As long as you’ve done your part in the off-season, your dog will probably be at his sharpest point when the season kicks off—at least with obedience and control. But as the season progresses, some issues might creep in, and that early season sharpness might suddenly dull a bit.

This, at least with flushers, is often most noticeable with range. For example, a good rule of thumb for pheasant hunting is that 30 yards is far enough. If your dog works at that range early, the birds will still be within shotgun range when they get up, although you won’t be too many wingbeats away from them being out of range.

If you’re not working with your dog on keeping that range, then you might notice that you’re getting fewer and fewer shots as the season progresses. This is often a gradual slide into something that can become a real issue.

The culprit is usually an undiagnosed case of under-handling, that can lead to an intense course correction that can take it into the realm of over-handling. Both are bad, and both are avoidable. This usually starts with the right equipment.

Setting Boundaries 

Decades ago, when we finally got our hands on e-collars with variable settings, it was like a whole new world opened up. We had the option to remind dogs that they were pushing it, instead of opting for either no correction or something pretty harsh.

Training collars have come a long way since then, and are only getting more user friendly and useful. If I have a dog that is starting to get a little too comfortable ranging out, I can remind him with tone or vibrate that he needs to listen. If he doesn’t, I can correct him for breaking that distance.

This can happen right in the moment while hunting, and is so easy. I establish this through training, of course, but a great way to look at it is to remind the dog with tone or vibrate that he’s far enough. If he continues to work out farther, he gets a mild correction. Good dogs with a strong training background figure this out very quickly.

This also leads to the dogs understanding the check back, which tells you they know they have a range to work. This is a wonderful thing, and really clues you in to how much teamwork you can actually have with your retriever.

Using an e-collar to handle your dog at the correct level in the field also offers an added bonus—you can stay quiet. There is nothing more frustrating than hunting with someone who has to yell at his dog, or constantly blow the whistle. The birds don’t like it, the dogs don’t respond well, and the whole thing just detracts from the experience. The silent communication an e-collar allows for is so nice on this front.

Fair Handling 

Sticking to the range issue, it’s important to note that it’s not uncommon for dogs to want to get out far. They don’t naturally stick to hunting at exactly the ideal shotgun range from us, and we shouldn’t expect them to just understand that without proper training and in-field reminders.

We also shouldn’t invite the risk of over-handling because we’ve put our dogs in a lose-lose situation. One common example of this with flushing breeds is when a dog is conditioned to hunt without other dogs around.

As soon as there is another dog competing for the same roosters or grouse, then the tendency to range too far becomes real. Now, if your dog has hunted solo with you all season and suddenly you meet up with a couple of buddies who have their own dogs, it’s not really fair to expect him to seamlessly adapt to that situation.

You may have handled him perfectly when it was just you two in the field, but with other dogs and other hunters his behavior is going to change. When it does, you have to acknowledge that things are different and his response is natural. Over-handling or over-correcting here does nothing for the dog and is an unfair reaction to a tough situation.

This only gets worse for some people who become embarrassed by their dog’s behavior. I’ve seen this happen a few times in the field and in duck blinds, and it’s never good. It’s better to understand what level of handling you’ve been using with your dog and how much the current situation is probably affecting his performance.

Naturally, this depends a whole lot on a dog’s age and experience level. Only you know those two things, so only you can decide how to proceed as a handler with your dog, in your individual hunting situation.

Now, it’s also worth mentioning that a lot of the handling issues we have, stem from the fact that if we are killing some birds, we aren’t as in tune to the dogs as we should be. This is human nature, and it’s a good idea to remind yourself to pay attention to how many times the dog pushes his range to your outer limits, or how many times you feel the urge to rein him in. Even if the hunting is great and you’re getting your limit every day, your relationship with your dog might be slipping into a place where under-handling suddenly becomes an issue.

This can lead to over-handling, which is almost worse.

Over-Handling Issues

We call them sticky dogs. They are the ones that don’t want to leave their owner’s side no matter what the birds are doing. This is classic behavior that results from being over-handled. While this can happen to dogs of any age, it often stems from how dogs are handled when they are young.

This is one of the reasons I pay close attention to over-handling retrievers in their first and second seasons. Those dogs get a little leeway, because I would rather have them develop the confidence to range too far, than lose the will to range out at all from fear of a correction.

What this means is that there is a balance to how you should handle your dog in the field. Give him too much freedom, and he’ll probably push his luck by getting too far out. Stay on top of him constantly and keep him too close, and you’ll end up with a dog that doesn’t really hunt for you.

The right handling balance is a moving target, but if you’re aware of it and have the tools to work through issues, then you’ll only need to do small adjustments throughout the season. This is much better than letting something become a real problem by mid-season and then having to work to undo it.