Originally published in Mossy Oak Gamekeeper Magazine. The author, Bill Gibson, is the head trainer of Mossy Oak Gamekeeper Kennels.

Owning and handling a properly trained retriever adds a whole new dimension to both waterfowl and upland hunting ventures. Having a dog that remains steady to shot and fall, while not whining or barking, or breaking or interfering with other hunters — instead, going on command, working on whistle and/or voice commands, retrieving your bird, and delivering to hand, adds to the overall hunting experience. In addition to adding to the enjoyment of the hunt, the dog is also demonstrative of one of the greatest conservation tools available to a waterfowler or upland hunter — recovery of shot game. 

Let me explain, imagine that you and your buddy are two ducks shy of the daily bag limit. Out of nowhere two mallards swing into the decoy spread and you each hit one. One falls relatively close to the blind and is dead in the water, but the other duck is only pricked. You and your buddy watch as it locks its wings and takes a long glide path, let’s say a 100 yards or longer away. It hits the water well beyond shotgun range and is slowly swimming off with his head low in the water. You can’t see it, much less shoot it. You send your dog, he immediately picks the short bird, returns to the blind and delivers to hand, but by this time, the wounded duck is completely out of sight. Now, to limit out you must shoot another duck. From my conservation viewpoint, if every duck hunter experienced this same scenario at least once during the season, virtually thousands of additional ducks would be needlessly killed: thereby, adversely affecting the waterfowl population. So what can you do in early training that will make it possible to handle your dog away from the short dead bird and go for the longer wounded bird? Where do you start?

When teaching a pup to go for the long bird, we set up a scenario that requires the use of three training dummies that are placed in a freshly mowed field to be sure they can be seen by the dog. Two are set out in the field a few yards in front of the dog and about twenty yards apart. The third is set out in the same mowed field about twenty yards out on a centerline that is perpendicular to and intersects an imaginary line between the first two dummies. 

We then place the pup in a sitting position a few feet behind the two closest dummies. We line the dog up so that his spine and head are pointed toward the long dummy and release him. If he veers to the left or right, in an attempt to pick either of the closer dummies, we immediately stop him, bring him back to the starting point, realign him, and send him again. The pup gets no praise when he attempts to retrieve the short dummy(ies). We repeat this exercise until the pup is taking a line to the long dummy and ignoring the closer dummies. We continue to reinforce this training exercise until the dog is consistently ignoring the short birds and retrieving the long bird. At this point, it is time to up the ante. 

As we progress, we move the two short dummies closer together-about ten yards apart-and move the furthest dummy out to forty yards. We move the pup’s position back about five yards and once again align the pup with his head and spine pointed in the direction of the long dummy and then release him. If the dog fails to take a proper cast, we recall him, and repeat the sequence until they are performing the task without any corrections. No praise is given until the pup picks the long dummy. We continue to move the setup until ultimately, the starting position of the pup is thirty yards or more behind the left and right dummies and the left and right dummies have been repositioned to about four feet apart with the long dummy placed at about fifty yards. When the pup is cast he should take a line between the two short dummies that are now only four feet apart and pick the long dummy at fifty yards. After the pup has successfully completed this drill several times, it is time to move on and up the ante again.

Next, we use a similar set up using dummy launchers. We fire the first dummy launcher from a distance so the dummy lands in the mowed field at about twenty yards from us. We then fire the second dummy launcher with the dummy landing forty yards or more from us. After aligning the pup’s spine and head with the long dummy, we cast pup for the long dummy and after he returns and delivers, we send pup for the short bird. 

At this point, you are probably wondering, what to do when the short bird is wounded and the long bird falls dead in the water? To teach this skill on every other round or so, simply change up and send pup for the short bird first and the long bird second. In an actual hunting situation, you have at least two options: Firstly, you can shoot and dispatch the short bird on the water prior to releasing the dog. Secondly, this is where whistle training and handling come to the forefront. Every waterfowl and upland dog should have been trained to work on the whistle and at a minimum to take left, right, and back cast. Assuming that for whatever reason, you cannot shoot the wounded duck on the water, you can align pup on the short bird, send him and if necessary stop him with the whistle and cast him in the direction of the wounded short bird and after delivering the short bird you can cast him back for the long bird. 

Later in the dog’s training we would switch to remote wingers and used thawed birds and continue to mix up long bird-short bird drills until we are fully satisfied that they fully understand the drills. A reminder, always remember that every time your dog successfully completes any drill, always heap lots of praise on them.