of my annual calendar for as long as I remember, living in Newcastle it was a long way for a visit so it wasn’t until 2017 that I stepped through the doors of the NEC. I had my first black lab Jasper at the time and was recommended by friends to take time to watch the Gundog display, and it was incredible to see these dogs displaying the qualities needed for the job they’re bred to do. Crufts has seen me from first...

Recently there seems to have been a massive rise in people calling our working golden retrievers “red.” Every time I hear it, I have to bite my tongue and politely reply, “It’s golden, not red.” Where has this come from? Surely the clue is in the name — Golden Retriever. To add insult to injury, you now see litters advertised as “red golden retrievers.” So what’s happening? It seems people are increasingly drawn to that deeper, richer shade of coat. And that’s all well and good — preference...