How to Transport a Bird Hunting Dog

Series Summary

Man has long had a special relationship with one particular animal on this planet: the dog. We’ve trained dogs to herd other animals, to hunt, to track, and to retrieve; no wonder they’re man’s best friend. Over time, dogs have proven to be well-adapted for human life, expressing qualities of loyalty and bravery, and responding to commands. Since they are inherently wild animals, all dogs need some sort of obedience training to learn how to perform the tasks we have for them.

Hunters use dogs for highly specialized tasks: to find prey, flush it out, and retrieve the kill. “Gun dogs” or “bird dogs,” as they are called, are trained to search broad areas of the hunting field, sniffing out hidden birds and causing them to take flight. This allows the hunter to find a quarry, take aim, and make his shot, rather than chasing down a bird on the muddy banks of manmade lake, with his shotgun in tow.

One of the most difficult parts of bird dog training is habituating the dog to the abrupt nature of gunfire. This training takes place in small stages over time, and helps the dog to learn to associate the sound of a gun shot with the expectation of a bird.

In this free instructional video series, learn how to train a dog to hunt with you. Our dog obedience expert will guide you through the process with some tips and techniques you can use on your dog. Lessons include single and multi-mark training, the sit, stay, fetch, and come commands, using a dog whistle, and working with puppies.

Video Transcript

"I am Charlie McCanna, and on behalf of Expert Village.com, I am going to talk to you today a little bit about dog training, and I am going to touch on retriever training as well. When you purchase a dog, one of the first things you need to think about is how you are going to transport your dog. What I recommend is a Vari kennel; they come in all shapes and sizes, and we even keep our dog in a Vari kennel inside the home when we are not at home. It keeps the dog out of mischief. We have three dogs. Two dachshunds and a labrador, and they like to play quite a bit, and they can do quite a bit of damage. One of the next things you are going to need is a collar. There are various types of collars. Of course you can get the leather collars, you can get the canvas collars and these are training collars that we use. This is a small choke collar. This is a larger choke collar for a larger dog and this is what they call a pinch collar. This is excellent when you are teaching a dog to heel and sit and things of that nature, because it will pinch into their neck when you pull up on the lead. This is for more advanced training. This is called an electronic collar. It’s a shock collar. I don’t recommend one of these unless you have professional training or worked with a professional. People tend to get a little carried away with them and make their dogs very shy, because they nick them a little too much and the dog becomes pretty timid, but for advanced training it’s invaluable. This is just a long lead or a long rope which I like to use when I am teaching a dog to sit on a whistle at a distance and I have about 75 feet here, but whatever distance you are comfortable with is fine. It has a hook on the end and on the other end it has a place for you to hold onto made into a handle. Of course, when you are doing that you will need a pair of good solid thick gloves, because when you try to stop your dog on a whistle and the first time it does not, you are going to need to hold on tight because it is going to yank your hand off and you don’t want to tear your hand. Here is one of your standard leads, this is for a small dog, it is a small thin lead and it’s great for walking. Here is a larger lead for a large dog. Now, when you are walking a dog, I like a large lead like this, especially with the large dog, because it gives me room to not only have the dog on the lead, but have enough left here for somewhat of a whip; when your want your dog to stop and sit down, sometimes you have to pop him on the rear-end. It’s no different than working with a child sometimes they need pop in the rear. This is an inexpensive choke lead that you can get at the veterinarian. They give these to you often when you go into see the vet, just to bring your dog in."