“Are you a dog owner who hunts or a hunter who owns a dog?” This is one of the first questions I ask a person who is looking to buy a dog from me. It does not matter if they are looking for a puppy or an adult, fully-trained dog. They need to stop and think what the main purpose of the new dog is. Now, you may say that a person buying a fully-trained dog, a broke dog, is looking more at the dog's hunting abilities than its benefits as a companion. But I find that most of my customers are looking for a good companion that has the ability to hunt well. When you are shelling out thousands of dollars for a dog, you have every right to expect the animal to be more than just a fantastic hunter. I tell the prospective buyer to take a close look at how his time will be spent with the new dog.
I spend about six weeks a year hunting wild birds and prior to opening my own shooting preserve, I would hunt another eight to ten times a year on a preserve. That puts me in the field, hunting the dog, fifty to sixty days a year. I doubt there are many people devoted enough or lucky enough to be able to spend that much time hunting their dogs. Now, look at the other side of the coin. I'm spending around three hundred days a year with the dog when we are not hunting. The average dog owner will probably spend fifteen to twenty days a year hunting their dog. They want a dog that is a capable hunter, but a good companion for the family in the off-season. A dog that is a great companion but only a so-so hunter will be a joy to own eighty percent of the time. A dog that is a truly great hunter, but is a howling, spastic bundle of nerves around the house will be a royal pain in the neck for the three hundred days a year that you're not hunting it. When choosing your next dog, remember that companionship in the off-season is also part of owning a hunting dog.
For the sake of this discussion, let's say that a dog is three years old and the training has been completed. The bulk of your off-season time with the dog will be spent conditioning rather than training, and let's hope that you own a dog that doesn't need to be retrained every fall. Now, the dog is a good hunter and the majority of the training work has been completed, so what's left between you and your dog? Those of you who enjoy competing will enter a bunch of events and try to put some titles on the dog. The serious hunters who compete will look for competition that matches what they are looking for in a hunting dog. A horseback field trial on flat, open grassland where the handler flushes the bird, fires a cap gun, and moves on will hardly match the closer-working needs of a grouse hunter. A dog three hundred yards away from the handler in the grouse woods is basically lost. Now I'm sure I will be getting letters from a few indignant souls who claim they run horseback field trials with the same dog they grouse-hunt with.
I have seen my share of confused animals wired up to a shock collar and forced to stay close to the same handler who, several weeks before, was telling the dog to run big and wide. On several occasions, I have had people show up on my preserve with horseback dogs. The first words out of their mouths is how great a hunter the dog is and how they like the way it works. Now, out comes the shock collar as the handler complains the cover is too thick.
I met one such expert who had been training for twenty years. He had trained only his own dogs during this time and had only had four dogs. Now, here is a self-appointed expert, one all his friends were sure was “well-seasoned,” who had actually only trained four dogs in the last twenty years. After getting shocked several times, his nine-year-old dog stayed within ten yards of him the whole time and proceeded to chew up every bird it got its teeth on. Hunting dog? Not hardly.
I had another horseback trainer show up, an older fellow who I think did possess knowledge rather then merely opinions. He took one look around at the grouse woods-type cover and small fields with brushy fence lines and knew he would not be able to run his young, big-running dogs. Instead he went to his trailer and got an old, retired dog that was, what I call, broke to death.
Anyone who spends anytime hunting wild pheasants knows that a pointing dog that goes on point at the first sign, [or maybe I should say scent], of a pheasant and then holds that point, even though the dogs knows the bird has moved off, will produce very few birds for the gunner. In the competition world, a pointing dog is not allowed to work a moving bird. In the hunting world, a dog that does not work a running bird will spend most of its days pointing old scent. The dog must know that if the bird flushes, he has committed an error. He must try to pin the bird, staying in touch with the runner while giving it enough breathing room where it does not feel pressured to the point of flushing.
Now this old pointer had a good nose and pointed his birds at a good twenty yards. The wind was blowing, the birds were running and the gunners spent most of their time trying to locate the running pheasants while the dog stood motionless. Twelve birds were released and they shot one. Thankfully, the hunters did not blame the poor old dog because he was doing just what he had been taught. The hunters blamed the pheasants for not sitting tight on a windy day. They never once realized their folly was in the training of the dog. This dog was not allowed to think for himself or to work the birds, trying to pin them. I brought out two experienced bird-finders to help salvage the hunt. We had walked through all the sets where the birds were released with the old trial dog. These pen birds were now educated to the fact that humans and dogs were pursuing them and would require a thinking dog to pin the birds down so the shooter could flush them. The dogs went on point time and time again, but not with the intensity of having a bird sitting for them. I would then release the dogs to pin the running bird down. These birds had just spent the last two hours running circles around the gunners. The dogs either pinned the birds or stopped to the flush as the nervous pheasants flushed in gun range. Nine more birds were shot and retrieved to hand.
The point here is that some of the competition events being held hinder a hunting dog's ability to put game in the bag. People have confused the issues for the sake of their event and lost sight as to why a person goes hunting with a dog. Locate and point birds, help to pin them down, find and retrieve the game after the shot. I have seen plenty of good bird-finders who, after the shot, never gave a second look as to where the dead or crippled game landed. That is only half the job.
