Ready to run

Kevin Michalowski for PheasantCountry.com

Training tips to get your dog in shape for the pheasant hunting season.

The dream is always the same. After a year of planning, six months of organization, three months of serious anticipation and hours of anxious waiting your South Dakota pheasant hunt is about to begin. Suddenly your dog bolts to the end of the field and flushes somewhere in the neighborhood of a million roosters into the next county.

You can avoid this nightmare, but you’ve got to start now. Keeping control of your dog in the field begins and ends with keeping control of your dog in the yard. The more you reinforce the most basic commands, the better of you’ll be when it comes time to face a CRP field full of wily pheasants. The two basic commands for the flushing and retrieving breeds should be taught “Sit” and “Come.” These two commands should be absolute. That means the dog must respond every time, without regard to distraction or distance. Teaching such a response sounds like a much more daunting task than it really is. The key is repetition – repetition to the point that the actions of the dog become almost automatic. It doesn’t take long. Training sessions of 15 minutes performed at least once a day will get all but the oldest and most stubborn dogs to obey.

We’ll start with “Sit.” Teaching a dog to sit is about the simplest thing in the world. Simply give the command, push the dog’s butt down and praise the dog for doing what it was told. To make this a whistle command, simply say the word “sit,” give one blast on the whistle, push down on the dog’s butt and praise the dog. Soon, you’ll be able to eliminate the voice command and the dog will respond to the just the whistle.

The trick is to get the dog to sit on command at a distance. If the dog responds perfectly every time while at your side, and will sit still for five minutes or more it’s time to put some distance between you and the dog and try again. This time, clip on 20- or 40-foot check cord instead of the standard 6-foot leash. Now make the dog sit, then step directly in front of the dog so you are face-to-face. Take a few steps slowly backward. If the dog tries to follow, use a stern voice to command “No!” and put your hand up with the palm facing the dog and you take one step forward with a menacing posture. Continue backing up until you about 15 feet away from the dog. Without calling or saying anything, gently pull on the leash to get the dog moving in your direction. After the dog takes two or three steps, command “Sit,” give a single short blast on the whistle, hold up your hand and step toward the dog.

If the dog doesn’t stop and sit, give a firm “No!” and take another step as you pop the check cord up briskly causing the snap to hit the dog in the chin. Once the dog sits, go to the dog, don’t let the animal come to you and issue lots of praise.

The first few times you try this, the dog will undoubtedly be confused and will make some mistakes. Don’t get frustrated and don’t lash out at the dog. Simply move closer and try again until the dog understands her what her response to the command should be.

After daily training sessions for about a week or two the dog should have the idea. Now it’s time to introduce distractions. If you can get to a shooting preserve or training area, use live birds. Keep the dog on a short leash at your and make the dog sit while a pheasant with a bound wing is allowed to run by. Then lead the dog toward the pheasant, but stop short and make the dog sit again before finally allowing the dog to chase and retrieve the bird. If the dog is made to sit every time before being allowed to chase the bird, it won’t take long for animal to understand that only by following the command will it get to catch the bird.

If no birds are available, soak a tennis ball in commercial bird scent and bounce it in front of the leashed dog. Tease the dog with it, get the dog excited about getting the ball, then command “sit” before sending the dog on the retrieve. If the dog is forced to sit every time, but is then allowed to get the ball every time he sits on command, your dog should be very steady within a week or two of training. The tennis ball method is by far the easiest, but using live birds give the dog a better idea of what will be happening in the field. Mix up the two by going to a shooting preserve on the weekends and using the tennis ball every weekday.

Teaching your dog to come is almost as easy as teaching sit. Get your 40-foot check cord, clip it on the dog’s collar and encourage the animal to run around. When you see the dog start to ignore you, give several quick blasts on the whistle, command “Come,” and pull on the rope. Keep pulling until the dog is at your side. When he arrives, issue lots of praise.

The idea here is to give the dog no chance to fail. If the dog is off the check cord, he can ignore you. If he’s attached to the rope, he can’t. After a week of this, present the dog with distractions, but keep the check cord attached. If you are at a bird farm, release a couple pheasants and call the dog off them. Pull on the rope with both hands if you have to. Then, once the dog is at your side, reward him by sending him to retrieve one of the bound birds. The tennis ball or retrieval dummy also works as a good distraction, but not as good as the live bird.

The key to both of these training methods is repetition. Don’t assume that your dog has it mastered after a couple good days on the leash. Try to conduct daily training sessions for at least three weeks. Four weeks would be better. Once the dog is doing great on the leash, keep the leash in place for another week before you try releasing the dog to train off the line.

You can work through the dog’s desire to go crazy in a field overflowing with pheasants, but you have to do it on a leash and you have to do it every day.

Kevin Michalowski has been training dogs for 11 years and is the author of 15 Minutes to a Great Dog, (Krause Publications, $12.95)

Don’t neglect the dogs
There are three grave dangers to hunting dogs in South Dakota: Heat stroke, dehydration and barbed wire. All of them seem to appear without much warning and tend to ruin an otherwise great hunting trip.

Heat stroke and dehydration are both prevented by providing adequate water. Having a well-trained dog and sharp eyes can reduce cuts from barbed wire, but sometimes the dog gets to the wire before you can call him off. So it pays to be prepared.

Remember to take ample water for you dog and if you won’t be returning to the truck every two hours, carry a canteen or water bottle for the dog and teach the animal to drink from it. In addition to water in the field, make sure you offer water well before the first pheasant drive of the day. Any experienced hunting dog will get excited upon seeing the shotguns come out of the case. The dog may get too excited to and forget to drink. So start the day with water and offer it before the dog thinks you are going hunting.

Once you are in the field, watch for heavy panting, especially if the temperature is above 50 degrees. Remember, dogs don’t sweat. They only release heat through panting. And, the dogs are also down in the grass and weeds where they do not benefit from the ever-present South Dakota breezes. If the dog is panting heavily, take a short break, make the dog sit and offer water. Don’t over do it.

In the cold weather, dehydration can cause problems for the dog. Every breath is expelling a tremendous amount of water vapor. Stop regularly and offer the dog a drink.

On the issue of cuts, the simple solution is to carry a first-aid kit. For dogs you should have at the minimum some 3M Vetrap and a selection of gauze pads. A small bottle of saline can be used to wash the cut or clean seeds out of the dog’s eyes and ears. Locking forceps are just the ticket for porcupine quills (I’ve found two porkies in South Dakota in the last seven years).

Stow your first-aid kit right in your hunting vest and carry it on every outing. You may never need it, but when you do it can mean the difference between a minor tragedy and a long, lonely, quiet ride home.