Samantha Morley spends her spare time training and trialing gundogs. Her preference is for Labradors. Currently she has four.

Labradors are principally used to retrieve birds and animals which have been shot, but may also be used to flush quarry, though they will not always enter the dense cover that a spaniel would face.

Because of the skill and commitment required to train gundogs many people who work their dogs on shoots do not themselves shoot and gundog trialing has evolved into a sport in its own right, though it remains firmly rooted in the requirements of the discipline of the shooting field.

Field trials are held throughout Britain and most country fairs involve a gun dog event, though at these shows the dogs will be working with dummies rather than live quarry. Samantha is a member of the Suffolk Gundog club and is a member of the team who demonstrate at various country fairs including the Suffolk Show. She also takes their puppy training class throughout the summer.

Samantha has achieved success with her open dog in Field Trials over the years.  She also won a novice stake with her dog Henry who later went on to receive a CoM in an All Aged Stake.  He was later sold to the head picker up on the Longleat Estate.  She has also trialed dogs for other gundog trainers, most noteably two of Mike Tallamy’s dogs, one novice and one open.  Mike won the IGL Championship in 2002 with his dog Bringwood Bobby of Brindlebay and is a well known and established trainer.

Henry brings Sam a Pheasant

Samantha uses her dogs at stud and is hoping to breed a litter of puppies with her new bitch Teal.  If you wish to make enquiries regarding Samantha’s stud dogs please telephone her on 01728 747107.

Samantha has now started training Labradors belonging to the local shooting fraternity since moving home where she now has her own meadows to train on and has expanded the kennels.  Currently she has two labs in to train as peg dogs

Hamish, George and Zulu walking to the next drive

She has been judging working tests for some time and has recently started judging trials.

Samantha also works her dogs on shoots throughout Suffolk and Norfolk during the season (September to the end of January).

From the period March to August each year gundog clubs hold working tests under Kennel Club Regulations on either dummies or cold game (i.e. game that has been shot the day before and used on the test day).  These tests give the handlers an indication of how their dog is progressing with the training it has received and how it copes with a competitive situation with other handlers and other dogs.

Some of Samantha's Dogs at home

During the shooting season August 12th to 1st February the gundog clubs hold trials, novice, all aged or open.  These are also held under Kennel Club Regulations on live game.  These competitions are what it is really all about and you should only enter your dog if you are happy that it has reached the required standard for working and retrieving under close scrutiny of experienced judges.  Your dog must walk to heel off the lead with no command from the handler.  It must stop each time the handler stops (again with no command), must wait for its retrieve whilst other dogs are working, must not whine or make any noise, must be able to mark birds down, take a line from its handler, stop on the whistle, take directions, hunt well, jump ditches and fences, retrieve from or over water and must not run in.  It must also have the confidence in its handler to go to an area where it hasn’t seen a bird or ground game shot and retrieve.  This is what we call a blind retrieve.  It must have experience of all types of quarry, whether it be partridge, pheasant, hare, rabbit, duck, goose, teal or snipe or anything else on the quarry list.  A dog must win a novice or all aged stake before it is qualified to enter an open stake.  At that stage it is not entitled to run in a novice stake again but can enter all aged stakes.  In our sport winning a two day open qualifying stake entitles the dog to run in the IGL Championship for that year which is the pinnacle of trialing.  To win the championships is extremely difficult.  It is held over 3 days with often over 40 dogs competing.

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