Walking Your Pup

A while back a new puppy owner asked me what he should do to start his pup. I suggested he take his pup to the field and go for a walk. Walking your pup is one of the best ways to develop the bird dog instincts your pup inherits from his parents. These instincts include the instinct to hunt, to point and to be part of a team. The best time to develop these instincts is between the ages of three and six months. By six months of age, many pups are becoming independent and some may stop going with you.

There is an art to walking pups and to do it well you need to understand the difference between developing a pup and training him. Training involves teaching your pup to do something. Developing him involves creating situations where he can learn on his own. For example, when I was five years old my father who had been a competitive swimmer took me to the pool and threw me in the water. At first I flailed around, but then I discovered I already knew how to swim. My father didn’t have to teach me. I was born with the instinct to swim and all my father did was put me in a situation where I could learn on my own. While my father’s method was a bit extreme, you do the same thing with your pup every time you take him to the field and expose him to situations where he can learn on his own what he was bred to do.

When you walk your pup, let him run free and investigate the world on his terms, and as he runs around, you want to basically ignore him. You may need to give an occasional, “Hey” to get his attention, but don’t offer words of encouragement or correction. Instead, try to stay out of the way as much as possible. Your job is to create specific situations where your pup can discover on his own that he is a bird dog. There are many situations you can create. Here are two of my favorites.

• When I start walking a pup in the field, I set a slow and steady pace. Anytime the pup putters or gets behind, I ignore him and continue walking so he has to run to catch up. I never say a word. As he runs to catch up, his instinct to be forward is awakened, and it isn’t long before he is paying attention to where I am and trying to stay in front of me.
• After a couple of weeks of walking a pup in the field and he is confident on the ground, I am ready to plant quail to develop his instinct to hunt and to point. I continue to walk at a slow and steady pace and try to approach the planted birds from downwind so he can smell them and begin using his nose to find them. Anytime he starts to make game, I stay back. By not being in the picture, I keep it between him and the bird. Each pup is different and some take more time to develop than others. As he learns to use his nose, he becomes skilled at finding birds and when he finds them he begins to stalk them. Eventually, the stalk turns into a point.

There are many different situations you can create for your pup, but the key to being successful is to understand the difference between developing and training. The way to develop your pup doesn’t involve controlling him or putting pressure on him. Instead, you let him learn to be a bird dog the same way I learned to swim—by awakening the instincts he was born with. You don’t have to teach him what to do; you simply set the stage, take him for a walk, ignore him and let him teach himself.

Using a Blank Gun

How you use a blank gun can help or hurt you in training. Recently, I was training with some amateurs that were fairly new to pointing dogs. They had done a great job introducing gunfire to their dogs, but now their dogs were older. Most were between one and two years old and every time their dogs chased quail, they fired their blank guns. It wasn’t my place to say anything, but I was glad I wouldn’t be teaching these dogs to be steady-to-shot. Their dogs had already made an association with chasing and the blank gun, and once formal training began, they would most likely launch themselves like rockets anytime they heard the sound of the shot.

A blank gun is different than a shotgun. Dogs understand the shotgun. They see it, hear it and watch the bird fall to the ground. The blank gun isn’t as simple for your dog to grasp. The shot can mean a number of different things depending on what associations he makes with the sound. Here are a few examples of how to think about the blank gun.  

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If you compete in juvenile stakes in field trials or tests, you may be required to fire over your dog when birds are flushed. While you need to condition your dog to gunfire, in training it’s not necessary to fire every time your dog has bird contact. In fact, once gunfire has been introduced, the less you fire over him as he is chasing, the easier he will be to train.

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Once formal training begins, you may be unsure as to when to fire the blank gun. If your dog is steady-to-wing and you are teaching him to be steady-to-shot, think of the blank gun as representing the end of a piece of bird work. In other words, the sound of the shot means it’s over and your dog did well. When your dog handles the situation, fire your gun. However, if your dog takes a couple of steps when the bird flies and you plan on going back to correct him, you don’t fire because there is still more training to do.

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You don’t need to fire the blank gun for every bird that flushes. I watched a fellow fire five times as a covey of five birds lifted in front of his dog. One shot would have been sufficient to let the dog know the situation was over and he handled it well. The same is true in the bird field when you are training on pigeons or quail. You might have a set-up with two launchers. Your dog points and you walk in and flush the first bird. Your dog remains steady, so you hold your fire because there is another bird on the ground. You flush the second bird, and if your dog continues to remain steady, you fire over the second bird.

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If you fired a lot over your dog when he was young and he associates chasing with the shot, he may need extra work as you teach him to be steady-to-shot. Once you are able to flush and fire over him, he may still want to break at the sound of the shot even though he remains standing. If he remains standing but still looks like he’s ready to launch, try firing a second or third time. Your dog isn’t expecting additional shots so he’s more likely to break, which gives you an opportunity to correct him. This type of work really helps proof the training.

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If you do a good job introducing gunfire and fire only as often as necessary when your dog is young, he won’t learn to associate the blank gun with chasing.  Then, during formal training you show him that gunfire means the end of a particular piece of bird work, not the beginning of a chase. The blank gun takes on a new meaning for your dog and the training goes a lot easier for you.

