http://www.completelygundogs.co.uk/

Completely Gundogs, Shrewsbury (2026)

03/09/2026

🐾 It’s never just about the dog training…

Obviously we all come together because we love training our gundogs, but one of my favourite things about our holidays is everything else that happens around it.

It’s watching a group of strangers arrive on day one and, usually by lunchtime, they’re chatting away like they’ve known each other for years.

It’s celebrating someone else’s retrieve almost as much as your own, comparing notes over coffee, laughing when things don’t quite go to plan and realising that everybody has something they’re working on with their dog.

Over three, four or five days there’s time to relax, get to know each other and actually enjoy the process rather than feeling that every exercise has to be perfect.

We’ve had friendships formed here, people who now book holidays together year after year, lots of evening BBQs and probably an unreasonable amount of cake. 😂

The training is obviously why people come.

But I think the people, the dogs, the beautiful Welsh countryside and the atmosphere are a big part of why so many come back. 🧡

What’s your favourite memory from a Completely Gundogs holiday?

📸 darrylowenphotography

31/08/2026

🧠 THE GUNDOG MIND

👣 What if the behaviour you’re trying to stop is actually useful information?

We’re often very quick in dog training to see a behaviour as something that needs fixing.

The dog runs in, wees during a retrieve, won’t deliver or switches off. And of course, if we want a trained gundog, we need to work on those behaviours.

But what if, before trying to fix them, we also asked why?

Watch Jimmy at the beginning of this video. He’s an incredibly driven dog and he’s anticipating the retrieve so much that he starts to go before I’ve sent him.

I could just see that as a steadiness problem.

But it also gives me information about where his head is at in that moment. His excitement is high and holding himself back is hard. He does manage it after a verbal interruption from me and waits and then goes when I send him.

What I find particularly interesting with Jimmy is that when I see this level of excitement at the start of the retrieve, he’s often more likely to struggle to release the dummy at the end.

He’ll race straight back, come right into me and present it, but then seems unable to actually let go.

It would be very easy to see those as two separate training problems, poor steadiness at one end and a delivery problem at the other.

But I’m beginning to wonder if, for Jimmy, they’re actually connected. It can feel as though he can only contain so much excitement and self-control before it has to show itself somewhere.

And that’s why I’m becoming much more interested in looking at the whole picture rather than just the individual behaviour we want to change.

Sometimes behaviour isn’t just something to correct. It’s information.

And understanding what’s driving it can completely change what we choose to do next.

💭 Have you ever noticed two seemingly separate problems in your dog’s training that might actually be connected?

28/08/2026

🐾 Would you like to join us as a Completely Gundogs helper in 2027?

As our Gundog Holidays continue to grow, we’re looking for a few more enthusiastic people to join our team of helpers next year.

Our helpers are such an important part of the holidays, helping with throwing dummies, setting up exercises, moving equipment and generally keeping everything running smoothly for our trainers and handlers.

It’s also a fantastic opportunity for anyone keen to learn more about gundog training.

You’ll spend the day out on the training ground alongside our experienced trainers, watching lots of different dogs and handlers work through exercises and seeing how training is adapted for different breeds, personalities and abilities. There’s an enormous amount you can learn simply from being part of it all.

You don’t need to be experienced or have a highly trained dog yourself. We’re much more interested in people who are reliable, friendly, happy to get stuck in and genuinely interested in learning.

We run holidays from Foundation through to Advanced level, as well as breed-specific holidays and Working Test Camps, so there are opportunities to see a really wide range of training.

In return for your help, you’ll get to spend the 3 day’s learning, meeting like-minded people, stay in one of our caravan’s and be part of the Completely Gundogs team, we’ll keep you well supplied with tea, coffee and cake! 😂

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, send me a message telling me a little about yourself, your gundog experience and what you’d particularly like to learn more about.

I’d love to build a lovely little team of helpers for 2027. 🐾

25/08/2026

⭐ LAST-MINUTE CANCELLATION – WORKING TEST WORKSHOP ⭐

We’ve just had a space become available on our Working Test Workshop with Sam and Gemma, 25–26th September, immediately before our Charity Working Test on Sunday 27th.

