Stand buck
lets try looking at this in another way
a pheasant is worth say £30 (low end)
you normaly shoot say 70-150 birds on a reasonable day
now if you are talking trophy shooting
then add another tenner per bird +vat and double the bag size
then you are talking £2 a brace for any remaing birds possibly more if oven ready
those that hav such shooting or stalking normally will hav a trained dog/s in place already of their own or defo one at hand
dogs in a picking up line are suitably trained as a rule and that normally comes from years of training experience or being suitably trained by others
luckily those people hav come up through the ranks by word of mouth
if they started the whole process again of working dogs for shooting as such,
then what sort of testing would be devised for that
they hav a system that works so can't see any reason for any-one to try and devise a new one or testing to boot
stalking dogs are new to the whole concept , though they hav been around for many years , centuries infact one way or another, but only now is the UK grasping that fact due to the upsurge in new stalkers that are being bombarded with the fact they need to get a dog
i agree , they don't
if those dog handlers years ago had pushed their weight in the stalking world, we would not be talking about it now and be more on how tests hav gone to far or that breeding has changed
as for costs for doing the job
i beat and pick up for free , hav never not done since i started to work
but yes a bit of petrol money has been helpfull at times
but any more grattitude than that, has been through a days shooting, pigeon shooting , bit of rabbiting and lots of foxing
once had a bit of stalking thrown in for good measures
it was offered i never asked
but for those that are after more reward money wise, then make sure you are suitably insured for your own piece of mind
regards