Gundog Theft Awareness Week commences

Members of the public can support the awareness week by reading the Alliance’s top tips on dog security and by sharing this information with family and friends. The tips and advice for keeping your dog safe are available on the Countryside Alliance website.

The advice on how to protect your dog covers scenarios such as being out in public, leaving them home alone, looking after a litter of puppies and even what to do in the awful event that your dog is stolen.

Dog theft, especially of working dogs, continues to be a huge problem in rural areas. The increase in the popularity of field sports and the post Covid boom in dog ownership has led to an increased demand for trained dogs and thieves see valuable gun dogs as a saleable commodity.

DogLost, the volunteer service that reunites thousands of owners with their dogs each year, has previously stated that almost 50% of its missing dog reports actually relate to working dogs. The most commonly stolen gundogs are cocker and springer spaniels and labradors.

Former ST news editor Selena Barr commented: “Back in 2009 my working cocker Archie was stolen from a locked car parked on a country lane while his trainer was shooting. After 13 months of relentless campaigning I was thankfully reunited with him but sadly most are not as lucky as me. That’s why Gundog Theft Awareness Week is so incredibly important. I never thought it would happen to me but it did. Gundog breeds are highly desirable so owners need to extra vigilant. As with most things in life, prevention is better than cure.”