Freshly shot or frozen then thawed game birds make good tools for learning and practicing a search on the "hunt dead" command. All photo by Jerry Thoms.

When a rooster erupted from the corn stubble, Ray shot twice, pulling a few feathers from the long-tailed pheasant. The bird, however, kept on flying 200 yards then suddenly folded up to drop like a sack of rocks into the middle of a 100-foot-wide, head-high stand of thick wet cattails.

"Let's get the dogs over there," Ray said as he called to Kate, his 18-month-old yellow Labrador retriever. And Gene, his hunting buddy, whistled for Mac, his nine-month-old German shorthaired pointer.

Though neither dog had seen the rooster fall, both hunters had a pretty good fix on the bird's location in the tall dense cover and felt sure the dogs would find it.

A check cord is useful in teaching any dog how to establish a search zone when practicing "hunt dead" exercises.

Twenty minutes went by and neither dog found anything, despite their owners' efforts to get their canines to hunt for the obviously dead ringneck.

"The dogs don't seem to get the idea that we're looking for a dead bird," Gene said to Ray. "I guess they want to go somewhere else to find a live bird." And so they did, leaving the dead rooster for the foxes or the worms.

Retrieving a mortally wounded or dead game bird can be a big part of any canine's responsibility on a typical hunt for upland game or waterfowl. For most dogs, fetching up a pheasant that falls in short grass or a duck that drops in open water is pretty simple--watch the bird go down, then go get it.

But what about the goose that tumbles into an unpicked cornfield or the grouse that crashes into dense underbrush, and the dog doesn't see the bird go down? Though the hunter may have a pretty good sense of the game's location, finding the bird in deep and tangled cover will be up to the dog.

Most gun dogs of any breed can be taught to hunt for dead game birds in any kind of heavy habitat where pheasant, grouse, quail, partridge, duck, or goose may be hidden by vegetation. Using some basic techniques and simple tools, anyone can teach a gun dog to search for a dead bird with a few training sessions at home, in the field or on a hunt.

The 'Hot Dog' Method
Though Ed Erickson, at his Autumn Breeze Kennel in central Minnesota, mainly trains versatile gun dog breeds for titles in the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA), AKC Hunt Tests, and North American Shoot To Retrieve Association (NASTRA) events as well as many hunting contests, he has taught all breeds of gun dogs to "hunt dead."

"Most all gun dogs have an innate instinct to put their noses to the ground in search of game birds, either alive, wounded or dead," Erickson says. "As trainers, all we need to do is shape this natural ability into something habitual and controllable by giving them a reason to 'hunt dead' on command. The first steps in this process can be done with pieces of a hot dog.

A gun dog owner's tone of voice and body posture--think low--can provide effective audio and visual cues for a dog to go into the "hunt dead" or "dead bird" mode.

"Take an ordinary hot dog, cut it into half-inch slices, then scatter these pieces on the basement floor in the house, on the concrete in the garage, or on the mowed grass in the yard. Then bring out a pup as young as seven weeks or a dog of any age that needs lessons in hunting dead. Just as they drop their noses and scoop up that first hot dog piece say 'hunt dead' or 'dead bird'," Erickson instructs. "With this kind of snack as a reward, most dogs will soon get into the habit of putting their noses to the ground when someone says 'hunt dead' or 'dead bird'."

Once a dog regularly drops its head and puts its nose to the ground on the "hunt dead" or "dead bird" command, the trainer then needs to transition from hot dog pieces to retrieving dummies and then to actual dead birds, both frozen and freshly killed set out in knee high to waist-high cover. "Smear a little hot dog on the dummies and the real birds as a way to at first make them easier to find. Soon the dog will set its attention on just the dummies and actual birds," Erickson says.

To initially keep rambunctious dogs in the dead bird search zone, Erickson suggests using a check cord for control. "Use the check cord to establish a dead bird search perimeter that most dogs will soon adopt once they find dummies and dead game in the area," Erickson says.