HUNTING
Offseason Tune Ups, Part I: The Push Back
Author Scott Haugen’s dog Echo made a blind retrieve on this wing-tipped goose that sailed over 300 yards. Hand signals allowed him to push his dog back, and trust is what led to a successful retrieve. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
By Scott Haugen
A
bout the only bird hunts going now are for grouse and ptarmigan in Alaska, and at shooting preserves throughout other parts of the country. For most of us, it’s the start of the offseason, but for you and your dog it should really be the start of fixing things, what I call offseason tune-up time. It’s likely that at some point this past season you encountered unwanted behaviors or responses in your dog. Even if these were minor glitches, they need to be remedied while your dog is in good shape and both of your mindsets are on hunting. This month we’re going to look at fixing what could be the most common problem faced by hunters, the push back. Next
month, in part II of this series, we’ll look at other fixes you can make to get your gun dog dialed back in.
THE MOST COMMON question I get throughout the season is how to get a dog to move backwards for a retrieve when it failed to see a bird go down. “It’s hard to push a dog out but very easy to call them back, or direct them to the side, once they are out there,” shares Jesse Spradley, an award-winning trainer and breeder with Cabin Creek Gun Dogs (541219-2526, cabincreekgundogs.com) in Lakeview, Oregon. “Blind retrieves require a lot of training and are one of the more challenging things to fix,” he begins. “This is because the dog is being asked to run or swim out in a given direction,
looking for game it hasn’t seen you shoot, then continue searching until it finds the bird or you start giving directional casts. To accomplish this, the dog must have confidence in you as the handler, and trust that you know what you are doing.” Now is a good time to teach your dog how to push back for a blind retrieve, which Spradley explains step by step. “This command is taught by repetitions that always end with success. Success is the result of the dog always finding the bumper, antler, bird, etc. The key to success is you must start short then increase the distance as the dog becomes more confident in your commands; commands that always lead to success, as this is how the dog learns to trust you,” he says.
calsportsmanmag.com | MARCH 2020 California Sportsman
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