Now the shooting season’s over, it’s time to think about helping our dogs get back to “normal” life - and, let’s be honest, getting ourselves back to normal as well.
A full-on season is brilliant… but it does change a dog. Their routine shifts, their exercise ramps up, their food needs alter, and they’ve often been using their body (and brain) far more than they do the rest of the year. So when the season ends, the trick is to ease them back down gently, not slam the brakes on.
Once work reduces, food needs usually change too. There are two common scenarios after the season:
Your dog went into the season fit and has come out of it still in good condition.
If you keep feeding the same amount while exercise drops, weight can creep on quickly. So now is the time to start reducing daily intake a bit, rather than waiting until you can see the waistline disappearing.
Your dog has come out of the season looking a bit depleted.
Some dogs don’t hold condition well when they’ve been working hard. If that’s your dog, you might need to increase or supplement nutrition to help them get back to a healthy body condition - good body score, good muscle tone, and ideally a glossy coat again.
Either way, post-season is “adjust and monitor” time. Don’t just keep doing what you were doing out of habit.
If your dog has been working heavily - beating, picking up, covering big ground - they may have been doing the equivalent of ten miles a day. Dropping that straight to a couple of short potters can make life difficult for them, physically and mentally.
It can also make them feel… a bit unhinged.
So instead, keep the movement going:
That gives their body time to adapt and their head time to settle. Dogs who’ve been busy for months don’t always cope well with abruptly having nothing to do.
One of the best ways to help a working-type dog settle post-season is to keep their brain engaged. Not with hours of formal training - just small, simple jobs that make them feel useful.
On walks, add things like:
A few minutes of “use your nose, use your head” goes a long way. It takes the edge off that stir-crazy energy without needing to hammer their body.
After a season of heavy work, it’s worth keeping an eye on how your dog is moving. Sometimes they come out with little sprains, strains, or tightness that you don’t notice until work stops.
If you suspect anything is off:
It’s much easier to deal with a small problem now than wait until it becomes a bigger one.
Even outside the season, plenty of people still do a bit of retrieving. The big thing here is warming the dog up before any harder exercise - especially longer retrieves.
Keep it simple:
Cold muscles + sudden effort is not a lovely combination.
During the season, most of us are good at using coats in between drives, in the car, during breaks - because we’re thinking about muscles and recovery.
But once the season ends, people often stop… even though the weather can still be brutal.
If it’s properly cold (minus three, windchill, the lot), and you’re mainly walking rather than running the dog hard, a coat can still be a good idea. If you’re cold standing there, your dog’s muscles are likely cold too - and warm muscles cope better.
When the shooting season finishes, the goal is to keep your dog in good condition while life calms down again.
That means:
Basically: ease them down gently, don’t crash them down.
Your dog will cope better - and so will you.
first published 7 February 2026
buy the book - https://thepetgundog.co.uk/Home/Books
join the club - https://lezgrahamonlinetraining.com/the-pet-gundog-club