Pass Along RJ
June 08

(Sort of) On-the-Job Training
by Jason and Chris Smith

training philosophy often expressed is that the dog will learn and retain the most in the training situations that best resemble the actual conditions of his work. For our hunting retrievers, this means boats, blinds, camouflage, decoys, live birds if possible, guns, and remote throwers. One of the easiest – and cheapest – ways to simulate waterfowl hunting scenarios is by taking them pigeon hunting. We're not talking about using pigeons in training, but pigeon hunting.

Once explicit permission and instructions of where to park, sit, shoot, and send your dog has been given by the landowner, the hunting begins. You can use crow or dove decoys, and dead pigeons should be set up in the field. Be mindful of where you're dropping pigeons, too – you want your dog to get some retrieving work in, but tumbling a pigeon so he falls on top of the barn roof will be a bit of a challenge to fetch. And you probably don't want to send him on a line through the farmer's cattle yard – not a good way to get invited back. You can use a pop-up blind, wear your waterfowl hunting clothes, and use calls… make it as realistic as possible.

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Since this is about working the dog, it's a good idea to have a partner do the shooting so you can focus on the dog. The adrenaline of the hunt will make a lot of young dogs go deaf. They'll whine and break and ignore you once feathers are involved – and especially feathers in a situation that, to them, might as well involve corn-fed mallards. Be prepared to work on every facet of your training – steadiness, hand signals, whistle commands, lines, marks, blinds, administering well-timed collar or leash corrections, you name it.

hat you might be training on the most is breaking, and this is the best time to work on this offense. One of the best ways for developing a steady dog is to go out and get the retrieve yourself, depriving the breaking dog of what he wants most because of his infraction. However, this might not be an option in most situations because, (1) most dogs are great with bumpers and will not break; and (2) you're probably not going to deny your dog a late-season mallard fetch because he whined or broke – you'll want him to get all the opportunities he can, even if you let him cheat a bit.

But pigeon hunting is the perfect time to employ this correction. If the dog breaks or does anything else he shouldn't, "sit" and "stay" him and walk out and get the retrieve yourself. Let him see the price of not being a good dog. Most times, you won't need to reprimand, scold, or otherwise discipline; bring him back, "stay" him, and quietly get the bird yourself. He'll get the point.

Pigeon hunting affords the look and feel of a real hunt, but also opens up training scenarios that can really make a lesson stick, scenarios that you're probably not willing to take the time to explore during those few precious autumn days you do get out. So take a look around some farms this year – there are a lot of perfectly good training helpers flapping around.

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