Hunting with a young dog – how does that work?

Both Elsa and I work as handlers on a number of shoots during the season, and on those days you have, so to speak, ”signed up” to help out. The days are paid for by the guns, so they are the ones we are there to serve, you could say. On days like that you cannot turn up with a dog that isn’t up to the job, and you obviously cannot suddenly decide that you are going to train your dog in that setting.

On these shoots you can also be handed jobs that risk ”ruining” the dog a little, especially if you want to run in trials. That goes for retrievers and spaniels alike. The situations get too difficult, too hot, or both, and the dog comes away with completely the wrong feeling and the wrong experiences. 

Working as a handler on big and small shoots, and hunting myself, is my great passion, and I usually manage around 20 days a season. Since I am not made of money and don’t have game of my own on the doorstep either, these days are still hugely important for training a young dog. Even though I am there as a helper, I still try to get good situations and good learning out of it – ”training” as far as that is possible.

Last year Flippa was a puppy and got to come along and just soak up the environment. Sometimes she was allowed to retrieve warm game in the breaks, or simply walk around and mingle with retrievers and guns. She got to be at the game parade and sit at my feet. She got to be in that setting and hear shots, and to learn that freshly shot game is not a party but part of everyday life.

This year Elsa and I started the season by buying a few days and turning them into what we call training shoots, where we hunt as usual but the focus is on getting good training out of the situation. It is a brilliant way to start the season, and with a young dog it is by far the best way to start; there I decide what I want to do and what I don’t. On top of that I can leave the situation at any time, or set it up to suit us as far as that is possible. 

But once we have done a few training shoots, it is still the big commercial days that dominate for me; that is where I get the chance to train all the different parts of hunting. And that is where you have to keep your wits about you with a young dog.

I usually help out at the same places, so I have started to learn the drives and I know what the ground is like, how the day is put together and so on. That means I can judge which dog to bring along ­– I have the advantage of being able to choose between several dogs. 

Right at the start of this season, Flippa’s first, she was allowed to come along on the bigger days too now and then. But she only came when I knew the likelihood of difficult, stressful situations arising was minimal. For instance, together with a more experienced dog, she got to hunt out a ditch and a stone wall along a paddock while a walked-up hare drive with lots of dogs and guns was going on. We worked a little sheltered from the big group, so she rarely saw them, and we only had one gun flanking us. There were a few shots in the paddock, which gave us natural breaks where she got to practise simply sitting and waiting – a very important thing to be able to do whatever dog you have, I think. Ever since she was a small puppy I have got her used to watching Tassla work, so she is already used to walking behind while another dog works. That is another important thing to be able to do. If you have a retriever it can be very exciting to walk behind spaniels rattling around in bushes and thickets, so it is smart to train that first ­– outside a ”live” situation like a shoot. 

The other day we were out on one of the last shoots of the season. Flippa got her longest spells of work so far and was actively working for half the day. That was exactly as much as she could manage mentally and physically. She was very tired afterwards but worked beautifully, and it was lovely to see how the season’s shoots and hunting training have now settled in her. 

This is some of what I have trained with Flippa during her first season (and some things can’t be planned – you just have to try to stay cool and support the dog if she needs it when they happen): 

• Sitting and waiting for a long time – before the shoot, in the middle of the shoot, while lots of birds fly past both close by and far away, or when absolutely nothing at all is happening.
• Working together with several other dogs, both hunting spaniels and retrieving retrievers, with everything that involves in terms of whistles, handlers calling out, and dogs swishing past close by while Flippa is sitting and waiting or in the middle of her hunt.
• Taking it easy in the breaks and just ”hanging around” during, say, the briefing or the game parade.
• Riding on the trailer and sitting packed in tight with lots of other dogs and people. 
• The hunting itself, of course. Flippa’s hunt has developed in step with her experience. If you are thorough and don’t bounce around like a kangaroo, your chances of finding a bird in the reed canary grass are better. 😉 There are often birds in dense bushes and thickets, so it pays to push your way in there, and so on.
• Picking up pricked (wounded) birds that have run off (following a line).
• Flushing anything from one to several birds at once.
• Sitting quietly after the flush.
• The importance of marking a bird that flies off (and perhaps gets shot).
• Heelwork in all sorts of situations – for example being able to walk at heel even though something is pulling further ahead, or when an awful lot is going on around us.
• Retrieving warm game. 

I have been able to train all of this sensibly and calmly and in balance without any trouble, even though I was there as a helper. But it does take a bit of planning, good communication with my fellow handlers and sometimes the shoot captain’s blessing. If there is a drive to be worked a little further away from the centre of events, for instance, I can offer myself and say that I will take the young dog. It is in the shoot captain’s interest that my young dog is introduced to hunting well and can become a good helper in the future. 

Sometimes you can also come along on a shoot as an observer, walking alongside a team where the dog is experienced and can handle all the difficult situations. Flippa got to come along on a duck shoot and retrieve just the right amount on one occasion – it was a brilliant experience. 

There are also instructors and clubs that arrange this sort of thing, and I think it is a splendid idea, not least if the handler is a beginner too. Then you get to walk with a mentor who explains how everything works and invites you to ”read the shoot” – what is happening, and what you should and shouldn’t do. 

On these days my young dog’s emotional state comes above everything else. That is why I really like all that waiting that so easily happens. You stand there for ten minutes chatting with the other handlers or the guns while your dog sits and waits. Since I have a spaniel, I take the chance to train Flippa to sit at a bit of a distance from me – something a spaniel often has to do at trials too. They sit away from you more often than beside you. During these natural breaks nothing fun happens at all, other than that I go and reward her where she sits now and then. Being able to be very much switched on and then very much switched off is absolutely central in gundog training.

Sometimes I hear people say that you shouldn’t hunt with your trial dog. I sympathise with that in the sense that you shouldn’t hunt thoughtlessly with your trial dog! Because it is easy to let things slide a little and not hold the criteria that apply to a trial dog, even if you never intended to. They mess about a bit and do slightly crazy things that work out hunting but wouldn’t be appreciated by a judge. And every dog is different – some really do need to get going with hunting early, and with others you have to go gently. Personally I need these days to educate Flippa too, because otherwise she would get far too few situations with birds, but I do adapt how much she takes part as far as I can. For instance, I don’t take her out when I know it is going to be hysterical with birds, when the terrain is such that I would easily lose sight of her, when a great many birds will be shot in a short time close to her, and so on.

I am extremely careful about Flippa’s emotional state the whole time, and as soon as I notice something she finds hard or can’t quite cope with, I adapt the hunting – and of course my training between shoots – accordingly. If something were to happen that wasn’t great from a learning point of view, I have to focus on repairing it afterwards; usually a single event isn’t a catastrophe.

Flippa has grown with every shoot and has had incredibly good experiences. She is balanced and easy to communicate with, and the situations have mostly not been too difficult for her. I have got valuable information about what I need to focus on and get to grips with to take her where I want to go. It feels good now that the season is nearly over: she gets to grow up a bit more and be trained a little more on a few specific things. And then it will probably be her first trial in the autumn. 🙂