Q&A | Shannon - Lilyshire Gundogs

Hello Shannon, please tell us a little bit about you and your dogs...

Hello! I'm Shannon from Lilyshire Gundogs and live in the North Lincolnshire countryside with my girl gang of spaniels. I am a full-time Dog Walker and do photography and other design work as a side hustle. I spend most of my time with the dogs and throughout the year I dedicate my days to their training and other activities, including competing in tests & trials, pigeon shooting, training days, picking up & beating and sometimes standing on peg or shooting on walked up days.

What do you love most about working your dogs and how did you get in to working dogs?

It all started with my first ever spaniel, the OG Bonnie whom I got in 2019. A guy used to come into my workplace at the time; he had three spaniels all trained on the whistle and I thought it was fascinating. When I got Bonnie I knew I wanted to train her, I just didn't know how far it would take me. Lockdown came around in 2020, and with no job and nothing to do, I was out every single day in the glorious weather we seemed to have that year, in the farmers' fields training Bonnie. I'd seen Naomi from @scottishriverspaniels doing bits with her dogs Almond & Lossie and wanted to try it myself! I had no idea what I was doing, I couldn't drive at the time so I watched Youtube videos, joined some Facebook groups and picked up little bits along the way through trial and error. I'd welcomed Stormie in summer 2021 as I felt ready for another dog to do gundog training with, by the end of 2021 I was finally invited picking up on my first ever shoot which I've now spent five seasons working the dogs on. I got into the competition side of it when I decided to enter my first working test with Stormie in 2023 thanks to the encouragement of Hester (Darklass Gundogs). I caught "the bug" as they would say and dived into a brand new side of training which I've obsessively continued with since. I always call Bonnie my "first pancake" as I made a lot of mistakes with her training so I was determined to get it right with Stormie and any future dogs I decided to add, and then it all just spiralled from there really. It absolutely consumes your life and personality (in a good way). The thing I love most about working with the dogs is watching them hunt. I will never get tired of seeing those swishy bums quartering back and forth, it's really nice to see that start to come together.

How many dogs do you have?

I currently have four spaniels. Bonnie the Sprocker and then Stormie, Renfri & Whisper who are English Springer Spaniels.

What is your greatest achievement so far with them?

Oh gosh it's really hard to choose just one! I am always proud of all of my girls, but the recent ones are Stormie winning a novice trial and becoming a FTW in 2024, Renfri winning her puppy working test and having my first ever Lilyshire litter from Stormie in 2025.

We love seeing your images! Tell us a little bit about your photography & Lilyshire Media..

I actually have my bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, which originally stemmed from when I had an interest in photography at 16. I got more into the design side of stuff throughout college and university and went that route instead. However, when I created an Instagram account for Bonnie during lockdown, it reignited my interest in photography and I have been doing it for six years now. I'd only ever taken photos of my own dogs for social media, but eventually gained interest from others and started doing paid content work for brands on my Instagram, I also got offered work from Gundog Creators to capture their training days full of different breeds of working dogs and have since photographed working tests and shoot days too. I should probably put myself out there more but I like to keep a hobby as a hobby, when it becomes something I have to do instead of want to do, it takes all the joy out of it for me so I only take on what I will enjoy doing and the work load I'm comfortable with around my actual job and training the dogs.

What are your plans for 2026?

I'm chipping away at Whisper and Renfri's training to get them ready for working tests over the spring/summer. Stormie, I will continue training as usual and maybe run her in some Open tests this year but as she's already won an Open test in 2025, I'm focusing a lot more on the younger two. Bonnie is in Bonnie's world as usual, as long as she's having a good time, that's all that matters to me.

Do you have anything else to add? 

I think there is a lot of stigma around working and competing with gundogs, usually about it being judgmental and closed off or exclusive. My advice for anyone wanting to get into it is to just do it, find the people who welcome you and get your head down. If you don't make mistakes, you won't ever learn how to become better and even more so you won't win anything sat at home complaining about it either. I couldn't imagine doing anything differently with my life now, and I have met some of my closest friends through working the dogs.