This is a client dog making a pretty nice water retrieve at the pheasant hunting preserve today. The property has a river running through it and many times the birds flush across the river and sometimes when shot, drop in or on the other side of the river. Shorthairs are usually quite good at water retrieves but as quick as Sadie was to get across to the downed rooster, it took a little coaxing to get her to come back. The water was running pretty swift and very cold with the winter run-off. My Brittany dog Annie was the first one across the river but she didn’t mark the bird and had trouble locating and returned empty handed.

The other day I went with my friend Chris to set up a training situation for a shorthair pup “Josie” that he is training. The first thing we did was test the wind direction so that we could lead the dog right into the scent cone. Chris uses a homemade version of an electronic bird launcher. You can use any bird from pigeons to chukars, but we had a live hen pheasant in the launcher.

The idea was simply to lead Josie into the scent cone until she went on point. When she pointed the bird Chris slid up the lead and steadied Josie using the Whoa command. While Josie was intent on the bird I slid around to the front and got ready to make the shot. His 8 year old daughter activated the launcher and I shot the bird. Chris asked me to wait a few extra seconds while the bird was in flight so Josie would learn to be more steady.

After the shot Chris sent Josie to get the bird and he reeled her in using the long training lead. She retrieved the bird nicely and Chris was careful to let her enjoy the bird and really heaped on the praise. While the bird was still warm we reloaded the launcher and ran through the whole scenario a second time. Josie is still a young dog but is improving greatly. I learned how important it is to set up the training situation very carefully so all goes well.