Dove, Dogs, and Shotguns

The following is the first article, written by my brother, in a series on how to train your bird dog. Darla. his lab, is an awesome bird dog. He has trained her since she was a puppy. Not only is she awesome hunting dove, she’s great hunting quail also.

If you’ve never hunted with a dog, it’s as rewarding or more to watch your training efforts pay off as you and your dog become a team. Enjoy the article!

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I’m not a professional dog trainer. Don’t pretend to be one. I’m sure Darla (my black lab) does some things that would drive a professional crazy. However, she’s one of the best dove and quail dogs around. Whether it is South Texas dove season or a quail hunt, she’s right at home. She’ll flush quail, retrieve downed birds, and not drive me crazy in the process. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the basics to get going with your dog.

Patience and consistency are essential to training your dog for anything from basic obedience to retrieving dove. There are a few things I did buy to help out with the training

• Soft decoy
• Dove and quail scent
• Electronic collar (you won’t need this until later, but it makes life a lot easier)
• Handheld decoy launcher. This isn’t essential, but it helped me get Darla to expect birds to fall when the gun is fired. She wasn’t afraid of the gun - just the opposite. She would get so excited, that she was looking at me instead of where the bird fell.

Depending on the age of the dog and level of training, some of this may go faster or slower. Darla’s training was broken down to:

1. Basic obedience
2. Basic Retrieving
3. Decoy Work
4. Field work
5. Correcting problems

Basic Obedience

 Basic obedience training is the foundation for everything. If she won’t listen to you at the house, she’s not going to listen to you in the field. There is already a lot written in about how and what you should teach a dog. Some people preach using a reward only based method. Others are more disciplinarians. I used a combination of both, leaning more toward rewarding, but correcting when I had to.

If you’re working with a puppy, makes sure you don’t try to do too much at one time. Keep dedicated training sessions short and focused. Be consistent in everything you do. If you are teaching her to sit or come to you, use the same command each time. After she’s learned the command, don’t let her slack off outside of training sessions. Be patient if she’s having problems learning a command, it’s generally your fault - not hers.

The most important basic command is to have your dog come to you when called. There are so many distractions in the field between the birds, guns, and other hunters that there’s bound to be a time when your dog wants to explore a little bit. You don’t want to be the hunter who is marching across the field trying to get your dog while everyone else is focusing on the birds.

In the next post, we’ll talk about basic retrieving and decoy work.

Time to RELOAD!

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