Challenging the blind in a hunting situation

[YazooValley]

Here’s a real life hunting/training scenario. Dog is 23 months old. She hunted last season but this is her first year to handle. We’re still pretty rough.

Duck is hit and sails down about 125 yards out. It’s mostly an open field but with some grass/cover. The line to the blind goes through a window between a clump of willows on the left which is about 75 yards out and a pretty much straight line of willows down the right side. There is a straight line to the bird between the willows on both sides. The “window” is probably 25 yards wide. It’s splash water. No swimming. Cripples have been heading to the willows like cats to catnip. So I guess the dog expects the bird to be in the cover somewhere.

I line her up and she takes a decent initial line but then caves left and wants to head to the clump of willows. Whistle. Give her a right back. She overcompensates and heads to the willows on the right. Whistle. Left back. Heads back to the willows on the left. Ping pongs a couple more times and I eventually have to walk out to her and give her a back from right in front of her. Which she finally takes and gets the duck. I don’t know how long the whole fiasco took but it seemed like 10 minutes.

As I’m out in the open, I flare a few ducks that might have worked had I been hidden. I was hunting with my father and a friend of his and I didn’t want to disrupt their hunting time with my training session. What else could I have done? (1) Wait until we’re through hunting to try to get the duck. I was afraid that the cripple would have swum off by then. (2) Line the dog up left of the “window” and left of the clump of willows. Send her past the cover and then try a right over to the bird. In hindsight, that seems to be the least disruptive and quickest way to get the bird. But then she’s not learning to deal with the factors, I would presume. And she’s also learning that the “line” is not always the direct shot to the bird.

While hunting, when if ever would you give the dog a false line and avoid challenging the trouble?

Any other comments?

[jdbuckshot]

I think you shoud have gotten out of the blind, cut the distance to the bird, and sent her on a straight mark that you KNOW she could have picked up. but you did the right thing, you have to quite worrying about shooting ducks when you teaching a dog. your buddies will appreciate it when the pup is able to slam dunk those long retrieve right out of the blind, what ever you can do to build the pups confidince on a straight line is best.

[bigbeeducker]

Folks that hunt with me me better know that if my dog is flipping me off at 10 or 200 yards, it dont matter if there is fifty mallards working. I ain't lettin Fido run around and do whatever. My opinion is you did the right thing 100 percent.

[goosebruce]

if this is your blind, having run all of those possiblities as a pattern blind before wudda done the trick. First thing I tell someone in your postion, is to look for the toughest blind in the field, and the most likely place a cripple would go, and run those as pattern blinds. Sure makes it cheesy on game day.

I dont do the whole draw it out in my head thingy very well. But from your description it sounded like dog ping ponged from left suction to right. You couldnt get a straight up back. Thats an issue to work on, not just in that situation, but when your setting your training blinds and marks up. By the time you got out and walked to bird, you've already messed birds in the air up.... take the bird, make sure its dead, and toss it back out there as you and dog walk back... get 3/4 of the way back, turn back around and line dog up to it... dog will beeline to it of course he just came from there, but you'll still see half a zig or zag one way or the other while he thinks about those side suctions. Same time outta blind, but then he learnt something. the walk out du style heres the bird doggie he didnt learn anything...

could be worst. at least your hunting, im at home wif da flu. travis

[Frank B]

As soon as I saw I was getting into trouble I would have simplified the blind with this relatively young dog. Simplify in this case means i would have started walking to cut the distance and improved the casting of the dog. If the folks you hunt with don't understand it then you will have to explain it. I am fortunate that the people I hunt with understand what you have to do sometimes with a dog.

This sounds like a good place to plant a training blind before you start hunting on your next trip. You could run the blind when the action is slow or at the end of the hunt. You can turn it into a pattern blind that will help teach fighting factors.

Frank