Preserve Training 

This dog, in pursuit of a rooster, is learning to sit to the whistle to allow the hunter to catch up to him so that he doesn't flush the bird out of gun range. A handy skill to know when the game turns wild. As you can see, he's not quite there yet.

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  

I bet that over the years, I have heard almost every excuse imaginable from "purist hunters" who don't like hunt clubs where live birds are released. Some say that pen-raised birds hold too tightly because they are accustomed to being around humans. Others believe that the birds don't hold tightly enough; they believe that released birds have a tendency to run too much. Another is that pen-raised birds don't flush and fly as aggressively as wild birds. I have even heard that because birds are released or planted and the same property is hunted repeatedly, there is too much bird scent and too much dog and human scent - and the dogs get confused! 

I'm probably missing some, too. But I have learned to ignore those because I know the value of a hunting club. I know their value for teaching young dogs to find birds and developing their "bird sense." I know a club's value for tuning up and exercising an experienced dog (and his owner) early in the season; and I know their value for getting some good work for a veteran dog or hunter who might not be able to easily handle the rigors of wild-bird hunting anymore. And perhaps most importantly, I know a bird club's value for developing a keen working relationship between a hunter and his dog: The hunter learns to "read" his dog's actions, and the dog learns the limits of his freedom and what is expected of him when he's hunting wild, where the field is bigger, the birds aren't nearly as plentiful and the pressure is on. 

There are probably some waterfowl hunters reading this who are thinking, Well, this isn't for me because I don't hunt any upland birds with my retriever. Sorry, but you couldn't be further from the truth. Even if you will never use your dog to hunt wild upland birds, some time spent at a club working on released birds will get both of you in shape and enhance your retriever's natural hunting and bird-locating abilities, which will pay dividends when your dog is searching for hidden or crippled ducks. 

On the surface, waterfowl hunting and upland hunting may seem pretty different. Waterfowling requires unquestioned steadiness and a relationship of tremendous control between the hunter and his dog. Upland hunting, on the other hand, dictates that a dog's innate bird-seeking abilities must be developed to be successful. In actuality, a successful retriever must possess both control training and superior bird-seeking abilities. That is the benefit of training on a hunting club: You can use live birds to develop that fine line in your dog's training between unquestioned control and the self-confidence to think for himself. 

Trust me: Most dogs would rather have a bird than a bumper any day. And if you contact a bird club on one of its "off days" - a day when there are fewer clients in the field - you might be able to work out a deal where, rather than releasing the birds prior to you coming out, the club will supply you with pheasants or chukars in a crate to take out into their fields and use for training. You would probably have to pay the same price for the birds and likely even have to be a member of the club if it's private, but this way you can have a friend or helper plant the birds one at a time before you bring your dog up to find and flush them. Most bird club owners are "dog guys" and if you explain to them that you are more interested in training your dog than in a "quality bird-hunting experience," they'll probably understand what you want to do and work with you. 

I am a member of a nearby hunting club, and I have an understanding with the owner that if I come out on specific days and times, the owner will supply me with birds in a crate, give me a field across the road from his main hunting areas, and allow me to train without interruption for as long as I need to stay. By making an arrangement of this kind, it will give you access to some occasional fresh ground to train on and a place for working your dog on live birds in a fairly realistic hunting situation. 

Now, of course it isn't wild hunting, but let's face facts, here: Most of us, in wild-bird situations, put training on the back burner. We don't drive to South Dakota and then ignore the cloud of pheasants rising around us in order to work on niceties like sitting to flush. We just don't. In order to properly train our dogs for the field, we need to at some point spend time with them in a hunting-like but not true hunting situation. That's what shooting preserves give us the opportunity to do. True, these places aren't South Dakota; but they aren't a mowed lawn with bumpers, either. 

Clubs are also great for actual set-up training, the sort that most of us don't have the facilities - birds, acreage, and maybe the right state licenses - to do on our own. When I'm training at a club, I like to have my helpers disorient or dizzy the birds somewhat before they put them out in the cover. By doing that, I can expect the bird to be in the spot or close to the spot they were planted when I hunt the area. Each species of bird has different characteristics, and each requires a somewhat different technique for planting. Some birds are strong and quite difficult to control and plant. Others are relatively fragile and, if overhandled, can be killed. It takes some practice to plant live birds - practice that I, honestly, believe borders somewhat on being an art. 

Pheasants are the most popular bird on a hunting club. For the purposes of training, they can either be dizzied and planted, or they can simply have the head tucked under their wing and placed in cover with their full body weight down on that wing. To assure that they will stay in place, my preferred technique for planting roosters is a combination of the two. I spin the bird (pheasants are a two-handed operation and can require aggressive spinning to disorient them), and, when I see that he has lost his sense of equilibrium, I tuck his head under his wing, placing him down on that wing in fairly heavy cover. Then, staying a good distance away from the bird's location (you really have to be aware of the wind when doing this), tell your dog to, "Hunt 'em up," "Get in there," "Dig 'em out," or whatever command you use and gesture him into the cover. Give the dog a few minutes to slowly work his way toward the bird. When your dog's body language tells you that he has encountered a cone of scent and is driving toward its source, closing in for the flush, the pheasant should be up and moving, ready to fly. 

I feel that chukars are really one of the best all-around birds for training flushing dogs. Chukars are very exciting when they flush and are not bad-tempered like rooster pheasants, which makes them safer to use around young dogs. Still, chukars can be a bit fragile when handled roughly. Training with chukars requires a good and very responsible shooter because they like to run and will dig into deep cover to hide; but when they're pressed to flush by a dog, they'll jump, take off low, and fly like a rocket, often hugging only a few feet above the ground and turning corners quite quickly. Wild chukars often tend to fly downhill, and pen-raised chukars show many of the same tendencies. Once they get airborne, their natural instincts tell them to turn and head downhill as quickly as possible. 

Chukars are among the easiest birds to plant, and you can be pretty sure that they will remain in that area. To plant a chukar, hold the bird in one hand lying on his back with his wings held firmly against his body. Pull both of his feet to stretch his legs straight out behind him, and hold them that way for about 30 seconds or so. When the bird kind of falls asleep, gently place him down in cover on his back with his head underneath his body, and move away.  When he wakes up after about a minute or so, he will generally hang around right where he was placed, giving more than sufficient time to hunt the dog into the area and provide a strong and hard flush - generally in the direction that the chukar was facing when you put him down. 

Before concluding this, I have to pass along a funny story about training on a bird club. One day after training on the local club, my helpers and I went back to the main clubhouse to settle up the 
bill, and the owner was chuckling about what one of his hunting clients had told him. It seems that the hunter had been watching the three of us in the field; I was working the dogs and carrying a blank pistol. One of my helpers was carrying a shotgun, and the other was a considerable distance ahead with an ATV, planting the birds. The plan was, when the dog put the bird up, if he sat or stood steady as he had been trained, my helper with the shotgun would kill the bird. If the dog broke to chase the flushing bird, I would shoot in the air with the blank pistol and let the bird fly off so that we could make a correction to get the dog to be steady next time. 

Well, it seems that the owner had been told that there were these guys in the field and that one of them had a shotgun but the other guy was shooting at birds with a handgun. The owner's answer was, "Yeah, he does that all the time; he's a really good shot." I don't know if the hunter ever figured it out or not. 

Try to think of tuning up your dog on a hunting club as another "tool" in your training bag. No, clubs are not "the real thing" - but for my money, the positives far out-weigh the negatives, and even the most hardcoreepurist wild-bird hunters and their dogs will benefit from the time, effort, and money spent on a bird club.