Hi Andrew,
nice to see that you're intending to start training Saffron up to be a gundog, I'm sure she'll absolutely love it!
It is very difficult trying to shoot and control an inexperienced dog at the same time. I would recommend that you train Saffron on the basics such as picking up dummies and having very good stop on command and recall at a distance. Once she's ansolutely sound on these then I would approach a local shoot, a small one preferably and ask if you could turn up with your novice dog and just let her watch the proceedings and listen to a few of the bangs etc.. most small, local shoots would be only too happy to allow you to do this but you should probably keep Saffron on lead for the first time as gamekeepers do not take kindly to over excited, newbie dogs (not saying that Saffron will be like this but you have to be careful if you ever want another invite along to the shoot or any other shoot in that area, as news travels fast in the small gamekeeper circles
)
If Saffron enjoys the experience and isn't frightened of the shots then take her along to a few more shoots where she is on lead and walked either behind the beating line or sat behind the line of guns, so that she settles and isn't too fired up by the newness of the situation.
Then if you can aquire some cold game from either a butchers or a gamekeeper and encourage her to pick the game at a retrieve. Then get Saffron onto some rough land, but make sure you've flushed any game that was there, and then allow her to hunt in front of you, staying within 15 foot of you and try your commands for stop and re call, if she's steady with these commands even when she can smell lots of tempting smells then she's becoming steady. After practising this and throwing a few retrieves to give her some practise in the interesting smelling surrounding I would get a friend who owns a shot gun, or a starting pistol to come and shoot the odd imaginary bird, the shot should not scare Saffron (as log as she is not gun shy) and she should immediately stop hunting and either sit or lie down waiting for her next command from you to either retrieve (you would throw a dummy) or carry on hunting, this does take quite a bit of practise.
Only once she's steady on these points should it be considered to actually shoot over her, or allow her to pick up and beat on a real shoot (she'll probably have a few slip ups as well as any new dog does, but she must be controlled otherwise she could be shot by accident or you may loose her chasing after a bunny rabbit
) I would also not carry a gun yourself for the first season that you're out with her because she'll need your utmost concentration to help guide her to do her job to the best of her ability. Once she's relatively proficient at being a good gundog you'll have no problems with finding shoots who will have you help pick up or beat for them
Once she's got what it takes I would then think about getting yourself a shot gun because untill she's up to scratch you won't have a chance to use it, unless you just practise on clays (which is a great idea
) However shooting schools do have guns that you can borrow I believe, but I think you still need a licence
The gun dog book that I metioned to you has all of the commands and training techniques to make Saffron a safe and reliable gundog
I rarely shoot over Bella myself as I'm usually handling her. My dad and his collegues are the guns on most occasions. Although we're lucky that we have our own rough land that we can train Bella on and shoot on.
I have to say that finding a place on a rough shooting syndicate nowadays is like finding a needle in a haystack, suddenly rough shooting has become very fashionable and rather expensive
I think that if you go for it and put some hard graft into getting some expereince and specific training behind her, Saffron could be an excellent gundog and maybe even attend some Field Tials and tests
Good luck with her, she's a cracker!
Best wishes
Mary
