When you train a puppy, your goal is to give them good experiences that will help them feel better about themselves and stay away from bad habits. Good manners are also important, but for most people, training a puppy to hunt specifically is what makes the experience rewarding.
Prerequisites for the Pup
When looking at the big picture, it’s important to first talk about how important a puppy’s inherited traits are and how important it is to socialize them properly. Only then should you start talking about which command should be practiced first.
To begin, a puppy’s nose with a strong sense of smell is needed. The dog needs to show that it has a strong desire to keep working even when things get tough. It should be willing to work with you and do what you ask.
The dog’s body should be strong on the outside, and he should be able to keep going for a long time. Its fur should be able to protect it from the weather and give it enough cover while hunting.
In order to be mentally stable, the dog should have a balanced personality, since hunting situations are always changing. In the end, the dog should be naturally good at pointing and retrieving. All of these things are necessary for a dog to be a good hunting dog.
Creating a Plan
You should make a clear plan for your puppy before you start. Check to see what stage of learning your puppy is in. Write down what you’ve talked about and what you haven’t. You can see what areas you need to work on with your dog this way.
Write down what the puppy has learned and what you think should happen in the next training session after the session is over. Giving the puppy some basic commands while also introducing it to everything that is part of the hunting dog world this way will give you time to think about each choice you make. Also, teaching them “No,” “Sit,” and “Heel” will help you achieve your goals with the puppy in the future.
Socialization
As the training goes on, proper socialization is what holds everything else together. Health care, good nutrition, and exercise are some other things that are needed.
You can work on more than one part of your dog’s progress at the same time. One example is that you can show your puppy your neighborhood while also training him to heel or get used to walking on a leash. On a long leash, you can also let a puppy run and explore an open field as another way to help it learn how to behave.
Your puppy’s world should grow from the house to the backyard and the training and hunting fields over the course of the first year. You should get your puppy to know other dogs. He should learn about travel crates, boats, game birds, guns, and gunfire. You might decide that a dog training collar will help you work with your dog to achieve your goals.
And if you tried to train your puppy on his first day in the field, it would be hard because he hadn’t been there before. If you want the dog to learn, you shouldn’t expect it to pay attention or center itself. He wouldn’t be able to pay attention because he would be too busy looking at all the interesting, scary, new, exciting, or distracting things around him.
Crate Training
The key to training a puppy and keeping him safe, say experts, is to start him off with crate training. From the moment the puppy comes home with you, you should start doing this. You can start making quick car rides with the puppy once he is at ease in the crate. Taking your puppy somewhere where you can let him go outside to play is ideal.
If he only gets in the car to go to the vet, that is not what you want. That would be ideal—your neighborhood dog park. While playing with family members, it’s a great place for him to socialize with other dogs. I also strongly suggest enrolling him in a basic obedience class.
Exploring
Your dog will undoubtedly be afraid of some things in the outside world. But since you will probably hunt these kinds of areas together eventually, it is important to remember to get him used to open cover areas with brush and timber. Give your puppy the freedom to run after game birds in fields and shadowed areas. By doing this, you can support the development of the dog’s predatory drive, giving him confidence and enhancing his stamina and strength.
Setting Boundaries
You must use both rewards and discipline when training your puppy. It makes sense to give your dog praise and positive reinforcement for good behavior. Training approaches vary in how they teach discipline, but they all center around establishing limits for the dog. The dog must respect your boundaries and understand how far you are willing to let him go. He must be able to judge when to stop running and when to retrieve.
Bird Retrieving
The first time your puppy goes bird-hunting, hunting experts advise finding a quiet place and utilizing a cold, dead pigeon. This is because it indicates that the bird won’t flop around, frighten a timid puppy, or be overly exciting for a stronger-willed puppy. Allow the puppy to hold the bird, but be prepared to intervene if they start to shake it or bite it.
Guns
Dogs do not naturally have a fear of guns. That being said, some dogs may be slightly more gun shy than others if they have more timid personalities. However, the majority of dogs can be trained to recognize that when a gun fires, they are going to get something, usually a down game to retrieve.