It has been brought to my notice this morning at training that someone has put out a contract for 1000 working gundogs! Labradors in the main but other working gun dogs accepted. Money available and no questions asked! At the monent my info is that this is happening in the Buckinghamshire Berkshire area.

The main dogs at risk are kennelled dogs where it would be possible to steal them without the owner knowing but dogs left in vehicles at shoots is another ploy.

A stun gun is used to disable the dog and following the theft the dogs have been traced to Ireland, no questions asked and from there it's believed they are being shipped to Europe.

With a good working Labrador fetching upwards of £2500 there is big money involved!

Watch your dogs! John

Thanks John - as the owner of a rescue ESS who would crumple in a heap in the field this is very worrying news :(

I's very worrying for me because I often leave Anna sitting in the middle of a field whilst I go into the wood to set up some blind retrieves for training! I'm often gone for a quarter of an hour or more! Training in a group is the only safe thing at the moment, someone to put the dummies out and someone to stay with the dogs.

Regards, John

This is awful - I dont own gundogs but worry a lot about dog theft :( I know of dogs who have been stolen in Dorset and one gundog i heard of was stolen from the back of a vehicle in the New Forest

Lindsay

John this is the type of post that I HATE to see, I don't have gundogs, but do own a very popular breed and I always worry, I wont even take mine to the local shops with me and tie them up outside, just in case. You usually find that some of the "travelling fraternity" are behind these scams. I just hope no one on the board experiences this.

There is no doubt that in this case the dogs are being stolen to fulfil an order. With the start of the shooting season just around the corner the market is there. We had a similar problem last year with 3 local keepers loosing dogs. At that time the bulk were Springers but this time we have been told it's Labradors.

I'm not letting "The Flower" out of my sight!!!

Regards, John

Thanks for the warning John. This is very worrying. Like you, I often leave 'unseens' out and send the dogs back for them, often out of my sight. I'm going to stick to some close hunting exercises when I'm on my own from now on. There was a bit in our local rag this week saying 150 dogs had been stolen from our area in the last few months.
Lorna

Hi

I don't have gun dogs either just Staffies (who sadly have been a target for thieves for years now) but a friend of mine who lives in Stratford U Avon and has a working cocker bitch who's a year older than Sal (we meet occasionally for the odd walk) told me today that he'd heard of quite a few "disapearances" of working & some non working labs in recent days. So maybe they are linked?

Obviously I hadn't seen this post then or I would have asked him more. But Steve said he wouldn't be letting his Fly out of his sight, nor his friends lab "who he's minding" at the moment while he's on his honeymoon.

I'll have to ring him and tell him what you have heard.

It's sad isn't it that you won't be able to work the dog in the way you want because of complete.............I'm not sure how to describe them. But hopefully fore-warned is fore-armed.Again Thanks for the warning John.

Karen

Thankfully for Anna and I, Anna is pretty much up to scratch for this season. It's really only just a matter of keeping the fitness up and we will be into the season again. At that point she will have so much to do that training will not be high on her priorities. Anyone with a younger dog they intend bringing out for the first time this season is still needing to get out training.

Regards, John

Yes I understand that about young dogs and I suspect these would be just as valuable to the thieves? Although I don't own working dogs I realise as you say with the season starting soon this will be the "peak" time and obviously this is what the thieves know too.

Some times it makes you wonder about people doesn't it? Although maybe because we hear so much bad we forget there are more good people around than bad. But we just don't do enough about it.

Karen

thanks for the warning john i live in buckinghamshire. Most days when walking i meet with a lady with three springers one 6 months. I will warn the owners i meet
emma

Thanks for this warning John. I'll cross post it if you don't mind ? :-)

Claire.
x

I always cringe when I see 'caution working gundogs' stickers on peoples cars. Nothing like advertising the fact that they are there, trained and ready to go :(
Lara x