A goose dog's success isn't measured by his making the perfect retrieve as much as it is by his making the tough retrieve.

Mutha Goose!

It ain't no fairy tale.

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  
The Retriever Journal Dec./Jan.  2005

Some time back, when I happened to mention to my friend, Paul MacKinnon, who lives on Prince Edward Island, Canada, that I was going to write about the traits and dog must have versus those necessary for a duck dog, he was quick to give me his thoughts. "It’s really pretty simple," Paul volunteered. "A goose dog, if he is going to be consistently dependable, must always be 'playing offense.' There is no 'playing defense' when dealing with geese - especially crippled Canada geese."

  Then, to emphasize his point, Paul went on to relate a story of the dog that he hunted over when he was a teenager. "The dog’s name was Champ, and he belonged to my best friend. Champ was a big, blocky Labrador. The first time I shot geese with him, we had two or three cripples down in the field and Champ would literally run out and slam them head-on, running right over the top of them. I hunted with that dog quite often over the years and I never witnessed a goose ever put up a fight with Champ. He just knew what do with those huge birds; he never gave them a chance. Champ was always playing offense. He was the reason that I bought my first retriever!"

  Paul and the other Prince Edward Island hunters know a little something about the traits of Canada geese and what is expected of a reliable goose dog. Paul is a very knowledgeable hunting dog trainer, and PEI is a major stopover for an estimated 50,000 Canada geese each year moving south from Labrador and Newfoundland. PEI is considered to be one of the Maritimes - one of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces, - located north and east of Maine, population of about 140,000 hardy souls living on an island that is only about 30 miles wide and 175 miles long. The only ground access is via a seven-mile-long bridge from New Brunswick or by ferry. Best known for its potatoes, fishing, tourism, and waterfowl hunting, PEI is surrounded by saltwater marshes and large shallow bays, which (along with the potato fields) are magnets for the migrating ducks and geese. 

  "One way to sum up how I feel about a goose dog’s training," Paul went on "is that he must be taught everything in the way of obedience and retrieving skills that a duck dog must know - but more. He will often be asked to work harder retrieving the big birds, especially when hunting in water - and moving
water, such as a river or the tidal areas just intensifies the problems. A goose dog may be required to go out farther to follow a running or swimming cripple, and must to be confidant and bold enough to possibly engage in a battle with a tough old bird.

  "Many of those are traits that can’t be taught; they have to come from his breeding, from his genetics. It has to come from inside. I also feel that most experienced goose dogs are more likely to have somewhat of an independent nature they are dogs that seem to display kind of a ‘swagger of confidence.'"

  Paul continued, "One trait that I have found necessary in great goose dogs is that they are capable of remaining calm. He must feel comfortable sitting or lying alongside a blind or pit for hours, knowing that he may not be called on to work all the while hearing and seeing geese moving around and hearing the calling and shots in the distance.

  "Similarly, there is also a much higher level of trained steadiness that is necessary for a goose dog versus a duck dog, especially when shooting out of a pit When geese have their wings set and are committed to land, they look huge and are very noisy, especially when they are right on top of you in the hole - imagine how a retriever must feel when lying there with these huge birds making a tremendous racket only a few feet above his head. This is where an inherently calm retriever that is trained to remain steady is an absolute must - because when [hunters are] shooting from a pit, the dog can be just about at shotgun level.

  "There is also a different level of confidence necessary when a retriever is expected to handle a wounded goose - as opposed to ducks because of the bird’s size combined with its often aggressive behavior. And this is magnified when the bird is in the water because the dog is in the bird’s element. Ducks will dive and crawl off into the weeds - you can train a dog to work on ducks that dive or to track scent into the cover, but ducks won’t generally turn on a dog and fight back.