There are some people who do not wish to compete with their dogs. They would rather spend the off-season enjoying other sports. They have purchased the dog as a pet and a hunter to meet their own specific needs. A seventy-year-old man may not care what the judges like. He knows what he needs from a dog in the field. There are a lot of people who find competition tiresome and frustrating and would rather spend their field time going for long, relaxing walks. These same people tend to view hunting as a chance to relax and enjoy the outdoors. The taking of game is not more important to them than the camaraderie of friends and enjoyment of being outdoors and seeing game. This is by far the largest group of hunting dog owners.
There are many ideas in the world of training dogs that are based on opinions rather than sound training techniques. Some of these ideas were put forth years ago by different experts and remain unchallenged. One thing I have noticed in the dog world is the tendency of people to put someone on the pedestal and let this elevated person dictate to the rest. I have often compared this phenomenon to a group of sheep blindly following the goat with a bell.
First, let me say that there is always more than one way to accomplish a task. In the dog world, there rarely, if ever, is a situation that is always or never possible. So beware of the person who states that 'never' can you do something or that you must 'always' do something one way or another. Animals, like people, can come in completely different emotional packages that require completely different approaches to solving their learning problems. Training is teaching, and proper teaching results in learning.
“You must never hit a dog.” Here is a controversial topic. Corporal punishment should not be your first line of communication. I have talked to my share of amateur trainers who proclaim that you should never physically reprimand a dog. There is that word “never” again. I have found that the best way for me to deal with aggression is with aggression. The psychologists in our midst will say that aggression only breeds more aggression. Now, let me give you some examples that I have found where physical punishment acts as a deterrent to aggressive behavior.
You have a fourteen-month-old male dog who is becoming more and more vocal and rough with other dogs when on exercise runs. He growls and snarls while attempting to dominate the other dogs. In my opinion, this may be an alpha dog. He may have aspirations on being the pack leader. I find that order in kept in my kennel if I maintain the pack leader status. If aggressive or violent behavior arises, I find that a quick and sharp response by the handler often ends this type of behavior for good. Wishy-washy or weak-handed responses do little to discourage the aggression. I teach a command of “stop it” and it means just that. I would first tell the dog to “stop it,” make eye contact, and posture with my body to let him know that I am the leader. If the dog continues in being aggressive with his running-mates, I will lay a riding crop across his backside while he is in the middle of an aggressive act. After doing so, I repeat the “stop it” command and my posturing.
“Never teach your pointing dog to sit.” I have heard my share of people, mostly in the competition world, who I consider knowledgeable trainers, telling some novice that you should never teach your pointing dog to sit. The reasoning behind this theory is that dog will sit when whoaing on birds. I teach all of my dogs to sit and have never had a dog sit down while pointing birds. Those of you in the NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) world of training are required to teach your pointing dogs to sit. I have greater problems with dog owners getting involved with obedience classes that teach a dog to sit when it is on lead and the owner stops walking. If this is done before the bird work, I end up with a dog who sits when on the check cord during the ‘whoa' training and subsequent bird work. I also find the ‘heel' training is better taught after the bird work is complete.
“Check cords have to be fifty feet long.” The fifty-foot check cord was originated by horseback trainers. On horseback, the handler will need a fifteen-to-twenty foot length of cord to let the dog stay out from under the horse. On foot, fifty feet of rope can be a problem by getting tangled around the handler and anything else in the area. I find thirty feet to be plenty.
“A good hunting dog can't be a pet.” This should sound ridiculous to most of you. At least any of you with some sense. But really, I have had handlers try and tell me that letting their kids play with the dog will ruin its desire to work. a few years ago, I worked on a young setter for a fellow. It was a nice dog, nothing great, but a very gentle and what I would consider soft animal. The handler was a demanding bonehead with a macho complex. I completed the training and called the owner to come out and see the dog's progress. The dog held point, was steady to the flush, and retrieved on-hand. I explained to the owner about the dog's sensitivities and suggested we introduce the dog to pheasants in a training exercises before the pheasant season. The owner refused the offer, which later proved to be the undoing of the dog. Several weeks later, the bonehead's wife called me. She was upset as to why her children weren't allowed to play with the dog. If anything, the dog needed some fun and playing with the kids would have been great.
“A hunting dog should not live in the house.” There is some discussion as to whether being in a house hurts a dog's scenting capacity or not. I have found no evidence to substantiate this.
“All dogs should be trained with a spiked training collar.” First, put the spiked collar around your own neck. Now give a tug on the check cord. This is punishment. Do your training with a standard choke chain. If, after the commands are taught, the dog refuses to obey the commands, then switch to a spike collar. Remember to use less force with a spike collar than with the choke chain. Only about one in ten dogs I work with need a spiked training collar.
Charlie Linblade
Mighigan Wing Shooters Hunt Club
Michigan Pheasant Hunting
Michigan Bird Dog Training
