Canine encounters

Many working breeds are also popular family pets. Gabriel Stone explains how helping owners channel their dog's sporting instincts can be life-enhancing for all involved

- Philip Barker

SUMMER is here and the countryside teems with life, much of it human and canine. Who wouldn't want to take the dog for a stroll up our lush hedgerows at this time of year? What better way to get children out of the house than to throw your pet some sticks in the stream? It's easy to glance at those provocative poo bags or riverbank erosion and feel a surge of resentment. But check that futile 'get off my land' reflex. Those dogs offer one of the easiest ways to strike up a welcoming conversation, establish common ground and invite deeper engagement with so many aspects of rural life.

It helps that many of our traditional working breeds are also popular family pets. Yet not every owner is fully conscious of the sporting back-ground of their water-loving golden retriever or hyperactive spaniel. I'll leave you to imagine the priceless expression that crossed my husband's face when one rambler asked whether his labrador was a rescue. The encounter did at least provide a perfect opportunity, once he'd regained composure, to explain that today's portly stereotype is at odds with the athletic demands on a working labrador.