Keeping Dog Steady to Shot for Ducks

[SnowDog]

Hey Everyone,

I have a strange question. My lab is pretty well trained in all aspects of upland and duck hunting. The one thing that drives me nuts is he breaks from the blind on shot. However, I do not want him to sit to shot while upland hunting (I know it sounds strange, but I have a method to my madness). So, the question is, how would you go about training the dog to be steady to shot for ducks, but OK to break while hunting upland. Should I train around the concept of steady while in the blind (I use a MutHut)?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers!
SD

[HighCountryHunter88]

mine does the same thing. try repetition in the blind, keep your dog at a heal and let your partners do the shooting while you work with the dog. what i do if he is breaking and im hunting alone is tie him on a short lead. after a few shots he seems to get the picture and hold a little better

[ghosthunter]

I would work on sit and stay . In the blind you command sit stay in the upland you do not.
Sit on whistle .sit on voice ,sit on hand single. Sit becomes stay. teach in your yard , than with distractions than leave your gun at home and enforce duck hunting. let your buddies shoot. The longer the dog is allowed to break the harder it will be to correct. Search net for steadying drills.

I am not a trainer. training my 2nd dog now. 

[Special T]

  My dog needs some work as well, but i really like using the Mut Hutt. It gives they a "Place" they need to stay...

[ghosthunter]

My dog needs some work as well, but i really like using the Mut Hutt. It gives they a "Place" they need to stay...
[/quote

That's another good option giving the dog a rag or mat they have to stay on and if they move off. Correct.

But the dog must fully understand sit and stay before you start being harsh. A lot of guys do not teach,sit,stay and here solid enough. You have to keep going back and working on it all the time. Once you reward them with a retrieve that they got by breaking you are on the slippery slope to trouble.

[Special T]

I think that is why shock collars are so valuable. 

[SnowDog]

Great advice! He has mastered sit on whistle, command, and hand signal. Sit for him means stay 'till released. I think I will put in some time this month and get a partner to help with the shooting while I focus on the dog.

Cheers!
EB

[Stilly bay]

where a lot of people screw up is they teach sit AND stay.  "SIT" means "put you balls on the ground and don't move a muscle until I release you" teaching stay only shows the dog that there are some commands in your vocabulary (like sit) that he really doesn't need to listen to, unless its backed by another command.
if you think about it what is sit without stay? best to just simplify it for the dog and teach it one command.

as far as the original question. dogs are situational learners. they will figure out pretty quickly that he can break while upland hunting but must be released while duck hunting in a blind as long as you are 100% consistent. every time you let him break while duck hunting will be a little set back.

as others have said its a good idea to have someone else do the shooting so you can focus on the dog. you might miss out on some kills but if you do it right you will have steady dog, and not a lot folks out there can lay claim to that.

[gaddy]

as others have said, have someone else shoot while you pay attn to the dog. we used to do this in the off season.
a shooter off a bit to the side (out of sight of the dog)would shoot & then throw a dummy into the water. you would make the dog hold untill sent. they hear the shot & watch the fall & learn pretty quick not to leave till told but they have marked the bird. we would do this several times in the off season with newer pups & it seemed to work. gets to the point where they will sit & watch the action & go when told & not after a shot that was a miss.

[Happy Gilmore]

There is. Nothing common about sitting to shot in a duck blind and sitting to flush. Two completely different demons that have to each be learned as a separate skill.

[Cascade_fisher]

Why let him break on shot for upland?  Don't let the shot be the release in both situations.   

[Odell]

Lots of steady drills have worked for me. When we throw him a dummy, we will pop guns, or when in town, whoop, holler, basically make a ton of exciting noise. All of this is so that I can get him to break. When he does, he gets corrected. Pretty soon they put it together that their release command (for him its his name) is the only thing he is allowed to go on.

Sit important. While my dog is pretty steady when there is action, lately when its slow he feels like he can just get up and wander around the blind. It tells me we need to go back and re-do sit. He somehow compartmentalized the two things. I often tie him up if the situation is right.

Last year I had him in a mutt hut in a field while mallards were forming a tornado around us. That was great steady work and he did well. I watched him instead of the birds so I could see if he was about to break. But when they land unexpectedly in the decoys thats a real test.

Letting someone else shoot while you work the dog is fantastic. Its pretty fun to handle your dog and not shoot once you decide thats what you are doing. If the hunting turns hot, I'm sure your shooting partner will switch with you.