written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  
The Retriever Journal Jun./Jul.  2004

n the 1970s, when I finally settled down in a place where I could have a dog to recover my birds out of the Colorado River, one of the first training books that I bought was Hunting Dog Know-How, written in 1965 by David Michael Duffy. That old book, full of a wealth of practical training advice, is still in pretty good shape and still on my bookshelf. Long ago, I underlined many of the more important paragraphs in the book in red, and there are even some crudely drawn stars along with notes written in the margins and brackets around some of the paragraphs. But one passage that repeatedly seems to jump out at me nearly every time I open the hook, reads:

   A dog must trust you. So don’t fool him. Don’t ever send him out with a command to retrieve if there’s nothing there for him to fetch. Don’t tell him, "Birds, birds, hunt ‘em out" in a place devoid of game. Do these things only when there is an object to retrieve (and make sure he gets it even if it means guiding him out to it, or when you know there is a bird or scent in the cover.

If he’s never been fooled, it’s remarkable how quickly a dog will associate the excited urgency of the command with the thing or things he gets praised for and will redouble his efforts to seek and produce.

   You know, regardless of the high level of sophistication that training equipment and the associated training have achieved over the past four decades, those two paragraphs still hold water today. Successful retriever training is, in large measure, a direct result of mutual trust and respect between the trainer and his dog. And it doesn’t really matter whether it’s in training a field trial or hunt test competitor, or a retriever to hunt the fields and sit in the duck blind - mutual trust is vital to success.

   A large part of a hunting breed’s training, starting from a very young age, is dependent upon trusting a human. Youngsters learn early on that they can trust someone to feed them and introduce them to unusual surroundings, people, noises, sights, and smells. And it is during this foundation of socialization and this developmental period that all future training is built upon the dog’s trusting a human to not lie to him.

   As his training progresses, tasks such as blind retrieves are heavily contingent upon that trust that has developed over time between the dog and trainer; the dog must trust the trainer that a reward is waiting at the end of the line. He puts his trust in the fact that when he is sent off in an unknown direction - even though he hasn’t seen anything fall - that his trainer knows something is out there to retrieve; and if he follows directions, he will be rewarded. Similarly, every time a competitor walks to the line in a field trial or hunt test, he must have the trust of his dog to turn his will over and allow the handler to guide him to the bird.

Reading your dog’s actions and recognizing when he encounters a scent cone is invaluable in building mutual trust

ut trust isn’t simply a one-way street. Dogs quickly pick up on the vibes coming from trainers who don’t have confidence in their dog’s abilities to perform a task correctly. If the handler doesn’t trust his dog to perform what is presented to him, it’s likely they won’t be successful. Trainers have to believe in their dogs. They have to trust them to sit steady, trust that they will mark birds and go straight to them as taught, and they have to believe in a dog’s nose and that he will use it to find crippled or dead birds that have been downed in difficult cover. And the only way to develop that high level of trust, proficiency, and self-confidence is through practice and experience. Continual hammering or hacking verbally or with a whistle will ultimately erode the dog’s belief in the handler’s trust in him.

Blind retrieves are contingent upon the dogs trusting the trainer about the fact that there will be a reward waiting at the end of the line.

   Whether entered in competition or placed in a hunting situation, all hunting breeds are expected to have self-control; be capable of thinking for themselves; and, when the need arises, willingly take orders under the total control of the handler. Self- confidence, resilience, and a degree of toughness are paramount among the qualities expected of the hunting breeds, and these come from develop­ing the dog’s innate character. For these inherent qualities to be fully realized, the dog-trainer team must believe in, trust in, and respect each other. So, as a trainer, it becomes your responsibility to do all that von can to develop a working partnership with your dog to bring these traits to fruition.

   As the trainer begins to achieve this mutual trust and respect, he begins communicating what is expected of his dog in training and gains the ability to begin to recognize what the dog is telling him through his actions - learning to "read" his dog. He gains the ability to distinguish between when the dog is truly catching on and learning, and when he is simply going through the motions. This is immediately recognizable by watching the dog’s eves and what his body language is communicating. Dogs always convey what they are about to do and how they feel about the situation through their eyes and body language; the message may be subtle, but it is always there.

Pups learn from a very young age that they can trust someone to feel and socialize with them.

   Over the years, I have watched a great number of upland and waterfowl hunters who are largely ignorant of their dog’s body language when he encounters the scent of a live bird or is on the trail of a cripple. They call the dog off of a hot scent trail that he is following or away from the area where he believes a cripple is hiding because the hunter thinks that a likely piece of cover looks more inviting. In short, they don’t trust their dog. They think that they know more about birds than their dog does. And, as we have all had happen, after declaring that the bird is lost, often the dog goes hack to the original area and recovers it!

   It doesn’t matter whether someone is a waterfowl hunter or an upland bird hunter, at some point every hunting dog is going to have to use its nose to find a bird buried in cover. Learning to read a dog’s actions and recognize when he encounters "hot spots" or cones of scent emitted by these hidden birds is invaluable to building mutual trust. The easiest way to teach yourself to recognize your dog’s birdiness is by closely watching him as he trails live birds planted or released in a field. A dog working into the wind in the field gives off signals, and it is up to you to learn to recognize what his actions are saying. And recognizing those signals and actions, learning to concentrate on reading your dog, and maintaining good eye and mental contact with your dog is a significant step toward estab­lishing a mutual working relationship of trust and respect between you and your hunting retriever. Your dog is learning to use his nose in tracking crippled birds during these training situations; you’re learning to recognize your dog’s behavior when he picks up scent. Training - just like trust - is also a two-way street.

   So, to summarize in a few words what Dave Duffy wrote more than three decades ago: Believe in your dog. Don’t ever lie to him, and he will never lie to you. ‘Thust in him, and don’t ever do anything that will undermine his trust in you.

   And don’t overlook letting him know when he has done a good job.