Hunting Dog Training

Hunting Dog Training. Information on how to train your dogs to hunt.

Hunting Dog Training

The next step to the education of a spaniel is to teach It to hunt live rabbits or game; actually this hunting habit Is instinctive, and It Is rather the inculcation of amenability to control for which
the handler must strive. If there Is available a rough grass field, which usually holds some sitting out rabbits, this will offer the desired opportunity for training; but a wire enclosure of rough grass in which rabbits are kept, will offer a more certain and satisfac- tory hunting ground.

To begin with, the handler should take his pupil in the field or enclosure, and encourage it to hunt—but the puppy must be checked if it ranges too far away from its master—and immediately the pupil finds a rabbit on a seat and frightens it away, the command " hup " is immediately given, and the puppy must be prevented from following the fleeing creature. If the handler finds difficulty in thus controlling his charge by word of command alone, he must resort to the use of a check cord—for this purpose a piece of window cord about twenty-two yards long is suitable—one end of which is fastened to the collar of the pupil, and the other end left to trail; the handler must follow the cord, and immediately he notices his pupil begin to draw up to a rabbit on its seat, he must put his foot on the cord; thus, when the rabbit bolts, if the puppy ignores the command to " hup " and proceeds to chase, the surprised pupil will be suddenly checked and thrown by the jerk of the cord when it becomes taut. The puppy must be kept at the " drop n for a minute or two after the rabbit has bolted, and then start hunting in another direction—any attempt of the pupil to follow the line of the disturbed rabbit must, of course, be checked.

When the puppy has thus been trained to drop to fur, the education can be advanced by teaching it to drop to shot. The handler takes his gun and shoots when the rabbit is pushed off its seat; the shooter should not try to hit the rabbit, but keep his eye on the puppy and give the command " hup " as he raises his gun to fire—here again the use of a check cord may be necessary.

When the pupil demonstrates the required steadiness of dropping to both fur and shot, more realistic work may be done; the bolting rabbit may be actually shot and the pupil subjected to the tempting sight of a bolting rabbit toppling over dead.

On the first few occasions on which a rabbit is shot, the pupil should not be allowed to retrieve it but must remain quietly at the " drop " whilst the handler goes to picjk up the rabbit for himself —this will help to show the puppy that it is not always expected to retrieve game which it has hunted out for its master to shoot, but only to retrieve when commanded to do so.

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