This is a brilliant opportunity if you’re already entered in the test and fancy two days of focused training beforehand, or if you’d simply like to learn more about working tests and build your confidence tackling test-style exercises.

Over the two days we’ll work through a variety of realistic working test set-ups on our different training grounds, looking at handling, marking, hunting and the little things that can make such a difference on test day.

Then on Sunday, our Charity Working Test takes place here on the ground which is now completely full for competitors. 🐾

Our on-site accommodation is already fully booked, but there is plenty of accommodation available locally and camping on site is available.

It’s very unusual for a space to become available this close to one of our workshops, so if you’ve been wishing you’d booked this one, here’s your chance!

📅 25–26th September
⭐ Working Test Workshop with Sam and Gemma.
🏕️ Camping available
🏡 Local accommodation nearby

Message us or book through the website to grab the cancellation space.

22/08/2026

🧠 THE GUNDOG MIND

👣 Are you training the dog in front of you… or comparing them to the one you had before?

After Benji, my first and most naturally talented dog, came Angus. I travelled all the way to Inverness to get him, hence the name!

Like Benji he was a big Labrador, but that’s pretty much where the similarities ended.

Angus was incredibly sensitive and cautious. Throw him a treat and he’d examine it first to make sure it was safe 😂. He approached his training in much the same way. Everything needed breaking down into small stages with no rushing.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I did.

When Benji became lame I threw myself into training Angus and expected too much from him. I compared him to a dog who was completely different and, looking back, I put too much pressure on him and knocked some of the confidence I’d worked hard to build.

When Angus was unsure he would stop and ask questions. On blind retrieves he wanted lots of help and could become what we call “sticky”. Yet give him a mark he understood and he’d go with far more confidence and enthusiasm.

He did compete in working tests and trials and became a lovely picking-up dog. This was also the dog who barked at the first bird I introduced him to because he certainly wasn’t putting that scary thing in his mouth 🤣. He eventually became great on game and taught me so much about helping reluctant dogs.

Angus wasn’t Benji. He needed more support initially and for me to gradually let go as his confidence grew.

I wish I’d understood that as well then as I do now.

Sometimes we need to change the training rather than expect the dog to change to fit it.

This is a recent video of me and Angus at nearly 12 enjoying a very rare training session to show the group the advantage of using an over cue for a blind retrieve on an island, for a dog like Angus who needs more information.

💭 Have you ever had two dogs who needed completely different approaches?

19/08/2026

🐾 WE’RE FULL! 🎉

Our Charity Working Test on 27th September is now completely FULL across all classes. Thank you so much to everyone who has entered and supported the event – we’re really looking forward to another brilliant day on the ground.

If you’ve entered, we’ll send an email out nearer the time with everything you need to know for the day, so keep an eye on your inbox.

Now we need HELPERS! 🙏

Days like this simply can’t happen without a good team of people behind the scenes, and we need plenty of willing hands to help the tests run smoothly.

You absolutely don’t need to be an experienced working test competitor. In fact, if you’re interested in gundog training, working tests or would simply like to learn more, helping is a fantastic way to spend the day watching dogs work, seeing how tests are set up and learning from experienced handlers and judges.

You’ll be helping us raise money for YoungMinds too, so it’s all for a very worthwhile cause.

If you can spare the day (or potentially part of it), please get in touch. We’d be incredibly grateful for the help. 🧡🐾

16/08/2026

🐾 Why I love multi-day gundog training

One of the things I love most about our gundog holidays is having time.

In a normal training class or one-to-one, you might have an hour with a dog and handler. You see what’s happening that day, make a plan and send them away to work on it.

Over three, four or five days, we get to do something quite different.

We can try something, see how the dog responds, make changes and come back to it the following day. Sometimes the answer isn’t more training at all – it’s giving the dog time to process what they’ve learnt.

I also get to know the handlers and dogs much better. By day two everyone is usually more relaxed, we’ve started working out what makes each dog tick, and the group begins to feel like a group rather than a collection of strangers.

And that’s often when the really good stuff starts happening.

