# Field Hunting with a young dog



## MLahr (Nov 17, 2010)

I have a 15 month old lab I brought out goose hunting for the first time. The dog is stead like a rock in the yard training but once we had birds coming in he went nuts :bop:. Last fall i hunted mostly pheasants with him so he hasn't had alot of experience with waterfowl hunting. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on to stead him better, I did borrow a dog blind from a friend and am going to training him to use that with the "kennel" command. I didn't expect alot out of him for his first goose hunt but now I know what I have to work on..

Thanks,


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

I have a 10 month old that I will be "training" this year too. I will be working the dog, while my friends do the hunting.


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## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

You said he's steady as a rock in the yard, but doing what? Just laying there until you give a command? If so, that dog needs to get worked on birds. 
One season of pheasant hunting does nothing for steadiness in a blind. Get yourself some pigeons and then work on kenneling the dog. Tie a block of wood to a couple pigeons' legs and let them out in the yard in front of the dog. Make then dog stay put while you pick up the birds and let them fly and flutter. Eventually, you should be able to transition from your yard out to a field or something. Do the same thing, the introduce a cap gun. Make the dog stay! When the pooch doesn't move for anything, THEN you can let him retrieve one of the birds as his reward for staying put.


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## SDOutdoorsman (Mar 9, 2009)

The first few times you go you will want to concentrate on training your dog while your buddies shoot the birds. First time I took my dog field hunting out of his dog blind I put his blind very close to my blind so I could talk to him and while birds were working and remiding him to kennel (which was the command i gave him to go in his blind). When my buddies shot I continued to say kennel and was ready with the shot collar to correct him if needed. I think I was pretty lucky because it only took a couple flocks of birds coming in and my buddies shooting for him to understand what I wanted him to do and then he has been perfect ever since. Once he was steady I moved his blind back about ten yards behind us so he had a better view to mark birds infront of him.

Definetly something you want to work on right away though. Nothing bothers me worse than hunting with guys that dont have a steady dog. It sucks when after your first shot you have to worry about shooting the dog or even worse the dogs jumps before the birds have finished and before you even shoot.


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## MLahr (Nov 17, 2010)

Thanks for the advice, I'll try some birds in the back yard..


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## duckjunky (Mar 8, 2007)

Don't forget to make sure those geese are dead before you send that young dog. I've seen a couple young dogs that are goose shy cause they made their first hunting retrieve on a cripple. Good Luck.


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