Good Hunting Dog Training Begins with a Walk!
People often ask us how we go about training our hunting dogs (Brittanys) at Maple River Pheasant Hunts. We do a variety of things to get our dogs ready for their days in the field. But the most important training piece we do, we do everyday, all year round is to take our dogs out for a walk.
The area we often walk is in a county park outside of town It has a mile long mowed trail that circles around water holes, grasses and some wooded areas. Most often we have the place to ourselves, so it makes a great place to let the dogs get out and run. Other places we’ll walk them is down minimum maintence roads or trails in the forest, anyplace where we don’t encounter cars or many other people.
So what makes “walking the dog” such a great training tool?
First of all, our walking destination is about a 10 minute drive from our house. Every day, our dogs are loaded into the car kennels. It doesn’t take too many weeks for them to realize that “kenneling” means “something great is going to happen.” Once the pups are big enough, they are kenneling with glee. The other advantage, is they become accustomed to riding in the car. They settle right in, and they become used to the motion at an early age. When we set out on longer trips, riding in the car for them is an every day occurance. We can ride for hours without interuption.
Walks are the best conditioning tool you can do for you and your dog. Walks build stamina. When hunting season opens, you and your dog will be ready to spend hours walking the fields. Because our dogs have spent every day running in the field, their skin, coats and feet are already conditioned for the hunting conditions and terrain they will encounter during the hunting season. We’ve seen so many dogs come off the field after their first day of hunting, torn up, bloody, limping and/or totally exhausted and stiff. Some of them are done for the rest of their trip because of this. This is preventable with conditioning.
Our pups learn early how to work out in front of us, learn what distance they can go, learn our voices, learn our pace, learn to key off of us. As they get older, they hear and learn the meaning of our commands and/or our whistles.
Walking gives us a chance to see our pups develop their own style. We enjoy watching their hunting skills develop; working the field, following scents, casting, pointing, picking up things to carry, etc. By the time the pups of age to start their formal training, so much of the groundwork has already been accomplished.
Taking the time to walk with your dog, is good for you and your dog and makes your hunting season start off on the right foot. It’s never to late to get started.
Happy Hunting
John and Cathi Jensen, MapleRiverPheasantHunts.com