About Hawcroft Gundogs

We have been established since 1991 while Simon was employed as a Gamekeeper and Falconer and have trained most types of Gundogs including Springers, Retrievers, HPR's, Pointers, Setters, and our favorite, the working Cocker. These have been trained for ourselves or for a wide range of clients to suite their requirements, ranging from rough shooting dogs, peg dogs, bird dogs, trialing dogs, and dogs for falconry.

We have been hugely successful with our own Cocker Spaniels,our greatest success`s to date are winning the 2007 and 2008 Cocker Championships. Simon has also made up 10 Field Trial Champions and also trained another which went on to win the 1997 Cocker Championship for its owner,not to mention many other Novice and Open Stake winning Cockers and Springers. Simon has qualified for the Championships over 30 times with  various Cockers and  Springers.

We can sometimes offer superbly bred Cockers, from puppies to fully trained dogs. We have already bred 2 Cocker Championship winners and our stud dogs have produced the 2008 and 2009 Cocker Championship winners along with the 2008 and 2009 Danish Championship winners. All of these were produced from bitch's that were also sired by other dogs in our kennels. We have now successfully bred 5 generations of FTCHs from our outstanding line of Cockers.

Simon was also the first handler to be selected for the England Gundog team with a Cocker Spaniel in 25 years. He has been selected every year since 2005 and has been the top spaniel handler for the England Spaniel team on most occasions.

As one of the most successful training kennels in the country, we pride ourselves on quality and providing every requirement from supplying dogs of different ages to handler/owner assessments, one to one tuition, training courses, game training days through to residential training and handling dogs in competition for clients.

Simon who is a Kennel Club A Panel Judge for Spaniels has gained over 270 awards during his trialing career. He also worked as a professional Falconer and Gamekeeper for 18 years and produced first class dogs to work along side the falcons, hawks and estates involved in his job. This ranged from spaniels and retrievers, through to top class pointers and setters for grouse hawking and from this vast experience Simon can train dogs for any clients needs and for all types of shooting and falconry.

Simon Tyers

Simon`s passion for dogs started at an early age. Being the son of a Nottinghamshire miner, Simon accompanied his father on shooting expeditions from an early age and was always fascinated with the countryside. His interest in Falconry started at 8 years of age and until very recently was never without either hawk or falcon, but due now to his busy trialing schedule and commitment to the dogs and business, it would be impossible to devote the time to keep and hunt one to the standard he has always done.

In 1984 Simon secured the position of Gamekeeper/Falconer for the then director of the British Falconers Club, based in Staffordshire, and with his young family of 2 daughters, Stacey and Kelly, moved to take up this challenging post.

Over the coming years Simon trained many dogs for both his job and his own interest and it was soon evident he had both a natural feel and skill for training dogs and as with all he has done, looked for perfection in his training of them.

During the late 80`s he was asked to train a dog for his first client and it was not long before people came for either advice or a dog to be trained. Soon after this Simon felt the need to start showing what he could do with a dog and so entered his first spaniel trial, gaining a certificate of merit. Although it took another 3 years before his first win, his determination to achieve the best never faulted.

Simon and Julie first met through their mutual interest in gundogs and after a number of years married and have a son, Harrison.They work well together, Julie taking charge of the pups and youngsters and Simon with the training, although Julie is a competent handler herself and intends to pick up her trialing career again once Harrison is at school.