Darren Kirk – Kirkbourne Spaniels
When I first found out about the corvid19 I was unaware how incredibly fast it would effect us as the biggest privately owned gundog club in the UK, Kirkbourne Spaniels.
Our management team and myself were in contact on a daily basis and as each restriction was put in place we amended our training to fit in. That said it happened so fast the more we changed the tighter the restriction became. So fast we actually never ended up training again. We had decided we would not require members to sign in and cash would have to be received by bank transfer only. We had plans for smaller groups as we sometimes had up to 30 handlers turn up on a Sunday morning at our training ground. We were very unaware that putting new measures in place were actually not going to happen until the government put us on full lock down.
Once we were all on lock down we announced we were closed for business but that left an issue where our one to ones and full training days that are pre paid were also on hold and then cancelled. Shows we attend to do demonstrations at were one by one sending us a cancelled email.
This was real and Kirkbourne had to stand on its own two feet without any income. We have several trainers working for us along with our management who had to stop what we were doing and try to come up with some kind of solution. That solution came in the form of on line one to ones this has although limited kept me busy. Handlers send in video clips of their training with any issues they need resolving. I then watch each clip give them tasks to follow to help their situation. Right now its going very well with a lot of handlers on line getting their training done where ever possible.
This lock down has also inspired me to work with my own dogs more sometimes I spend more time with other handlers and dogs my dogs take a back seat. So on with my Cervos, walk until the sun goes down. One day I actually got lost in a wood not far from where I live I ended up walking 11 miles. Now for a big lad like me that was a long walk. Eventually I made it home and put my feet up as you will see in my attached photo.
I can’t encourage people enough to get in your boots to go out and train your dogs. If you have never worn Brandecosse boots you truly don’t know what you are missing. Mine have been all over the world from Canada to Sweden and in -26c temperatures.
In these strange times I know that where ever I want to go these boots will take me.
Hope you enjoyed my little blog and I hope to read more blogs from other users.
Take care be safe and stay strong
Darren Kirk