  "That is why it can be disastrous to a young or inexperienced retriever if he is sent after a wounded goose and the bird turns on him. It might be a long time before the dog gets his confidence back. Some may never want to retrieve a goose, ever again. Sure, a rooster [pheasant] will use his spurs, but that is nothing compared with a wounded goose that is beating at a dog with his wings, hissing, and trying to nip him in the face. Retrievers do not get that kind of a fight from any other gamebird - not even close. I can’t think of any other gamebird, except maybe a crane, that will stand eye-to-eye with a dog and fight back!"

  Paul concludes, "In thinking about it, much of the basic training is with goose dogs and duck dogs. You know, such things as teaching them to be obedient and respond to commands, teaching them to be steady, teaching them to mark and to take a line and handle.

  "But it is really important to introduce a young or inexperienced retriever to geese correctly - in other words, make sure that the birds are dead before sending him to make the retrieve. And it is important that retrieving confidence be developed at a young age and that nothing is done to undermine that self-confidence. Puppies will pick up live ducks and pheasants - but geese are different. There is really no way to train a dog for his first confrontation with a wounded goose - it comes with confidence and on-the-job training."

 In reviewing what Paul had told me, I was reminded that in addition to what he said about teaching a solid obedience and steadiness training program, it is probably a smart plan to throw a healthy dose of oversized bumpers for a potential goose-hunting candidate. That way he can learn to handle the larger physical size of a goose. But learning to carrying the extra-large size might be the easiest part of the retrieve! And that is where a retriever’s perseverance, self-confidence and determination from his breeding show through.

  Paul’s comments also brought to mind the advice that someone passed along many years ago when I was hunting Canada geese on the Colorado River with one of my young Chesapeakes. He said, "Be sure to shoot ‘em all the way to the water, and then if their heads are still up, sluice ‘em dead on the water before you send your dog to make a retrieve. The river is tough enough for a young dog to try to figure out, but a fight with a wounded goose while swimming in moving water just makes things tougher - if not downright dangerous."

  Another friend, Mike Ernst, is a professor at the University of Iowa but manages to divide his goose hunting between Iowa and Saskatchewan. I also asked Mike if he would give me his thoughts on the traits and training necessary for a goose dog. And I was amazed at how what he had to say seemed to mirror Paul almost exactly.

  "‘Tenacious’ and ‘resilient’ are two words that immediately come to mind when talking about both geese and trained steadiness and goose dogs," Mike said. "In my opinion, a good candidate to be a goose dog must either have it in his genes or he doesn’t, just like most other requirements of a hunting dog. The foundation is all in the breeding, but I think from a training standpoint, there are still some things you can do to help increase likelihood for success, like teaching a dog to lie down and remain motionless when geese are overhead.

  "I also feel that a retriever that is versatile enough to hunt geese may need to be somewhat more independent than a duck dog. He needs to be more self-reliant and able to do his job with-out expecting continual directions or corrections from the hunter - but not to the point of being disobedient. Obviously, a goose dog’s training still needs to be strong on obedience, but I think there will be more times when hunting geese that just the act of chasing down a cripple and bringing it back will suffice more than expecting a perfect delivery to hand. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think it is more important that the goose dog be taught to make the tough retrieve rather than drilled and re-drilled on making the perfect retrieve.

 "How do you train for all of this?" Mike continues. "Well, I favor solid obedience training followed by teaching steadiness to marks and gunfire. Then I teach a variety of difficult marks, followed by lining drills and some handling. I follow all of this with some on-the-job training sessions where I let my friends do the shooting and I play dog trainer for a few trips. There may he more appropriate and better methods, but I sure haven’t found them."

  So, here we have the thoughts of two avid and highly successful goose hunters. Located about half a continent apart, their ideas about the innate character of goose dogs and their training is virtually identical. I think that Paul’s comment about how a dependable goose dog must always be "playing offense" hits the nail squarely on the head. And Mike’s use of the words "tenacious" and "resilient" to describe both the goose dog and the goose is absolutely on target.

  All that I can add to what they have already said is to offer up this tired old cliché to try to sum things up: When it comes to goose dogs, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog!

  Happy hunting.