written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  
The Retriever Journal Nov./Dec. 2000 

Learning to handle live birds at a young age is imperative for a young retriever. Here, a 12 week-old Chesapeake already understands retrieving live ducks in the bird pen.

ddy is a yellow Labrador that comes to my kennel for touch-up training before every waterfowl season. He is an outstanding dog whose fundamental training is rock solid, started by a hunt test professional who followed a currently accepted training program to the letter. His marking is good; his lining and casting are precise.

    But Eddy is lacking in one significant area: His actual hunting skills were never developed. When searching for cripples or hunting upland birds, he tends to run around heavy patches of cover looking for birds rather than diving in. When cast into cover, he runs completely through and out the other side. Eddy also doesn't trust his nose. When encouraged to hunt a particular patch of cover, if there are no birds to be found immediately, he tends to stop his hunt, looking to the handler for directions as if to say, "okay boss, none there; where do you want me to to go next?"

    One day, while chasing pheasants at a local hunting club, his owner asked why my Chesapeake stayed in the cover and hunted while Eddy had to be continually encouraged and directed. I told him it was the difference in the way the two dogs had been started early in their training. He never had an opportunity to ask what I meant as a rooster burst from the cover, and we both swung into action.

    My recognition of the problems inherent to retrievers started in a strict, non-slip, control-training program many years ago when I was training one of my young male Chesapeakes. I had read all of the training books available at the time; but feeling a bit bewildered and in need of help, I went to watch a local trainer work with his dogs and to seek his advice.

    In a field adjacent to his kennels was a sizeable bird pen. In my inexperience, I asked why he kept a pen full of pheasants, ducks, chukars, and pigeons, His response was that "half of the term 'bird dog' was 'bird," and that the best training tool a professional trainer had at his disposal was a pen full of birds. "It doesn't matter," he continued, "whether you are training a pointing dog, a retriever, or a spaniel; a hunting dog's gotta understand birds and where to find them, and they gotta understand the birds first, before you start to force a lot of control on them."

    Unfortunately, he wasn't full of a lot more in the way of  "how-to" information, and the training books I was using made little mention of training with birds other than throwing them as marks. Continuing to follow the books, I turned out a decent retriever. But later, when I began teaching the dog to be an upland hunter, the transition was very difficult. In addition, getting him to hunt heavy cover for shot cripples and to follow a scent track resulted in my continuously having to encourage him. He always expected me to tell him where the birds were. In an effort to have him under control, I simply hadn't developed or enhanced the bird-seeking abilities that this youngster was born with.

    Since that time, I have changed the sequence of my training program and, as a result, feel I have developed better hunting retrievers. The words of the trainer I had visited rang true, and all of my subsequent pups have been started on birds first.

If the pup is allowed to drag a rope, in the field, when he gets hung up in the cover, he will fight the rope. This will help him to learn to give in to the lead without taking it out on you.

    I occasionally hear experienced trainers say they, don't use birds at all until young dogs until the dog has been taught to "handle the birds." This logic simply doesn't make sense for the hunter's dog. Sure, I always do some basic obedience, such as coming when called, "sit" before being fed, a modest amount of walking on a lead, and a great deal of socialization. And, of course, it is necessary to get the retriever pup retrieving and swimming at a young age. But beyond that, it is birds, birds, and more birds before the control training is added.

ow, please don't misinterpret this to mean that I am suggesting a training formula that is an alternative to control. This is meant to be an enhancement to the control program, equally important for the waterfowl hunter as it is for the upland hunter. The waterfowl dog must know where to find birds and how to track cripples that have crawled away or are hiding in heavy cover.

    What I am suggesting is a program where the dog's natural hunting abilities are developed. Then the control training of formal obedience, force-fetch, lining, and casting are added to shape an extremely effective and reliable multipurpose hunting partner in the blind or in the field. The end result will be a dog that is under control but with the self-confidence to get into the heaviest cover in his search, without having to be continually encouraged or dependent upon repeated instructions from the handler of where to hunt.

    When a pup is only six weeks or so of age, it is time to start playing "fetch" with a ball and then with bird wings. If you do this in a confined area, such as a carpeted hallway, the pup will have no choice but to come back to you. This will also begin to teach the pup that he must come back to you if the game is to continue.

    After this game is solid, I like to go to live, shackled pigeons in a controlled outdoor setting: Any grassy yard or field where the pigeon can't get away and the pup must come back past you in order to try to escape with his prize is preferred.

    Also, at about this same time, put the youngster in his kennel or crate, and try dragging a dead duck or pheasant (you can even add to the enticement by dripping a few drops of bottled scent on the bird) through some easy cover, maybe also leaving a few feathers along the way. Leave either the bird or the wing the pup has been retrieving, at the end as his prize. Get him out, put him on the trail, show him the feathers, and encourage him to follow the scent trail all the way to the bird. If you start short in easy cover and gradually increase the difficulty and the distance, it won't take long to teach him to use his nose to find his prize!

