Training gun dogs to work through and around duck and goose decoys

from California Sportsman Mag - February 2022

HOW SACRAMENTO SALMON RECOVERY PLAN WAS HATCHED

When it comes to retrieving ducks on water, educating your dog to not only negotiate decoys, but also jerk cords and anchor lines, is important. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

TRAINING DOGS ABOUT DEKES

By Scott Haugen

With a solid duck season behind us, waterfowlers are gearing up for late goose hunting in some California zones. And with any form of waterfowl hunting comes the use of decoys. Getting a new dog used to decoys is important; even familiarizing them with sizes and numbers of changing spreads is a good idea, no matter how experienced they are.

If you have a new pup, the process of training it to work around decoys starts with familiarizing the dog with toys at 8 weeks of age, followed by soft bumpers, then hard bumpers as their adult teeth come in. This education will make for a smooth transition into decoy work.

WHEN INTRODUCING YOUR PUP to decoys,

start on land. Show them a decoy, string and weight. As soon as the pup takes interest in water, toss a couple decoys into a shallow place so they can wade and explore. If they bite a decoy, stop them and toss a bumper to the pup to redirect its attention.

Once the pup fetches the bumper a couple times, toss it past the decoys so the dog has to wade beyond them. Eventually you can add a few more decoys, then move to deeper water where the pup must swim through a small spread to get the bumper.

Think of all the places you’ll potentially hunt over decoys, be it geese in coming weeks or next fall for ducks. Envision the spreads and riggings and how your dog will negotiate them. You may be hunting over decoys of various shapes, sizes and numbers, in shallow ponds, lakes, creeks, rivers, bays or an array of fields. You might have six duck decoys in a small ditch, or 75 dozen goose decoys tightly packed in a green grassy field. Whatever the situation, prepare your dog to confidently retrieve in the decoys.

Of course, there’s no need to put out 75 dozen cackler or snow goose windsock decoys just to train your dog; a dozen will do. Tightly position them and walk your pup through the decoys with a bumper in its mouth. Toss bumpers around and into the spread so the dog has to run through the decoys, making contact with them. As

Echo, author Scott Haugen’s 8-year-old pudelpointer, has been on hundreds of waterfowl hunts, but this was her first with magnum honker decoys in the spread. She was so distracted by the big shells that she didn’t focus on the hunt until Haugen took time to familiarize her with them. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

the retrieves progress, switch to a duck dummy, then a goose dummy as your pup grows. You might strap wings to the dummy so there are moving parts to make it realistic.

THE MORE FAMILIAR YOUR dog gets

with swimming around and through several types of decoys, the better. As you’ll quickly discover, the priority is not to differentiate a decoy from a bird (or bumper), because dogs are smart and quickly make that distinction. What you want is the pup to get used to chasing ducks around decoys, where tangles are possible.

Last season I hunted a shallow pond and dropped a pair of wigeon in the decoys. My female dog, Echo, got right on the dead bird. The other cottontop kept diving amid a series of floaters I had lashed to a jerk cord. My male dog, Kona, got a back foot tangled in the cord. Fortunately he could stand and keep his head above water, so I whoaed him and quickly

waded out. The string was so tightly wound around his foot and toes that I had to cut the line. That night I replaced my thin jerk cord with a stiff one that wouldn’t tangle.

To create movement in my spreads I have multiple jerk cords running from the blind, as motorized decoys are forbidden in many places I hunt. Make sure such lines are elevated for your dog to enter the water without getting tangled. When on the retrieve, you might have to raise the cord for your dog to swim under, or add a slip-weight to the line so it sinks deep enough for your dog to swim over.

If using wind-aided decoys, mechanical decoys, flags, even socks that move in a breeze, introduce them to your pup before the hunt. Make sure they know how these decoys move and sound, as this will keep them focused on approaching birds, allowing them to mark and achieve solid retrieves. Doing some prehunt bumper work around on a flooded creek, I walked him through the spread before shooting time. Once Kona got familiar with the spread, he calmed down and it was all business.

With the late goose season upon us, anticipate what surprises your pup may encounter when hunting in different decoy spreads, then prepare accordingly. If planning on getting a pup this spring, it’s also never too soon to think about next season’s hunting situations. The more hunts you go on and the more time you devote to training, the more familiar your dog will be when hunting around various decoy spreads, thus the more focused they’ll be on marking and retrieving birds. CS

motorized decoys (where legal) that throw water isn’t a bad idea.

ONE OF THE BEST times to familiarize your pup with decoys is on the actual hunt. When setting decoys, have the pup walk or briefly swim by your side so it learns what’s happening. Keep it fun and encourage the dog, remembering this is new to them. Once the decoys are set, take time to walk or swim the pup through the spread. When there’s a lull, give it a bird and have it swim or walk through the decoys with it, offering encouragement; you can even toss it or place it for a retrieve. A buddy always takes a bumper to toss into the decoys for his dog during days when birds aren’t flying.

I remember Kona’s first hunt in a spread of over 60 dozen decoys. Once all the silhouette, sock and full-body goose decoys were set on the edge of a field, along with dozens of floating, moving and silhouette duck decoys Editor’s note: Scott Haugen is a waterfowl hunter of 47 years and a full-time writer. Learn more about his many books at scotthaugen.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.