10/11/99
The
Education of Spot
By Turk Gierke
There
are few situations in life to an upland game hunter that are as
exciting as when a rooster, full of fire erupts out of nearby
cover, and missiles into the sky with that long tail just waggling
and waving bye-bye.
Not
many events can make you feel prouder than when your beloved four
legged friend had either locked up and pointed that scent in the
cover, or while in range-flushed out that cock bird.
On
the other hand the pinnacle of frustration is soon reached when
your despised four legged food bill is gallivanting way out in
front of your wary footed hunting party, like all day long, but
now flushing the only pheasants your party has seen all day.
Quickly
the thoughts change from I suppose it’s a down year or too many
foxes around these parts to statements like “we had a chance at
two of those birds until your damn dog just blew it for us.” The
quick come back of, ”hey, I at least brought a dog,” just
doesn’t hold water when you are out numbered by three or more
dogless hunters. It
is not the dog, the others are ticked at, it’s you.
I
understand hunting is supposed to be all fun, but when situation
such as the one mentioned before occur, it is just plain not a
good one. Be honest
with yourself what did you expect to happen?
Did spot even get a decent chance or was he so happy to get
off the leash for once, all he wanted to do is run his tail off?
With out getting into specifics, the key to an obedient dog
is just the same as any other way of being successful-it is work.
The key to success is not just working at it, but you also
must like to do it.
As
you’ve heard, most accomplished business people will tell you
they enjoy what they are doing.
That statement is not a line of bull, the enjoyment of
their work is the driving force that enables the day after day
hard work. If you
don’t enjoy training hunting dogs-odds are you won’t train
enough to enable your animal to mature as a hunting partner.
Bringing
up successful hunting dogs is not as hard as the microphone
carrying barkers at the game shows would like you to believe.
It comes down to the one factor-Time.
Time spent with your yard trained and gun accustomed dog in
the field is essential. Upland
hunters go find a nearby field with good numbers of wild birds,
get permission nearly anyway you can from the landowner to train
there, and do it whenever the opportunity presents itself. Check
with the state DNR on closed training times of year.
Train
your yard trained and gun accustomed dog on the basic commands
while in parts of the field where you believe the birds are not. Once junior is minding you out in this new and exciting area
move on to areas where you have seen birds.
From there walk the field or woods just as if you where
hunting, be strict on the commands, and enforce when rover
doesn’t listen. Do
this enough in the off season and come hunting time your dog will
have learned the tricks on wild birds, there is no substitute for
that.
Planted
birds are exceptional on critical training points such as holding
a point, and recalling a dog on a scent trail, which is extremely
important for flushing dogs that move out way to fast.
Birds can be bought at most game farms and some dog clubs
sell birds. Author
Richard Wolters has a series of training books that are great,
consult his advice on some actual how to’s, and other specifics
that are sure to come up.
If
you really just don’t have the time in this busy world, be frank
with your partners and let them know what is likely to happen. Or simply go by yourself and use the outing as a training
experience.
When
hunting season opens hopefully you will have given your dog a
chance to excel, train her and the rewards will fill your memory
for a lifetime. Forget
about the training and your buddies will have enough memories that
they would soon like to soon forget.
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