This 11-week-old pup has already figured out what his nose is for and works his way through the lighter cover and grass searching for the bird. It is important to always work a young pup toward the  bird with the wind in his face.

      I also like to take my pups into my bird pen and give them the experience of handling larger birds. I keep hen pheasants and ducks in the pen strictly for training pups. Hen pheasants and ducks are swift and exciting but, when caught, they are relatively benign. They're also big, but not so big that a pup of about 12 weeks or so can't pick them up. Rooster pheasants, on the other hand, can be tough, nasty birds and will peck and spur, possibly creating problems for a pup that could last throughout his lifetime. It also seems as though the pups have much less tendency to try to chew on these larger birds than on the pigeons. By the way, don't let chewing on birds, bird wings, bumpers, or any retrieving toy get started. It is easier to avoid the chewing problem at this age than to correct it later.

y now, the pup has learned to follow a scent trail, chase down a live bird, and retrieve both dead and live birds. It is time to go to a field with cover.

   Put a l0-foot rope on the pup. Snap the rope to a plain buckle-on collar - no chokers or prong collars in the field - and tie a sizeable knot in the opposite end. Put the pup down in a secure field, and let him run. This is the time when he will learn to give in to the rope and to pay attention to you. If he gets hung up in the cover, let him fight the rope for a few minutes, and then go untangle him. You are the good guy, always coming to the rescue to free him! When he blasts past you dragging his rope, step on the rope and send him tumbling (the reason for the knot), and walk on without a word. When the pup goes north, you turn, and - still without a word - head south. He'll look for you and follow in your direction.

    Eventually, you will have developed a pup that will give in when you pick up the end of the rope and walk off, without a "rodeo." And, you have developed a pup that will always be looking to follow you when you change directions. No whistles, no commands, no screaming. Now, it is time to re-introduce the birds.

    Put a couple of your shackled pigeons in your hunting vest, and head for the field. Turn your pup loose, still dragging his rope, and let him run. While he is off exploring a muskrat house or something else of interest and looking in the opposite direction, toss one of the pigeons into some moderate cover, and walk off without a word. Get away some distance from the bird, and encourage the pup to come to you. Get him downwind of the bird, and influence him back and forth by zigzagging your approach into the wind (don't lead him to the bird by the rope), encouraging him all the while to find the bird in the cover.

    You will know when he gets a nosefull of bird scent: Hs ears will probably go up, and his tail will get very animated. Let him fight his way into the cover or track the bird through the cover if it has walked off. Oh, what a wonderful dog to have found such a prize! If you have done your homework and he knows to come when called from the previous training, he will likely bring it to you. If not, you might have to reel him in like a fish on his rope. But either way, just like in the hallway or the grassy field in the beginning, do not snatch the bird away from him. Praise him lavishly for finding a bird, and gradually get it away from him and back into the pocket of the hunting vest. And, do it again and again.

The goal is to develop a youngster that will crash through the heaviest of cover, using his nose to search out birds. This is done by introducing increasingly heavier cover.

    In a few weeks, when he understands this game and begins to investigate every piece of cover where he has ever found a bird, it is time to go to larger birds and heavier cover. I like to use ducks in cattail or tule patches, hen pheasants, unless they are dizzied or their feet securely tied, can be in the next county before you call the dog. Ducks seem to just root in deeper and deeper.

    Start by tying the duck's wings together at the base so that it can't fly - I use several turns of plastic surveyor's tape. Toss the duck into the tules when your pup isn't looking, and, as before, bring him around from downwind. You always want to work into the wind with a pup to teach him what his nose is for. Encourage him to "hunt 'em up," or "find the bird," and influence him into the bird's cone of scent. Praise the heck out of him when he digs the bird out of the heavy cover.

    So, what have we got? We have a pup that is about six or seven months old by this point, he knows to give in to the lead, and he learned it without your being the "bad guy" and jerking him around. He knows that he has to keep an eye out for you because you seem to wander off in some crazy directions, and he certainly doesn't want to get left alone. He knows that when you say, "Hunt 'em up!" or whatever command you use to encourage him to search an area, that there are those good-smelling birds to be found, he has learned to trust his nose and stay with the search until he finds the birds; and when he finds the prize, he knows how to handle it back to you so that the game continues.

   Now is the time to establish unquestioned control to teach him to run lines and handle and develop his marking. But the game has only begun, he will never forget the lessons learned when he was a youngster, and the bonding between the two of you developed in the field will be enhanced significantly.

    You better get to it, because eventually you are going to want to dizzy pigeons and let him find and flush them from cover. You can shoot them or use homers repeatedly as he learns that he can't catch birds that fly off. You can teach him to "sit" when a bird flushes by developing it from the "sit whistle" that he will learn when being taught to run lines and cast. You still have a long road ahead, but you are already a leg up toward developing him into a super hunting companion!

 The End