For the Love of the Hunt

"The dog has been prepared for learning, and he's been taught his basic commands. Now we start him with all kinds of experiences connected with his future job as a retriever. We teach him early to have no fear of water, boats, guns, game, decoys and so on. Our early training taught him not to spook with people; now we want to broaden that attitude."

-- Richard Wolters, "Water Dog," 1964

Sometime around my sophomore year in high school, my brother helped me get my first "duck dog," a black lab that was about seven months old at the time. I'd wanted a dog of my own to train, and I began doing so while reading Richard Wolters' "Water Dog." While a lot of training methods have come along since, Wolters' method is what I used for that burly dog I named Otter.

Time passed, and I picked up a yellow lab pup I named Belle in 2005. After she passed in 2010 from liver disease, I brought home eight-week-old Abbie a month later. She was my hunting bud and constant companion until April 2019 when she was put to sleep after a tumor developed at age eight. Four weeks later, siblings Violet and Dawn entered my life, and now they are both receiving what retriever training I can give them.

Some people don't like dogs, some people don't like hunting, but there are some of us who love both, and for years, I've never wanted to duck or goose hunt without a retriever. But to be a duck dog, they need training. I can't personally afford to buy a 14-month-old finished retriever from a kennel, and neither can I afford to pay someone else now to train them. So I'll go back to the basics with Violet and Dawn, just like with Otter, Belle and Abbie.

Dawn is my dog, and Violet is technically Mom's dog, but I treat them equally. While Dawn will be my hunting bud, I'm also training Violet the same way. Dawn unquestionably has the bird prey drive I love and has a desire to please; her main distraction is she's a live wire and always has to be doing something. Violet was slightly gun shy early on, but we've worked a lot of that out of her by using a training tool Wolters helped design decades ago, the dummy launcher. The launcher uses a .22 blank to shoot a canvas dummy from 50 to 150 yards. When it fires, the device makes a cracking sound much like that of a gunshot. While Violet was hesitant around the launcher at first, she now loves when I get it out for training.

Though having a dog fetch downed birds is the primary reason for having them, the reason I got Belle was a matter of ethics and law. I had lost a few birds during teal season in 2004 and was determined to get a new dog to help find crippled birds. Additionally, Missouri game law requires a hunter to make a "fair attempt" at retrieving downed game.

Violet and Dawn, like the pups before them, will never be field trial worthy, but for me and their purpose (being a hunting partner and retriever), they will mean a lot to me when in the field.

The pups have been trained on the basics: sit, stay, come, fetch, sit and come at a whistle. Dawn can mark a double out to 100 yards and do them in order as directed. Violet has a retrieving fire, but we're still working on getting her to fetch the dummies in order of placing. They both have been afield and have retrieved real birds, but even though they're a year behind on training (long story), they should get more work this winter.

For me, going on a hunt without a dog just doesn't offer the same sense of fulfillment. Hopefully this hunting season, Violet and Dawn will get more time afield, apply some of what they've learned in training and gain some level of satisfaction in their work while warming my heart with their drive. Wish us well.