First Hunting Season
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:40 pm
Well I have ventured into my first year hunting with a dog. I envy you guys that can really train dogs. My pup is a year and almost 9 months old and after working hard this summer on obedience, steadiness, gun training, marking, lining and a little bit of handling I decided it was time to let him tag along this year. I thought early goose would be a decent way to break him in a little. We had a field that was holding a few geese but I would not call it a prime spot. I didn't really expect him to pick up a goose (although I hoped he would give it his best attempt) but I really just wanted to try and give him some excitement and work on steadiness and obedience. The first hunt my wife and I took him and he did really good when things were happening. He stayed in his blind when the geese were working, was quiet and watching for his mark. It was when things were slow what proved to be the tough part. Hard to convince a young pup to lay down in his blind rather than go explore a field. We had geese work and one come in however, we missed. I was thrilled that he never broke and the look on his face when nothing dropped for a mark was priceless. Well over the week, a few more geese had found the little field we had permission to hunt. There was a nice spot on the edge of the field that provided good cover and I constructed a little make shift blind this morning so that I could be right next to him. I had planned on not shooting and letting the friend I was with do all the shooting so I could just concentrate on the pup. Well he did much better this morning with staying his blind (he and I have been just sitting in the backyard all week watching the sky using it) and would pop out for a quick look but never hesitated and as soon as I told him kennel. Well we had a group of 15 do it right. Again he stayed quiet and in his blind and let them work right in. I let my buddy start shooting but when I saw that he was staying in his blind, I joined in on the action. (the hunter inside took over) We dropped 5 geese and when the last 1 fell, to my disappointment he had broke and got about 10 feet out of his blind. He came right back into a heal when I called him back. He didn't actually pick any up but he did drag one a little ways back to me. I kind of figured having never seen a goose or a live bird (we had two that were still twitching) that this was coming and not really all that disappointed in but rather used it as an introduction. What I was disappointed in was the lack of him being able to get back under control when he got all fired up. At this point he wasn't wanting to stay in the blind at all anymore just quick in and quick out to go out and check things out and it was a battle that I think he won. That was it for his morning at that point. I knew this coming and know that he is going to make mistakes which may cost me a couple of birds this year but if any of you dog guys have any advice on the first hunting season for a pup I would appreciate hearing it.