I want to buy a gun dog - can you help?

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I want to buy a gun dog - can you help?

Springtime’s the best time to take delivery of a puppy.

Monday, 25 June 2007

When's the best time of year to buy a gundog puppy, and at what age?

Gundogs
PETER BLATCH says: If there was a right time to buy a pup it would have to be from March onwards as you always gain an extra hour of daylight in the evening which can be used for training.

Come March, the cold winter days should be almost over which means you can happily think about kennelling the pup outside. What's more, with the summer months stretching ahead you can look forward to letting the pup play in the garden.

We have pups here all the year round as it is our livelihood. That said, we do not normally breed off a working bitch in the shooting season so most dogs seem to be whelped from February onwards. This means we do not have to take a good working dog out of the picking up team.

For the pup to make a good bond I would get a youngster at about 10 -12 weeks of age so by the time you need to start any basic training, at about six months, it should be well settled in.

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