Hello, from us to you
We are Jo and Adam - and we live in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside, in the Cranbourne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
We are lucky to be surrounded by shoots and fantastic opportunities to work our dogs - but we also take trips ‘up north’ a couple of times a year, to the grouse moors.
We first got involved with gundogs over twenty years ago, with our first Weimaraner, Slate. We’ve owned and worked several breeds since then, including a Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer; a GSP; and Labradors.
Through Force-Free Gundog, Jo’s online courses teach people how to train their gundogs without the use of force or positive punishment.
Jo is the author of the popular book Force-Free Gundog Training: The Fundamentals for Success and its accompanying Workbook. The sequel to The Fundamentals should be out in 2025.
Jo hosts the popular gundog podcast, Hold the Line.
Jo is an accredited assessor and instructor for The Gundog Club; an Accredited Professional Canine Behaviour Consultant (PCBC-A); a Full Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers; an Animal Behaviour and Training Council Registered Animal Training Instructor; a Certified BAT Instructor - Knowledge and Skills Assessed (CBATI-KSA); and a KC Good Citizen Examiner (A1/Gold). She is also an Avidog Associate breeder.
Everything we do with our dogs, is rooted in science and the latest research.
Whilst we’ve competed in working tests; spring pointing tests; the KC Working Gundog Certificate; and field trials, we feel that competition should not be the end goal. (Increasingly, this seems to be the way of things.)
Competitions were originally devised to assess dogs which were, first and foremost, working dogs: The priority, for us, is working the dogs in the roles they are bred to fulfil - and maintaining those working instincts.
Adam shoots and is a super cook, so no game goes to waste. We fill the freezer each winter and really appreciate knowing where our food has come from and that it has lived ‘free’ rather than being intensively farmed.
“Hunting ability of paramount concern.”
- Weimaraner breed standard (UK)