Getting the Most from Your Hunting Dog
We have a group of awesome Brittanys at Maple River Pheasant Hunts. Our Brittanys hunt almost every day, all day, with enthusiasm, energy and exhuberance. After our hunters have spent the day hunting with our dogs, they often ask, ” how do I get the most out of my hunting dog?” After pondering this question, we realized that there isn’t just one answer. There isn’t one thing we do, there are many things we do that helps us to get the most out of our dogs.
First and foremost is spending time with our dogs every day. Time spent together builds a bond of loyalty and trust. Once this bond is established the foundation is there for further formal training and conditioning.
Have some fun with your dog and get to know his or her personality and abilities. Fetch is fun for your dog and reinforces an essential hunting skill you want to build. It also gives your dog some needed exercise. Another game we play with our dogs is hide and seek. We do this in a couple of ways. We’ll hide a toy or bone, then tell them to go find it. They tear all over the house in pursuit of the prize. What a great way for them to use their noses to locate and to begin to understand the command to ”find”. The other hide and seek we play, is to hide ourselves. They are so excited when they find us and of course their reward is some affection from us. What we’ve discovered by playing this kind of hide and seek, is that the dogs don’t often let us out of their sight because they just aren’t sure when or how we’ll dissappear. This will carry over into the field where you want your dog to always be paying attention to you. There are so many ways to play with your dog. Playing with your dog is fun and great for skill buiding.
Our pups give us many opportunities to work on obedience throughout the day. Good obedience comes from reinforcement. If you spend time with your dog, you will be giving them commands. The more they hear you, the more they will understand what it is you want from them. Come, sit, stay, heal, fetch are essential commands you want your dog to obey. Informally, this starts from day one. Use these commands consistently. At 6-12 months a basic obedience class is well worth your time. You will learn the proper ways of training, you spend time with your dog, it gives your dog a chance to work on socialization skills and it’s fun to spend time with other folks who love dogs.
When our pups reach a year old, we send them to “puppy hunting school” for a month. Here they have the opportunity to get into birds many times a day. The trainer can assess the pup’s potential and begin to work with the basics of hunting. A well bred hunting dog will have all the instincts but getting them fine tuned is essential. When the dog is ready to return home, the trainer will go through everything he has worked on with your dog and show you how to continue to work with him at home. When our pups get back from “school” they are excited about birds and hunting. All that exposure has imprinted “birds” on their brain. We strongly encourage finding a trainer who uses a variety of techniques and a gentle hand.
This last one is our favorite! Exercise your dog daily! It’s good for your dog and it’s good for you! If you can, find a safe area to let your dog run free. Hunting dogs have loads of energy and allowing them to run for 30-60 minutes daily will help them to stay in shape and to keep them calm. The other benefit of letting them run in grass/weeds/cattails, etc is this helps to get their nose, skin and feet pads toughened up. This conditioning will have you and your dog ready for a challenging day of hunting in South Dakota habitat.
The time you put into your dog will be repaid over and over in the years ahead. You’ll know you’ve gotten the most out of your hunting dog: When your dog doesn’t let you out of their sight once he sees the hunting gear come out of the closet in the fall, when they jump in the truck and won’t let you leave without them, when they cover every piece of habitat in search of birds, when they point/or flush the bird for you to shoot, when they bring back the bird proudly and lay it in your hand, when at the end of the day they hesitate to leave the field because they are sure there is one more bird out there to find, when they give you one more wag of their tail before falling into a deep sleep at the end of the day.