You can teach a motivated dog to do almost anything. In my not particularly unbiased opinion, that's one of the fallacies of the so-called "positive" approach to dog training: if your dog becomes motivated by something other than obeying your command, your training goes out the window.

But often, it is precisely when your dog's motivations are elsewhere that obeying the "here" command is so important: at the end of the day; when the hunt is over; when he's downwind of a porcupine or skunk; when he's about to dash across a busy highway. It is our dogs' single-minded devotion to instinct that makes them so inspiring in the field, but it is also their biggest and most glaring Achilles heel.

Somehow, you have to get through to them. And you have to get through to them over and over again.

At home and in the training field, a dog should be trained with controlled distractions. One example: wait until the little scoundrel chases a pigeon you've planted, and when he does, call him back, then immediately reel him in with the check cord. Or, if you've already transitioned to a collar, give him an appropriately timed stimulus. (Note: I really do mean "stimulus" and not "shock." It is critical when using collars to learn the difference. Punishment via the collar comes later, and only when merited by the dog's willful disobedience to a command you're certain he understands.)

This kind of training is a must, and my dogs have been through weeks and weeks of it. But virtually no contrived training situation, no matter how realistic, holds the allure of real birds on a real hunting trip. The dogs know--and will exploit--the difference. For instance, when my setter is rooting like a barnyard hog through the compost pile behind the house, she knows I'll usually call her twice before I stomp out and get her. Like most bird dogs, she's plenty quick on the uptake when she's doing something she enjoys. And why shouldn't she be? She's doing exactly what I've trained her to do, however unwillingly. I've shown her repeatedly that I'm more lax about enforcing commands at home than in the field, and she reacts accordingly.

And so it goes in the great outdoors. If you don't promptly enforce the "here" command when you're hunting, your dog will learn, with something like warp-speed comprehension, that he can ignore you, even if he obeys flawlessly at home. Trust me on this. It will take him less time to learn this, in fact, than it will take him to learn the location of his food bowl or the whereabouts of the neighbor's cat.

The late Datus Proper whistling for Huck, his German shorthair. Give the command "here" once, then enforce it--even if you have to chase down your dog.

Which, of course, is the crux of the problem. Few of us, and that formerly included me, want to spend our precious hunting time training our dogs. But you can't have it both ways; you can't effectively train and hunt at the same time. Last year, I solved the problem once and for all by relinquishing my gun for the first month of the season, and then periodically afterwards, whenever I felt one or the other of my dogs needed an update on her manners. It worked. Since I wasn't carrying a gun, I was more than happy to let my friends shoot while I concentrated on my dogs, who learned, finally, that I really did mean business when I whistled them in. Funny thing was, I didn't miss the shooting all that much, probably for two reasons: First, I hunt a lot. And second, the more I hunt, the less I shoot and the more I value good dog work.

One caution, though: Don't over-handle your dog. On a two- or three-hour hunt, I'll use the "here" command (or whistle) three, maybe four times at most, making certain each time that my dog is in sight and within range of my ability to enforce the command with a check cord or collar. For the training to really sink in, your dog has to be completely absorbed in what he's doing. If you hack on him too much, you'll draw him in, where he may become anxious and stop hunting. This is an ongoing problem with my Brittany. One or two enforced commands per trip are plenty for her.

Remember, you're conditioning your dog to come even if he's--and he almost always will be--far more interested in doing something else.

I've heard rumors of perfect dogs but I've yet to see one. No matter how much you train, sooner or later your dog will run into something, or run after something, that he just can't resist, and all your whistling won't faze him. Stick with the program. If your dog will return reliably 95 percent of the time on a single command, you'll be way ahead of the competition and you'll impress the stuffing out of your friends. Even mine sometimes remark at how well my dogs "listen." If only they knew.