Skinner’s is a family firm that loves dogs as much as you do. Not only that, we have years of experience and understanding of the specialised canine nutrition needed to help generations of working dogs perform at their peak. But did you know that our much-loved, nutritionally balanced and complete…
The first time I catch up with Charlie Thorburn, the gundog trainer to the 1%, he has just joined the M6 Toll and has been awake for a long time. Thorburn is on his way home to Perthshire from New York where he has been delivering a trio of fully…
The Field is delighted to invite readers to vote for their favourite in five categories in the Top Dog Awards 2025, held in association with Skinner’s and Agria. The four categories which are up for public vote are: Naughtiest Dog Ex-Service Dog Award Best Puppy Photograph Best Assistance Dog Best…
Retrievers don’t have to be labradors. The flatcoat was the Downton Abbey gundog and Edwardian gentleman’s favourite retriever. Every 10 years for the past four decades a friend has bought a new Land Rover Defender and a labrador puppy to go with it. They grow old together but while the…
The world of working gundog training has never been more inclusive and accessible. You can choose the traditional route of sending your dog away to one of the residential gundog schools and receive him perfectly polished at the beginning of next Season. Or you can grab a whistle and slip…
Amateur dog handlers tend to be forgiving of their dogs' faults. However, consistently good behaviour is important for progress
Many years ago an old friend suggested that my wife and I might like to stay with him in his house in Devon during a brief visit to the West Country. Looking back, I still feel guilty that, after accepting his kind offer, I failed to mention that we would…
Dogs are remarkable animals: they will live, and even thrive, on the most unlikely of diets. Vegetarian food for dogs has been around for years and now vegan food is gaining in popularity (although not, I suspect, among readers of The Field). Dogs are not great ones for complaining and…
Breast-high: warming air allows scent molecules to rise up through evaporation and convection so that even ground scenters can carry their noses high. Dead ground: lower-lying, colder or wetter patches sometimes cause gundogs to lose the scent even of a bird lying dead. Running mute: it is a fault for…
Scents and sensibility Every working dog uses one of its senses above all others – usually its nose, and sometimes its eyes or even ears. Here are the breeds by hunting style. Clean booters Confusingly bloodhounds do not hunt the smell of blood but other scents caused by human movement.…
