With less than a month of wild bird hunting left, dogs that have been hunting all season are getting a bit looser and more difficult to control during the hunt.
Most hunters do very little training during the regular hunting season and because of that, many dog starts to take liberties in the field as their discipline level begins to drop. In many cases, hunters are forced to make a decision whether to spend their precious spare time hunting or training, and of course they choose to hunt---I would also. Their dogs have been dutifully finding and retrieving birds all season using their natural abilities and every one of the skills they have been taught. But, It’s a long bird season and most hunting dogs just keep getting higher and higher with each hunt. You may have experienced this situation yourself. Disobedience in the field at this point in the season is not a gauge of your dog’s quality. Birdiness just trumps self-control, still, the longer you allow your dog to continually hunt without reminders of the rules of his training, the more liberties he is going to take as the season continues. When it get really bad you need to do something about his disobedience or he will take the upper hand and his misbehavior will ruin your hunt.
A common indicator that control has slipped is creeping; this often goes unnoticed because of your intense focus on making a clean shot on the bird. Eagerness is a great trait, but when your dog’s excitement overwhelms his trained steadiness, he may start to scoot forward more and more. Once he get away with this creeping, he will eventually just outright break from his usually rock solid point or even leave your blind. If you don’t stop and correct this particular problem immediately, your dog’s misbehavior will become a habit, and habits can be very hard to break.
Other, smaller, tell-tale indicators and incipient problems can be very subtle, and usually go unnoticed by a hunter until they become bigger problems. One of these small indicators I look for in my German Shorthair, Chloe, is an unusual unwillingness to obey my command to work closer or change her area of hunt. As far as my Labrador, Hunter, he begins to nervously move around in the duck blind, and even moves out in front in view of oncoming birds. These two examples are common indicators that it’s time to remind my dogs of their past training and reinforce their understanding of hunting as a team.
These two tell-tale characteristics I look for with my dogs are common, but not every hunting dog will display the same mannerisms. You should observe and learn just what your own dog’s characteristics are before he becomes too disobedient, so you can make a timely correction. It’s just a fact that obedience must be observed to make hunting fun for not only you but your hunting buddies as well.
I know it can be a distraction for most hunters to observe changes in his animal during a hunt. It’s a lot more fun when you can just get into the hunt one hundred percent and enjoy the actions of the birds and not worry about your dog. However, you’d be surprised just how little of your hunting time it takes to change your dog’s disobedient attitude and get him back on track before things really get out of control. You’ll be much better off if you take the time to correct the small infractions before they get out of hand.
Good Hunting!
Grady Istre can be reached at
reibar.com. His column appears every other week.
