The Trained Retrieve

One of the primary reasons for hunting with a trained dog is to insure that every bird that we shoot is recovered and bagged. It is unethical to leave shot birds, dead or alive, in the field, period. Having a dog that is reliable in bringing birds to hand that have been shot dead while hunting will certainly put a few extra birds that would have otherwise been lost in your pocket each season. Having a dog that will do this as well as apply himself to finding wounded birds that scamper off or worse, fly off and land some distance away, out of sight in some instances is a true tribute to the value that his owner puts the hunting tradition. A dog that will do all of this ON COMMAND is truly worth their weight in gold to everyone concerned.

You may say to yourself, “This is a HUNTING DOG, he finds birds, I shoot them, he brings them to me…I don’t have to teach him how to retrieve!”. True enough, but as anyone who has hunted more that about one weekend in their life can attest, there will be times and situations that come up where a dog that is generally regarded as a “natural retriever” for one reason or another, simply will not follow through on a hit bird and the bird will be lost.

To be clear, my standard for a retriever is a dog that will quickly go out, seeks, find and bring the bird back and put in in my hand, everytime. Hot, tired, three feet of snow, bird in the water, bird over a cliff, birds coming out of her ears, mutiple birds dead on the ground at once. I don’t care. Unless the bird comes down dead in the middle of I-80 or crumples into the tiger pen at the Henry Doorly Zoo, I expect my dog to get it back to me quickly. It is a general contention in birddogdom that even the best retriever can be made better by training the dog to retrieve on command. If the dog is not retrieving on command, he is retrieving at his leisure and discretion and sooner or later you will find yourself having shot a bird in a situation where the dog simply decides NOT to get if for you and the bird will be lost.

Think about it. Have you ever seen your “natural retriever” fail to pick up a bird because; She was hot and tired while hunting and the last thing she wanted is a mouthful of feathers, or more commonly, there were simply more birds to hunt in the cover and she figured a live bird is more fun to find than a dead one (that you can find yourself, Mr. Twolegs!!) and so she just decides to hunt on. How many times have you heard about someone’s dog being sent to find a bird and instead of dutifly bringing it back to the boss, it run’s off with it and comes back without it a half-hour later?

I am reminded of a lab I once knew that served duty on large dove shoots back home in Pennsylvania when I was a child. The dog retrieved dozens of birds each outing, traveling around the shootng field to the shooters stationed about and bringing in their birds as the action got hot without any instruction from his owner, who was usually up at the house having a cold one.