Dog Time

Dog time is one of my favorite expressions. It means living in the present and not thinking about the past or the future. No phone calls to return, no chores to do, no list of things to accomplish. If you spend time with dogs, you already know dog time.

Yesterday I let a nine-week-old pup into the kennel yard and worked her on her first quail. I had pulled some flight feathers so the quail could only fly a short distance, and I brought the pup in to where she could see the bird. Then I went and found a comfortable place to sit down. The pup’s first reaction was to stare at the quail and jump back, but curiosity soon got the best of her, and she returned. She jumped back again and began barking. She wanted to get closer but was afraid. She kept barking and jumping, and I could see the excitement building. Soon she was getting her nose close enough to smell the bird, but she was still afraid.

The quail had not moved, and, possibly sensing the pup’s building excitement, it decided to get out of there. As soon as it moved, the pup was on it like the predator she was. Grabbing it in her mouth, she raised her head high and began to prance. As she pranced, she accidentally dropped the quail and it started to run. She grabbed it again. This soon became a game of letting it go and grabbing it again. Finally the pup lay down and started chewing on it. I bet I watched her with that quail for several minutes and never said a word. I had no expectations of what should happen, or any concerns about what might happen. We were on dog time.

A couple of years ago I was participating in some field trials in Georgia. My friend was hoping to get her dog handling better before the next trial and asked if I’d ride with her as she ran him between events. I agreed, and we saddled up our horses. Her dog was young and independent, and right from the start I knew my friend was wound too tight. As soon as we broke away, she began riding hard and screaming, “Here—here!” Even I could sense the fear in her voice. Her dog was wearing both an e-collar and a tracking collar, so it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to get lost, but her efforts to control him were making the situation worse.

I rode over and talked to her about dog time. I suggested she relax, let her dog go, and see what happened. My friend settled down, stopped yelling, and we slowed our pace. It wasn’t long before he began making beautiful swings in front of us. My friend was amazed. She was trying to make things happen instead of being present in the moment and letting the dog do what he was bred to do. A couple of times when the dog got behind, my friend gave a calm “Hey,” and he turned and swung to the front. The dog was happy and my friend was happy. We were on dog time.

Now, I’m not saying that you don’t need to have a plan before taking your dog afield—you should always have a plan—but once you begin to train, allow that plan to change. Try to focus on your dog and relax. Live in the present. Let your dog react to the situation at hand rather than trying to control it. A plan that includes ten drills in thirty minutes is not a good way to train a pointing dog. Drills imply a mind-set that is all about making the dog do multiple repetitions of a task rather than allowing the training to unfold naturally, letting the dog react, and anticipating or reacting to what the dog is going to do.

Dogs remind me of Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine. Do you remember the caption, What—me worry? For dogs, everything is okay. Life is a game. Being on dog time involves getting down on your dog’s level and seeing things through his eyes. It’s a state of mind, and an important way to think about training. As you will learn (or may already know), these times in the field with your dog, away from life’s realities, are some of the best times that life has to offer.

Forward Running Dogs

Forward Running Dogs

I used to believe forward-running dogs were bred—as simple as breeding a forward-running male to a forward-running female—but over time I learned it was more than just breeding. It was a combination of breeding and training. If you think about it, forward is by definition “in front,” but in front of what? The answer is, in front of you. You determine the front, and it changes every time you change direction. A dog that runs all over the place is running for himself and does not care where you are. A forward-running dog stays in front and is running for you.

Good bird dogs are bred with the instinct to hunt in front of you. Without it, you would flush birds before your dog found them. Like most pointing dog instincts, this instinct needs to be developed. Taking your pup afield when he is young and following behind him is a great way to encourage him to be in front. Once he is staying in front, you begin to change direction and ask him to go with you. He should bend and go to the front. As he becomes older and more independent, you introduce the e-collar to ask him to go with you. You are teaching him that his place is in front of you, and he learns to pay attention to you so he knows where to go. If you develop this instinct at a young age, your dog will be forward-running because he never learned any other way to run.

About ten years ago I purchased a six-month-old started female from out west. She was bred right, and I could hardly wait to see what she would do. I tacked up my horse and turned her loose. She took off running like a crazy dog, and I remember thinking I might never see her again. When I finally rounded her up, I knew I had to introduce the e-collar before letting her go again. It took about a month to teach her to go with me using the pinch-collar, check-cord, and e-collar, and when I eventually felt confident about using the e-collar to make her go with me, I turned her loose again.

Her first cast was to the side, and I knew she was already in her own world. I continued in the direction I was heading, called her a couple of times, and tapped her with the e-collar. It took a little convincing, but she came around. It was not long before she headed off to the side again, and once again I used the e-collar to ask her to bend and go with me. It took a couple more weeks, but soon I had a pup that was running and hunting in front of me. The transformation was incredible. While her range shortened, she went from running reckless to staying forward and paying attention.

