Dogs are very often used for hunting, but you can’t just go out and find any dog. Instead, you should know a couple of basics before even choosing a dog to train.
But how do you actually train your hunting dog? It’s a process of different steps and actions to prepare the dog for the hunting situations, gain their trust, and ensure they respond to your commands.
If you’re thinking of investing your time and efforts in training your puppy – this is the right post to read as we will explain the training process in simple steps anyone can follow.
At What Age Should You Start Training a Hunting Dog and How Long Does it Take?
Hunting dogs are supposed to be trained as puppies anywhere between 8 to 11 months. However, some tips you can find in this post will require you to start implementing them with your dog as soon as possible.
Training a hunting dog takes approximately 4 months to complete the basic training. This is plenty of time for obedience training, force breaking your dog, and teaching him to quarter in the field, along with working to the whistle and laying steady at the duck blind.
And if you’re wondering how to train your hunting dog – let’s jump right into the post!
How to Train Your Hunting Dog?
As we’ve mentioned earlier, even before you start training your dog – it’s important to find the right breed and start young. Therefore, we’re jumping straight into the breed information before starting with the actual training steps.
Bread Choice
When it comes down to choosing a breed, you will have to choose any dog breed of water dogs. The most popular hunting dog breeds are:
- Labrador Retrievers
- Golden Retrievers
- Springer Spaniels
When choosing a bread, you should make sure to research each bread and choose a bread that suits your needs the most.
We recommend you to pay special attention to the amount of care the particular breed requires as well. Also, bread can tell you a lot about a dog’s personality – and while some dog breeds require a lot of fun and play, other bread types are simply sedentary.
Proper Dog Age
As mentioned earlier, the best age to train your hunting dog is between 8 to 11 months. However, the sooner you get your desired hunting dog – the better it is.
Because you will be required to introduce the dog to water as soon as possible, among a couple of other things.
Therefore, it’s important to find the perfect breed straight away so you can have plenty of time to find a dog.
Introduce it to the Water
The sooner you are able to introduce the puppy to water, the better the results will be. You should make sure that puppies find water fun and good for them.
One way to do this is to initiate games in water (preferably pool) where they can earn rewards for swimming or performing tasks.
Sooner than you know it, your dog will be ready for open water.
Teach Your Dog The Basics
The training should start by teaching your puppy the basic commands such as sit and stay. Even though they might seem as cliche – they’re necessary as a fundamental part of the training before making a step to more important lessons.
Using food is one of the easiest ways to teach a dog to sit. All you have to do is hold it over the dog’s head and give the command as you gently press dog’s hind legs – making it sit down.
And as soon as the dog sits – you should reward it by giving it a treat. Then, all you have to do is repeat the process over and over again until the dog sits by itself on the first glance of a treat.
Eventually, your dog will end up sitting without requiring a treat.
Introduce Decoys
Just as important is getting the dogs used to the water, it’s important to teach your dog the difference between a real duck and a decoy.
Using dummies to train your dog is the easiest way to do it, and you can utilize waterfowl scent to help with the learning process.
Practice Often & Reward Positive Behavior
Training is supposed to be fun and if you make it a rewarding experience for the dog – they’ll love to get trained.
Ideally, you’d want to practice daily the most basic commands and you should never forget to reward positive behavior – as it’s an important part of the training.
Expose a Dog to Hunting Situations
When you believe your dog is almost ready, you should expose it to hunting situations before actually taking it to the field.
This is necessary because you want to ensure that the theory training works well in the field. Specifically, you should get your dog used around the guns. Ideally, you could take him to a gun range since you want him to get used to the situation.
This will help your dog perform at peak performance in the field. Using dummies along the way will help as well.
Boat Training
You should teach your dog how to get inside a boat and out, but also how to jump in the water, retrieve dummies from the water, and how to safely return to the boat.
Never let the dog rock the boat and make sure that he listens and responds to your commands. You never know when you might end up hunting on a boat, but when you do – you want your dog to be prepared for the situation.
Conclusion
The basic goal of the dog training is to ensure he gets the bird and retrieves it. Therefore, using dummy to train your dog and making sure you reward him after each successful run is the most ideal way to train your dog.
It’s also one of the easiest ways to do it – no matter how simple it is. In fact, you should keep things simple and try not to overcomplicate things.
And of course, don’t forget the treats! Treats won’t only help you train your dog consistently and methodically, but it will also ensure the dog is having fun.
If you’ve read the post until the end, by now, you should know how to train your hunting dog and prepare it for your hunting trips!
