I was at a field trial today run by the Sussex Spaniel Association and guess what were competing.

Welshies. About 4/5 of them. Thought you might like to see a couple of pictures I got.





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Wow well done great pictures Steve

Did they run the Welshies in their own class or do all the spaniels compete together?

Now tell me when you see them welshies up close and doing a great job like that ........is the desire to have one stronger cause they look pretty tempting from here

Steve

The trial is for all Spaniels except ESS & Cockers so the Welshies were competing against Field Spaniels, Sussex Spaniels & Clumbers today.

The winner today was Jago's dad, Sedghurst Netherstowey And Jago got to meet his dad today

Sounds like a really great day especially seeing the other cousins of the ESS but did you get some pictures of the Sussex and Field and Clumber spaniels and could we twist your arm to post a couple?.......please please!

Steve

Thanks for thinking of us, they look great.

and what did Jago's dad think of his young son?

Wonderful pictures...is there any of Jago's dad??

I'll post some more tomorrow evening. There were Clumbers, Sussex and one Field Spaniels as well as the Welshies.

In the meantime, here's Jago's dad



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Great photos Steve. I love seeing other breeds working in the field. Shame you don't see many on shoot days.

Helen

Helen, I know the welshie people are working very hard at encouraging all welshie owners to get them back working in the field, this is one of the reasons why one dy i will have my very own welshie pup, to get another one out working and encourage others, I also think a lot of the clumber people are actively encouraging the dual purpose breed as well now, so fingers crossed over the next few years you'll see a few more of them.

Will you still be working yours when you move, baby permitting of course? Apologies if you've already explained elsewhere.

The little shakespearean star will be trying his hand at working

Thanks for the pics - just fab. Jago - your dad is just as handsome as you.

wonderful photos Steve - how lovely to see them all working bet you had a fabbbo day

Hope we do Selina but I think it's going to be a hard slog to convince your average beater/gun to go for the more "unusual" breeds.

I certainly will I'm hoping to do a little bit of grouse counting, but I really don't know how mobile I will be then. I am also hoping to be out next season for a few days at least. I'll be living near family so will have plenty of babysitters

I would also like to trial Teal next season so will be working on her training this year, as well as doing a bit of training with Pippa.

Helen

Hold on a minute - have i missed some exciting news - are we talking doggy baby or hooooman baby????????

Human baby, Claire.

I think the aspect the WSSC are trying to head for is to get the average welshie owner to start off with gundog training and then get involved with the beating/actual working side of things because they enjoy it so much, working Rufus for a fun aspect certainly got me more involved than I ever thought I would and what's better than training your dog's natural instincts, hopefully this way mote of the working crowd will see the rarer breeds doing well and get thinking about maybe trying something different .