Fletchingly Gundogs

03/08/2025

Riska is nearly ten years old and shows no sign of slowing down. Today she competed in the Bristol and West veteran test and came a respectable third.
Her daughter Kintra is in pup and I am looking forward to keeping a girl from her - exciting times ahead!

20/07/2025

This has been a good week for the golden oldies, with Shona celebrating her 13th birthday and her daughter Riska being awarded a CoM in the URC veteran test at Batsford. Shona is as sound as a bell, with no signs of stiffness - I am so fortunate to have such good bloodlines and I'm very much looking forward to keeping a pup from her granddaughter in the near future.

09/07/2025

Another busy few days, with Kintra (Fletchingly Langamull) being mated to Brae (Jarailstar Hogen of Stauntonvale). I am looking forward to keeping a pup from this outstanding young girl, who has perfect health test results, with a current clear eye certificate, 0 elbows, 0:0 hips and DNA clear for all seven.
A group of six handlers from the Southeast have been training on the Welsh moors this week, and included Geoff's litter brother Rory. They all did really well, and it was lovely to see their confidence grow as they took on this challenging terrain.

03/07/2025

Last weekend Etive was awarded a CoM in the UGBA open.
This week there has been a group up from Kent and Sussex for training on the Welsh moors and there were three handlers that each own two Fletchingly dogs. I must be doing something right when people come back to me for a second puppy!
Here is a photo (courtesy of Graham Home at Ripplecourt Gundogs) of them alongside my own six.

23/06/2025

The last fortnight has been extremely busy, starting off with the Arfon versus Clwyd inter-club match. I was invited to run for the Arfon, with Kintra as an open dog, then the day before somebody had to pull out, so I was asked to run Etive as a second open dog. The tests were good, and I was pleased with both dogs. Etive was called for a run-off, which she won, but I thought that Kintra had been slightly better, and I was right, because when the awards were given out, Etive was third and Kintra was second, helping my team to be the overall winners.
At the start of the week, three friends from the South East came up for a few days training on the Welsh moors with Graham, so it was lovely to catch up with them and see two dogs that I bred.
The next weekend it was the Worcestershire open working test and Kintra did everything that I asked of her. We were called for a run-off and were awarded fourth place on a score of 78/80, which shows just how competitive it is at open level.
Afterwards I drove straight down to Somerset to stay with some friends for a few days, which made a welcome break.
I also found time to renew Kintra's eye test in readiness for her coming into season soon, when she will be mated to FTCH Jarailstar Hogen of Stauntonvale. KIntra has perfect health test results, with 0 elbows, 0:0 hips, and DNA clear for all seven. She has excelled in working tests and I am very much looking forward to keeping a pup from her.

23/03/2025

Yesterday I drove down to the Clytha estate near Abergavenny for the Usk Valley open test, which was Kintra's first outing at this level. She has grown up a lot over the winter and did very well, ending up in equal 3rd place, so we had to take part in a run-off. By this time it was 7.00pm and nearly dark, so the dummy thrower was barely visible on the skyline, but amazingly both our dogs picked the dummy perfectly, which led to there being a second run-off between us. Luckily Kintra went straight to the fall, whereas as my fellow competitor's dog had mis-marked, so we were awarded third place.

16/02/2025

Training a gundog takes a lot of time and hard work, as well as attention to detail, and I am fortunate to get a lot of help from my mate Graham at Ripplecourt Gundogs.
Last summer Kintra (Fletchingly Langamull) moved up from puppy tests to novice level, and she proved very consistent for such a young dog, with 10 awards from 14 tests.
The United Retriever Club award the Baroner Cup to the dog with the most points in working tests and I was very proud to be presented with this award today.

14/02/2025

I ordered some bespoke dog beds from Tuffies and they were here eight days later - what excellent service! I've used Tuffies for about 10 years and the old beds have kept their shape well and still have plenty of life left in them, so they are very durable.

01/02/2025

My team have worked well picking up this season, and now we will be training hard ready to enter some working tests this summer.

01/01/2025

24/12/2024

Happy Christmas from the Fletchingly gang!

12/08/2024

Yesterday was my last working test of the summer, the Usk Valley novice at Big Pit. It's testing ground to work your dog on and not for the faint hearted, but Kintra is a fast, punchy dog, so I was thinking it would suit her. This summer she's been unbelievably consistent for such a young dog and has been placed 9 times in 13 tests, but this time she went one better and was awarded first place.
Her mother Riska has done pretty well too, with two wins and a third in veteran tests, as well as a couple of CoMs in opens, while Moidart pulled an open win out of the bag.