I forgot about this experience until a few years later when I turned a pup loose and he did the same thing. It was then that I realized a forward-running dog has to pay attention; he has to know where I am. I can’t have one without the other. So I stopped running this pup and introduced him to the e-collar. Before long he was a forward-running dog.

A lot of field trialers argue that using an e-collar this way shortens a dog’s range, but if the dog is bred to run, he will run, and if he is not forward, who cares what his range is. If you teach your dog to pay attention when he is young, your dog will be forward-running and will want to stay in contact with you. Some of these dogs learn to show to the front. Showing is a field trial term for a dog that intentionally shows himself to let his handler know where he is. He does not come in to the handler, but rather, he stays out front, giving the handler an occasional glimpse of where he is. A good hunting dog does the same thing, letting the hunter know he is hunting and not standing on point.

While genetics plays an important role, a forward-running dog knows he is part of a team. It’s really simple: Your job is to determine the front, and your dog’s job is to hunt in front of you.

Introducing Quail to Your Pup

Introducing quail to your pup may sound like a fairly simple step: Plant a quail in the field, bring your pup in, and let him find it. Unfortunately, like most pointing dog training, it is often more complicated than it first appears. Quail introduction is one of the most important phases in your pup’s development, and it’s when you develop his desire to hunt. This step needs to be done correctly. The age and attitude of your pup will help you determine how to work him. A three-month-old pup is introduced differently than a five-month-old, and a one-year-old may require some creative thinking. The availability of good flying birds also influences when you introduce him to quail. Here are a few examples of how to deal with pups of different ages and levels of readiness.

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Last fall I acquired a twelve-week-old female pup. She had already caught a couple of wing-clipped quail and was ready for some good flying quail. I could hardly wait to get going, but before introducing her to birds in the training field, I had to be sure she was confident on the ground. After a week of running her through bush-hogged stubble and briars, she was ignoring the cover, so I planted several quail and took her for a run. I already knew she would go with me, so it was easy to lead her in the direction of the first bird. She found it and tried to catch it. Over the next week, she began to stalk the bird, and while she continued to dive in and chase, her pointing instinct was starting to develop. She had a new sense of purpose and was now focused on finding birds.

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This spring I kept a male from one of my litters. He would be four and a half months old before I’d have any good flying quail. He and his littermates had chewed on a couple of leftover birds from last year, but I had to wait for September for good flying birds.

While I waited, I ran him in the field to get him confident on the ground. When he was four months old, I snapped a light check-cord to his ID collar to get him accustomed to dragging it. He was becoming more independent and less concerned about where I was, even though he still had no clue why he was out there.

This pup’s lack of experience hunting for quail, combined with his newfound independence, presented a problem when it came to how to introduce him to quail. I needed a way to lead him to the bird, and decided to use the check-cord. He was already used to dragging it, but he was not yet ready to learn the e-collar or the here command. I tossed down two lightly dizzied quail and walked with him on the check-cord to the first bird. As soon as he made scent, he stopped and pointed, and I dropped the check-cord. He continued to hold point as if surprised by the bird’s scent. He eventually dove in and the bird flew off. When he got tired of chasing it, I took hold of the check-cord again and led him to the second bird.

This time there was no hesitation. He dove in hard, and I held the check-cord just long enough for the bird to take flight before letting go. I did not use the check-cord to make him point; rather, I used it to restrain him from catching the bird on the ground. If a pup learns he can catch a bird before it flies, he may stop pointing. It took a couple more sessions of leading the pup to the bird, but before long, he was hunting on his own. The check-cord allowed me to stay in control and get him into birds with very little commotion. Soon I was able to unsnap the check-cord and let him run free. He no longer needed my help because he knew why he was out there: He was focused on finding birds.

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This fall a training buddy asked me about her one-year-old pup. The pup had been worked on pigeons, but he lacked experience on loose quail. The pup’s age presented a real dilemma because, at a year old, he was powerful enough to run down a good flying quail. I asked Maurice Lindley how he introduced older pups to quail, and he gave me a great tip. He said, “If an older pup needs to run on loose quail, I release birds along the edge of the woods. I don’t dizzy them; I hold them close to the ground and let them go. They should run into the woods. I plant them this way because the pup is unable to follow their flight path in the woods. It works well, but the birds have to be good flyers.”

I passed the tip on to my training buddy and she really liked the idea. She planted quail along the edge of the woods and it worked perfectly. Her pup got into loose birds without catching any of them. He learned how to find birds that were moving and how close he could get before making them fly, both of which are important lessons to learn before the steadying process begins.

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There are many windows of opportunity to introduce quail to your pup. The best and easiest time is between three and four months old. By five or six months old, your pup is more independent, and you may need to use a check-cord for the first couple of sessions, to lead him to birds. If you have to wait until he is a year old, he’ll be physically strong enough to run down a good flying quail, so you’ll have to think outside the box, with techniques such as Maurice’s suggestion of releasing birds along the edge of the woods. Staying flexible in your thinking, along with waiting for good flying quail, will help you accomplish this important step. If you do it right, you will develop your pup’s desire to hunt and be well on your way to having a high-class bird dog.