Waterfowl Dog Completely Useless Upland

madball · #1 11-13-2017, 12:56 PM

Hey All,

Jack is a 4 year old yellow lab. He is a phenomenal waterfowl dog. He's a true hunting athlete and everything is as perfect as it can get in the duck blind.

The exact opposite is true when hunting upland. He's pretty damn cute, but useless as all hell. His preference is to walk in a perfect heal the entire time because thats what I spent 4 years training him to do for waterfowl purposes. I've gotten to the point where I have to give him a "back command" and he does a 50 yard loop in front of me and runs back to a perfect heal until I give him another command. I'm hitting a brick wall when trying to get him to run ahead of me and to know that there are actually birds out there if he goes and looks for them.

Anyone out there have any suggestions? I think he's just expecting everything to happen only because I make it happen and he has no clue he can't go out and make it happen on his own.

Dean2 · #2 11-13-2017, 01:07 PM

Run him with another dog that will work ahead but in range. He will get the idea quick enough.

The Spank · #3 11-13-2017, 01:20 PM

I had mine on a pheasant hunting operation years ago. Taught him to walk ahead of me quartering by using a check cord for distance and taught him quartering by walking left then right back and forth. When he wouldn't notice I had swung left or right I would give the check cord a slight tug to the side I was headed and get his attention with my whistle. When he turned to look at me I pointed with my arm of the side I was going, the same as giving him an over command like a blind retrieve and commanded him "over" just as I would with a blind retrieve. Being privy to having birds helped as we planted several pheasant for him to find during these training exercises. We did not shoot them as we were also training him to stop on the flush and watch the bird so my buddy would fire a shot in the air at the flush and I would whistle stop the dog and check him with the cord. I would command him to sit on the flush. It didn't take long for it to all fall into place as he was hunted a few days a week with several hundred birds released. If you know of a pheasant operation approach the owner and offer to work for free. That's what I did and ended up with a lifelong friend and a great all around bird dog.

pikergolf · #4 11-13-2017, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean2

Run him with another dog that will work ahead but in range. He will get the idea quick enough.

X2 Once he figures out what you (he) wants he will be fine.

Pixel Shooter · #5 11-13-2017, 01:23 PM

Its not the dog lol. Its what you have taught him and has always been under control or command.

Hunting upland is a totally different game and you need to teach it to learn to play it. Lots you can do to bring the natural instinct out. I find most labs enjoy it more typically then waterfowl as they are not always on command and luv the bust as much as we do. my labs are pheasant machines, just wish we lived in a part of the country that was more favourable as I dont enjoy release sites.

If you would like, we can chat in the spring if you like and can give you things you can work on. when the light bulb comes on its a wonderful thing. Trailing is one of the first things we teach young dogs and that requires the dog to be away from you. Be amazed how long a dog with confidence will run a trail. then your next challenges is to keep your dog within gun range LOL

is your waterfowl dog more advanced meaning you can cast/blinds etc?

madball · #6 11-13-2017, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pixel Shooter

Its not the dog lol. Its what you have taught him and has always been under control or command.

Hunting upland is a totally different game and you need to teach it to learn to play it. Lots you can do to bring the natural instinct out. I find most labs enjoy it more typically then waterfowl as they are not always on command and luv the bust as much as we do. my labs are pheasant machines, just wish we lived in a part of the country that was more favourable as I dont enjoy release sites.

If you would like, we can chat in the spring if you like and can give you things you can work on. when the light bulb comes on its a wonderful thing. Trailing is one of the first things we teach young dogs and that requires the dog to be away from you. Be amazed how long a dog with confidence will run a trail. then your next challenges is to keep your dog within gun range LOL

is your waterfowl dog more advanced meaning you can cast/blinds etc?

I definitely am aware that this is my problem and not his. Yeah he will follow cast commands and will retrieve blind. I would love the chance to chat about it. I'm going to focus most of December on it as well.

Vacation · #7 11-13-2017, 06:42 PM

I cut the wings off a pheasant and taped them on my training decoy. Worked with my black lab and she gets it now.

wwbirds · #8 11-13-2017, 07:39 PM

I use to start young dogs in the house by holding them in stairwell to basement and hiding a training dummy (with wing) in something or under something so they had to use their nose. Go find or hie on command starts the scent search. When they got older we graduated to outside in long grass so they couldnt see the dummy/bird and had to use the nose to find. Sounds like your dog is very sight orientated, teach him to use the nose and hunt. When they start using the wind and quartering you have won. They wont take long to figure it out. Lots of praise when they find it.

Rob