Where's the Fire?

Where's the Fire?

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  

Within less than a 30-minute drive from my home, I am very fortunate to have three of Idaho's wildlife management areas. These WMAs are sizeable public hunting properties where, on a regular weekly schedule throughout the season, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game releases substantial numbers of pheasants. Needless to say, I take advantage of their "generosity" for training my dogs on live birds as often as possible. 

I have discovered that by frequenting these public hunting areas, you come to recognize the "regulars" - certain vehicles or hunters you see over and over. For a couple of years, I have noticed a particular hunter at a distance across the fields - instantly recognizable in his bright orange hat and an orange hunting vest that has faded to a rather distinctive shade of light pink. But even considering all of the days each season that I spend walking the fields at the WMAs, I had never actually crossed paths with this hunter. 

The week following the pheasant opener, I checked the bird-release schedule and, figuring that there wouldn't be many hunters on a weekday, thought it would be a good time to take one of my dogs and chase some birds around on the WMA property. There was only one other truck in the parking area. That's always a good sign - it was like my own private hunting club, having the place almost to myself! Several-hundred yards from the entrance, a narrow, single-board bridge crosses a fast flowing irrigation ditch. I have never had a dog opt to stay dry and take the bridge rather than the water route for crossing the ditch, and today was no exception. 

But before I could walk the half dozen or so steps across the bridge, my male Chesapeake was out of the water on the other side and visiting nose to tail with a nice, small, female yellow Labrador. And right behind her, walking as fast as his legs would carry him, was the guy in the orange hat and pink vest, soaked with sweat and wearing ... cowboy boots. Yep, pointed-toe, leather-soled cowboy boots - without, from what I could see, even the slightest hint of any kind of tread. 

I couldn't pass on this chance opportunity, so I struck up a conversation (I really wanted to ask about hunting in those boots). I told him he had a nice-looking dog and asked if he had found any birds. He said he had only been there for about an hour and hadn't flushed any birds but followed it up by saying that he hadn't covered the entire property yet. (By the way, this WMA is about 1,200 acres of every kind of varying cover imaginable!) He did volunteer that his Labrador was a remarkable hunter, but sometimes flushed birds out of range and always wanted to hunt way ahead of him. And that caused him to have to go faster just to stay with her. Then he repeated the "magic words" that I have heard so many times over the years: "If I can keep up with her, she'll find the birds!"

Wow - if I hear this once, I hear it at least a dozen  times every pheasant season. Along with, "Boy, I sure have trouble keeping my dog close when we are hunting pheasants." These are the two comments that tell me that their dogs are hunting for themselves and not hunting for the hunte5.

Hunting out of range shows a lack of communication between the hunter and his dog. The faster you move along, the faster the dog will go, which is not conducive to thoroughly hunting a field and intercepting bird scent. This needn't be a footrace or a competition with other hunters to see how quickly you can cover a field. Dogs that are "pushed" along at a high rate of speed tend to overrun and miss the birds that might be hunkered down along the edges or in deep cover. Of course, there will be times that he will get too far and you'll have to call him back or stop him from chasing birds. But once your dog has achieved even the most elementary level of basic field training, if he constantly ranges too far ahead, it is almost always your fault.

To keep a dog in range when hunting upland birds, we need to go all the way back to some basics that play on the dog's instinct not to want to be left behind. Try this little experiment. Take your dog for a walk in a field without any major distractions - in other words, not a school field with other dogs, joggers, people playing ball, or kids on swings. Ant not fields where you have done a lot of previous training, run drills, thrown marks, etc. Find a new, safe field and let your dog get out in front of you exploring, and then walk directly toward him at an increasingly faster pace. The more you press him, the faster he moves away, right? Now stop dead in your tracks and stand absolutely still, not paying the least bit of attention to him - even try looking off in another direction. I'll bet within a short period, he stops his forward progress and remains at a safe distance hunting or exploring, or even works his way back toward you.

Without so much as a word, turn 180 degrees and walk off in the opposite direction without looking back. Where's your dog? He's probably rapidly closing behind you and will soon be back out in front, heading off in your new direction. You haven't hollered at him, blown a whistle, shocked him, or forced him to stay with you, you have controlled his movements by using his natural instinct to want to stick with you - the leader.

Let me tell you what has happened here: You have been silently training (read that as "influencing") your dog to keep an eye on you and silently communicating to him that it is his responsibility to stay with you - because it is obvious that you aren't going to stay with him. You are clearly establishing yourself in the leadership position, and his instincts tell him that he must follow your lead or get lost - wo when you turn and walk away, he turns and follows, Well, keeping a dog in range when upland hunting follows the same principles and is no more difficult if you have established yourself as the leader of his pack early on.

I'll be the first to admit that perhaps a real "barnburner" may need a sit-whistle or come-in whistle, or even a nick from an e-collar on occasion to remind him that you are still there and in charge or to stop him from cha fast-flying rooster into the next county. An older dog that has already learned how to control his owner may take quite a bit of time to get in tune with what is expected of him. After all, just like people, older dogs can be pretty set in their ways and likely already assumed the position of pack leader by manipulating their owners. So expect an older dog to try to do all of the controlling in the beginning, because that is what he has learned to do over the years. But if you start this with a youngster. a significant measure of your control of the distance at which your dog hunts ahead of you can come as a result of manipulating his instinctive tendencies to want to stick with you and follow your lead. 

When both of you are working as a hunting team and your dog is hunting for you rather than hunting for himself, you can assertively command, "Hunt 'em up" or, "Get in there" and cast him into a particular stand of cover. Then you will also begin learning to read your dog's body language telling you that he has encountered a cone of scent arid is driving toward its source for a flush. 

On the other hand, if his body language tells you that his concentration is directed at driving toward the scent and he begins to chase the scent of a runner beyond what you consider to be effectiye range (assuming that he understands the sit-whistle to stop him and get him under control), you might as well use your sit-whistle rather than risk t1ushing a bird out of range. Use your whistle command to stop him from chasing the bird while you move in closer and find a clear spot for a shot before telling him again to, "Hunt 'em up" and allowing him to continue the search. 

So the answer to a dog continually hunting out of range is for you to slow down, which will cause your dog to slow down and check back toward you. Remember the techniques: You might just stop, or turn and walk in the opposite direction, or blow your come-in whistle to have him work back toward you. And if you find that you need to 
move closer when he is in hot pursuit of a moving bird, stop him completely with your sit-whistle while you move in for a better shot. The worst thing you can do is chase along behind him when he gets too far out in front; he will continue to move even faster and farther ahead until you have pushed him well out of effective gun range. 

And just in case you were wondering, I never was able to ask that fellow about hunting in those cowboy boots, because just as quickly as he appeared, he said, "Well, good luck today," and he was off at aerobic speed, with his Labrador leading the way. Watching him disappear into the brush was suggestive of watching one of those power walkers we've seen on TV. I was tired just thinking about trying to cover all of that distance across fields and through cover in leather-soled cowboy boots. But someday, he'll probably slow down enough that I'll run into him again and if he is wearing those boots, I'll ask about them. If I do, I'll let you know what he says .•