One of the most important parts of retriever training is introducing the dog to shot birds. Freighter is a hunting dog so even if he wasn’t training for hunt testing, he still needs to be able to retrieve a bird in a hunting situation. It is a good idea to have some basic training on the dog before you introduce gunfire and shot birds. For training we use pen-raised ducks. Even though they may smell different to a dog than wild ducks, they still work well for training and of course hunt tests use pen raised ducks.
[NOTE: If you are not comfortable with hunting or the shooting of birds for dog training then you probably want to stop reading here and not watch the videos. I am posting the videos to show how a young dog is introduced to shot birds, but if it not your thing, that is OK too.]
Finally the big day arrived for Freighter to fetch his first shot flyer. Lucky for us, the trainer was shooting flyers for a bunch of his training dogs on the day that we were there. Freighter’s first bird was a “cripple”, meaning that the shot must have missed a bit and it was not dead. You hope to kill the bird, but it doesn’t always happen and the dog must still fetch it when told to do so. This is where “drive” and “birdiness” and training come into play. You can see how Freighter handles the cripple in the video. By the second bird he figured out that loud bang=bird. He was much more excited which translated into him pulling on his collar, not sitting, and being quite vocal on the line. He tends to yelp and bark when he is made to wait. Hopefully that will lessen as he matures. He is not at all steady yet. In lower level tests you can hold his collar; however, you better have a good grip! He also got a gentle reminder to “sit” which I don’t think sunk in since he was so busy yelping at the bird.
If the video doesn’t play, try here.
We were very happy with how he handled his first and second shot flyers. He showed that he has no problem retrieving a cripple. Long time readers may recall that as a younger dog, Freighter was not great on bringing dead birds back to his handler. Thanks to his training, he heads straight back now. He still has to work on his holding, but that should come with more training.
Thunder and Storm also got shot flyers. It is a good idea to train with live birds every once in a while because the dogs’ excitement level definitely increases and you can work on all sorts of things, including steadiness. You might be able to see other dogs in the video. The higher level dogs got to work on honoring, (sitting and watching), the dog that was getting the flyer.
Grandpa Thunder lives to hunt and retrieve birds. He is an experienced hunter but in hunt tests he does not always like to give up his birds. That is something we work on with him all of the time. 🙂
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Storm was the last dog up. You can see her excitement level increase once she figured out that it was a shot flyer. We have been working on her steadiness. She jumped a bit, but otherwise did fine. She was not at all bothered by a longer swim when there was a bird to be had.
If the video doesn’t play, try here.
After we trained on the birds, the rest of the training was on bumpers much to Thunder’s dismay. But that is for another day.
That’s nice, he’s so eager to go and retrieve the bird.
My partner’s father wants to train Doggy so he can go and hunt with him, his dog died a year ago after 15 years of service, he was too affected by it that doesn’t wanna get another dog but wanna borrow Doggy, I’m ok with as long as they don’t go boar hunting, would hate to see Doggy injured by a boar.
My question is, what you do with the dogs after training?
In here they eat them.
I would not want to see Doggy hurt by a boar either. They can be nasty I have heard.
You mean what do we do wit the ducks? I can’t imagine that you eat dogs…lol. Usually training ducks are kept for training. We freeze them and reuse them over and over again. These ducks were going to be used at a test the next day which required dead ducks. We eat the wild ducks that are taken during hunting season.
Blame it on the auto-corrector lol.
I meant ducks lol I can’t imagine eating dogs, some people do but I stick to the “common” beef, chicken, pork and seafood.
So you basically recycle ducks, that’s really interesting.
He did a beautiful job for his first flyer. Gotta be happy with that! He stuck with that first one which some young dogs won’t. He is a handsome young man. His training is coming along great!
Thanks. We were really happy he stuck with it and didn’t give up. 🙂
Freighter did a great job especially with that first one, stuck right with it 🙂 Great footage of everyone, I really should start doing videos but I get so caught up watching the dogs I forget I can do that plus sometimes I am the one throwing ducks 😉
You should do video, but it eats a lot of memory and battery which is why I don’t do more. I just wanted Freighter’s first flyer…lol.
I think they all did a fine job, especially Freighter considering it was his first time with live ducks and the duck was LIVE! 🙂 You can see the excitement building with the dogs and it is very apparent that they love what they do! Let’s hope they get lots of hunting in this season.
Awe you watched the video. 🙂 Yes his first duck was pretty frisky. I thought he would be OK with it, (he is a Chessie after all), but you never know. I have seen dogs at the higher levels refuse to pick up cripples. If they have hunting experience they usually don’t have a problem, but Freighter has no hunting experience…yet…so you never know.
Great footage of them all! Video is something I should do more too… But usually I am too busy helping, one day maybe. Would be interesting to know how you work straight there and backs. Luna likes to loop behind me when she is bringing in a bumper rather than straight to me. She usually holds well, but that is her way of sticking it to me lol. I will need to tighten that up before hunt test season too. Hopefully we can finish the testing this season so we can move on to other things.
Wyatt has never had a problem with the cripples, Luna has hesitated at times but I think that is mainly her pointer side showing up. She started to put the shot together with “I am allowed to go get it even if it’s moving cuz I heard the shot” so I think that comes down to just practicing more with her.
Thanks for sharing
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
If you notice, Storm still does the loop around when coming to heel. All of her training and she just won’t give it up. But Freighter is learning with a lead. The trainer throws short marks and uses the lead to direct him to heel. As far as the straight lines out and back, we run long singles so the dogs get the idea to go in a straight line for a long time and usually they will head straight for the mark. Coming back…once the dog knows handling, we can use it to help with their line, (say for example: keep them in the water if they want to cheat it). At the moment Freighter goes out straight and comes straight back all on his own. But it is easy stuff with no hazards to throw him off.
I did not watch the videos. Couldn’t hack that. But I have no problem with people teaching their dogs for retrieving. You have certainly taught us all so much!
No problem. I totally understand. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
I always get so excited when I see you’ve added videos! I’m really glad to see them with real ducks this time though. I love seeing dogs doing their ‘job’! It’s just incredible how well trained you’ve gotten them and you can see how excited they really are! Julio really enjoyed watching them too. Let us know if you run out of ducks, we have plenty of pigeons that I’m sure we can send your way! 😛
Glad you enjoyed the videos. 🙂 Funny thing about pigeons, they don’t get as excited as with ducks. We don’t get to train with live ducks often. In fact you don’t want to overdo training with them. So when the dawgs get them it is a real treat. A bunch of the dogs have tests this weekend so it was good opportunity to work on their steadiness and the best way is with live birds.
Thanks for the education in duck hunting.
It looks like Freighter is meeting all your expectations for him day by day. You must be very proud.
Love the enthusiasm, especially Freighter! That’s some nice retriever work.
Great work! I do hope there aren’t too many “cripples” 🙁
Very nice traning. He kept going even with the duck moving about