A different sort of heat

Blog Add comments

Aug 122013

Daisy, at the tender age of 7 months, has started her first season today, leaving her bewildered and me wondering about our show schedule. With a lot of vigilance, forethought and a few changes to our routine, we should be OK. In the meantime, we’ll train in a different place where there are normally no other dogs and hope that, if we should chance upon another dog, it’s handler and I can prevent any unwanted unions!

Demonstration Testimonials

Hi Stephen,

I have witnessed dozens of gundog demonstrations in the 40 years I have been involved with Gundog displays. But yours was the most entertaining and informative display of man and dog working together that I have ever seen! Just brilliant!

It was clear that the dogs were clearly enjoying what they were doing (not always the case in some demonstrations) and you were informative on what you were asking the dogs to do and informing the public of this. I thought the range of tricks your dogs performed was stunning!

Best wishes

Brian Willis, Secretary, West of England Heavy Horse Championship

Wessex Heavy Horse Show

I was lucky enough to watch One Man and his Gundogs at The Wessex Country Fair recently and even luckier to chat with him after the demonstration. On mentioning writing a review of his demonstration, Stephen, tongue in cheek, informed me of the correct spellings for some adjectives I might need for the review-

Stephen told me “there are two p’s in appalling and two b’s in rubbish”!

Of course these are two adjectives I would never have need of using when reviewing one of Stephen’s demonstrations, however, it highlights his wonderful humility and sense of humour which shines through fantastically when you watch him.

Stephen starts with some classic dog training but makes it accessible for anyone. He follows with a brilliant display of his Gundog’s skills which is a joy to watch. You leave feeling you can achieve great things with your dog too, which is wonderfully empowering and an amazing achievement from one man in a demonstration with his dogs.

Then there’s the fun and tricks which always gets the audience going! Stephen does “voices” for the dogs and a brilliant array of tricks which particularly appeals to children but entertains the adults brilliantly as well. The trick at the end with Daisy “fooling” Stephen is genius and brings laughter all round!

It is the very fact that Stephen doesn’t take himself too seriously that is part of the charm of the show. If it’s hot and his dogs don’t perform perfectly, that’s fine. I love that. There’s no pressure and therefore it ends up being a lot of fun to watch.

You cannot help but smile and feel good when you watch One Man and his Gundogs. In this world of increasing connectivity, competition and complications, the fact that a man in a field with his beloved dogs can achieve this and enrapture and lift his audience is nothing short of astounding.

Thank you and the dogs so much for a wonderful show Stephen.

Lorraine Taylor

Dear Stephen,

I was extremely happy and impressed at how everything went off. Our correspondence before the event was very plain and straight forward, which, from an organiser's point of view, was most helpful.

On the day your demonstration was extremely informative and presented in an interesting and friendly fashion. Everyone enjoyed the first Dog’s basic training display and how you built on each stage as time went on, for a young dog it certainly showed what could be achieved by kindness and expert knowledge. The little Dog has a bright future ahead!

Poppy, the star of the show, was quite brilliant, not only in all her Gundog training but also the very entertaining tricks etc. she performed on the day. It was a great display and demonstration.

Provisionally, I would like to book you for next year, it is always the last Saturday in July, I will confirm everything after our next committee meeting later in the month.

Well done for a great display and once again many thanks.

Best wishes,

David Coley, Show Organiser

Shrewton Summer Show

Over the years we have seen many dog training demonstrations but this was one of the best. Stephen’s style was so engaging and even though we are unlikely to ever go shooting we were inspired to get the clicker back out!
It was fun as well as instructive, if only we had a fraction of his skill, how happy would our cockapoo be!
Look forward to seeing him and his dogs again.

Sally Watson

Dear Stephen,
Thank you, you were amazing! Very many people have said how much they enjoyed your display. Comments included things like "great display", "so engaging", "he was just brilliant", "great to watch", "amazing dogs" and one of my friends (who is an animal behaviourist & dog trainer who works at Kingston Maurward College) said "that guy really knows what he's doing, it's excellent to watch" - she was definitely very impressed.
Thank you hugely again Stephen - as far as we and many others are concerned you were definitely the star of the arena events!

Linda Nunn, Director Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB

6 October 2013 - Cranborne Chase Woodfair

"After watching your gundog training display at the Wessex Country Fair on 16th August, I feel I must offer my congratulations. Your wonderfully sympathetic and compassionate approach to the training of both Daisy and Poppy with remarkable results, has my total admiration. It was wonderful to watch, you had us spellbound. Your 'unconventional' method just seems so natural and I can only hope that future dog owners take note and follow your teaching, I most certainly will. Thank you."

Jackie Ward, Wilton

A great demonstration at the Wessex Country Fair on 16 August. Wonderful to see Stephen, Daisy and Poppy in action, certainly the highlight of the day combining information, skill and great humour. My partner, Jenny, has fallen in love with Poppy.

Tony Chalcroft, Upavon

16 August 2014 - Wessex Country Fair

Leave a Reply