Becoming A Hunter

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376 – The Annual, 2023-24

By Chris Robinson

So, now that your great champion gun dog has retired from the show ring, what’s next. Even as a puppy, you knew that once the dog’s show career was finished, Fido or Molly would need a job, something to keep them both physically and mentally fit because it was obvious–even at that early age–that they wouldn’t be content with life as a couch potato. In fact, consigning them to that sort of future would probably result in unwanted or destructive behavior.

In anticipation of your dog’s second career, you wisely chose to “put the bird” in the dog while they were still pups having been told by people you respected that if you had any thoughts of possibly doing field work with your dog, it was a really good idea to make them as birdy as possible at an early age because once this bird desire was awakened and set in your dog, it would still be there, no matter how lengthy the show career might be. You may have gone so far as to do some obedience and field training with the dog while they were growing out of the “awkwards” into their paw size, and maybe even put a junior hunt test title on the dog. If so, your champions should jump seamlessly into field work because the most important aspect is already established in the dog–they love to hunt birds. From there on, the dog’s skills only need to be refined through training and experience in the field.

Watching the dog in training and in the tests or trials, it becomes obvious to you that the next logical step would be to find out if the dog can really hunt. For, as reflective of actual hunting as the spaniel and pointing breed hunt tests and field trials are, they still contain a number of artificial elements. In other words, the tests contain things not likely to be present or encountered on an actual hunt. As for the idea that retriever tests or field trials bear any resemblance to real hunting–other than the fact that in both trials/tests and hunting the dog has to pick up a bird and bring it back to you–the less said about that, the better. Let’s just say that if you have a retriever breed, if the dog has a Master Hunter title or an FC, when you take them hunting, they’ll have to learn how to hunt. However, being a conscientious breeder and owner, you want to find out if your dog can really do what the breed was intended to do and that’s not only a laudable action for the breed itself but also a really good deal for your dog.

Click here to read the complete article
376 – The Annual, 2023-24

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Posted by AnthonyA on Jan 24 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.