An ideal characteristic in any hunting dog is persistence. You want him to be relentless, pursuing his prey until he finds it. However, there will come a time when your hunting dog needs help finding a downed bird, especially if you’re working with a young or inexperienced dog whose attention span has not fully developed.

In most cases you’re better off not interfering with the dog; however,  one of the pitfalls unskilled owners seem to fall into is that of trying to find the bird themselves, without the help of their dogs. Time after time, I have witnessed owners who, while pursuing a fallen bird, seem to forget that they even have a dog. Any hunter who thinks that his intellect and wisdom will trump the natural scenting capabilities of even an inexperienced hunting dog is going to spend a bunch of time looking for fallen birds, and probably without much success. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t help your dog find the downed bird because you should. But, you should only attempt to assist your dog after you’ve put him into the area of the downed bird and then the two of you should look together as a team. Even though  I have pointed out this situation to my clients, I still see them get so involved in finding the bird themselves that they allow their dogs to stray off and hunt in a different direction altogether.

I know it’s difficult to stay focused on where your dog is hunting, because I too fall into this trap from time to time.  But, I’m more fortunate than most hunters  because I have my Uncle Frank’s words of wisdom to remind me to refocus my attention back to the dog, I can hear his bellowing voice telling me, “Make the dog find the bird, boy; you ain’t  built right.” The things we recall are sometimes priceless.

    If your dog simply stops questing for the bird, there are several ways you can re-invigorate his hunt.  To rekindle his interest in looking for the bird again, first you might throw a rock, perhaps a gesture with your hand or just walk in the direction of the unfound bird with comforting chatter like attaboy, will sometimes do the trick.  

But maybe your problem is not that the dog loses interest. Eventually, even experienced dogs will wander out of an area after they feel everything has been properly searched. If you’re sure your dog has properly covered the fall area, you can move to plan “B”. Now you can  move the search area to the most probable direction you believe the bird could have fallen, and if not dead, which direction the bird ran. Usually, the human mismarks the fall area by being too short or too long, Before walking out into the field I like to pick a stationary object in the distance such as, a tree, barn or fence post (a cow, horse or vehicle are not good markers guys, they sometimes move).This will give you the line on where the bird fell. Then you can begin to move laterally to cover the field systematically.

 Also, learning your dog’s body language will pay dividends in this particular situation. If you see that your dog begins to track, don’t interfere with his hunt; he will eventually catch up to the wounded bird and recover his prey, So,  watch the dog carefully and take his cues---Hopefully, you won’t need to do some backtracking. 

The bird you and your dog are attempting to find is fleeing for his life, and this bird will employ every trick Mother Nature has given it to avoid being bagged. I never cease to be amazed by the tactics of a wounded bird, but I’m also amazed by the dog’s ability to outwit the prey in the end.  It’s your job as a responsible hunter to make every attempt to recover all downed birds, and having a dog help in this recovery is the best way I know of to have a successful hunt.

Dog trainer Grady Istre can be contacted at his Lmopoc kennel and training facility at  reibar.com . His column appears every other week.