We can gradually increase the difficulty, use completely different areas and see whether skills that work in one environment still hold up in woodland, cover, water or out on the mountain.

It’s one of the reasons I love this format so much. We’re not trying to cram everything into an hour or fix a problem in one session. We have time to train the dog that’s actually in front of us.

And quite often the biggest progress isn’t even the thing the handler originally came hoping to fix. 😊

📸 darrylowenphotography

13/08/2026

🐾 The Gundog Mind

When did you last change your mind about your dog?

The longer I train dogs, the less certain I become about some of the things I thought I knew years ago.

And I actually think that’s a good thing.

There have been behaviours I’ve initially thought were training problems, only to realise later that confidence, anxiety, excitement or conflict were playing a much bigger part.

There have been dogs I’ve thought needed more help or more repetition when actually they needed less pressure.

And there have definitely been times when I’ve focused so much on what the dog was doing that I’ve forgotten to look at what the handler, environment or situation might be adding to it.

I think one of the hardest things in dog training is being prepared to change your mind, to move from a fixed to a growth mindset.

Once we’ve decided a dog is being stubborn, naughty, dominant, anxious, overexcited or lacking confidence, it’s very easy to start viewing everything they do through that label. Then our training naturally follows the explanation we’ve already chosen.

But what if we’ve got the explanation wrong?

These days I try to hold my theories a little more loosely. I’ll have an idea about why something is happening, but then I want to keep watching and gathering information. Does the behaviour happen everywhere or only in certain situations? What happens immediately before and afterwards? Does it change with a different handler, environment, reward or level of pressure?

Sometimes the evidence confirms what I thought.

Sometimes the dog completely proves me wrong 😂

For me, understanding The Gundog Mind isn’t about claiming we know exactly what a dog is thinking. We can’t.

It’s about being curious enough to keep asking questions and being prepared to change our training when the dog gives us new information.

So here’s my question: has your dog ever made you completely change your mind about why they were doing something?

10/08/2026

🐾 Our final Gundog Holiday spaces for 2026!

What an incredible year it’s been! Our Gundog Holidays have been almost completely full throughout the season, and we’re now down to the very last spaces available for 2026.

If you’ve been thinking about coming to train with us this year, there are just two opportunities left:

🍂 5–7 October – Grade 3/4 Spaniel Improver with Gemma
3 spaces remaining (accommodation in Ysgubor and the caravan)

Three days of progressive training for spaniel and handler, making use of our varied ground and cover to develop hunting, retrieving and steadiness while building on the skills you already have.

❄️ 13–15 November – Grade 3/4 Retriever Improver with Sam
Limited spaces remaining (accommodation in Ysgubor)

A lovely time of year for retriever training here in Wales, with plenty of game scent and birds around the ground adding some fantastic real-life distractions and challenges.

Our Improver holidays aren’t about arriving with a perfectly trained dog. They’re about taking the skills you already have, finding the areas that need a little more work and progressing them over three days in a relaxed and supportive environment.

You’ll train in a small group with plenty of individual help, while enjoying all the different opportunities our 15 acres and surrounding training grounds give us.

So if you’d love one last training trip before we finish for the year, these really are the final chances to join us in 2026. 🐾

Both holidays are available to book through the Completely Gundogs website.

07/08/2026

🐾 Bring your own training group to Mid Wales

Have a regular training group that enjoys working together?

Why not escape the usual training field and spend a few days in the Welsh countryside?

At Completely Gundogs, you can book the entire venue exclusively for your own group.

✔️ Comfortable on-site accommodation
✔️ 15 acres of private training ground
✔️ Woodland, ponds, cover crops and varied terrain
✔️ Mountain and river training nearby
✔️ Relaxed evenings catching up with like-minded friends

Whether you’re a club, a group of friends or a trainer looking to run your own retreat, we’ll provide the venue while you enjoy having the place to yourselves.

It’s the perfect way to combine great training with a proper getaway.

📅 Exclusive venue hire is available throughout the year.

Get in touch to find out more or visit our other website for prices and availability www.midwalesholidays.com.

Completely Gundogs

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