Introducing your dog to cold game

Take care with cold game training

Young dogs that aren’t yet ready to begin work at the start of the season – but will perhaps just have an odd day in January – can be given the opportunity to start retrieving cold game as part of their on-going winter training.

We all know that many dogs will eat the foulest things if given half the chance, but despite such habits I’ve always maintained that if I am asking a dog to retrieve something for me I would not ask it to put its mouth around anything that tasted or smelt unpleasant.

So I am strict about the cleanliness of all the training dummies I use and certainly don’t want the “dog slobber” of another dog or any soil or other substance to a cause a pup or youngster to be reluctant to pick up a dummy. And I don’t want anything on it that may make the youngster drop the dummy hurriedly instead of presenting it to me correctly.

And the same standards need to be applied to working with cold game.

What game should I use?

The warm, freshly shot bird that a young dog retrieves on its “maiden voyage” into the shooting field should provide it with a memorable and hopefully life-changing experience.

And while there’s no doubt that during its career a dog will be asked to retrieve birds that aren’t quite so pristine, I still believe that any cold game used in training should be in good condition.

If you are using freshly shot cold game for training don’t keep it too long and always try to use birds that a young dog will enjoy retrieving. So avoid badly shot birds and any that have been roughly retrieved on the day.

Quite often a young dog will retrieve cold game enthusiastically the first time but on the second time the bird is used – if it’s damaged or smelly or dirty – the dog may drop it half way back to you because it clearly wants to get it out of its mouth as quickly as possible.

Worse still are birds where there is a lot of flesh on show; in this case young dogs can drop the bird and start to lick the skin.

So be aware of the impact cold game can have on a young dog and try to make the experience as pleasurable as possible. Be selective in the birds you use, handle them carefully, don’t over-use them and don’t keep them too long for obvious reasons.

The same applies to birds kept in the freezer. Don’t expect a dog to find a pheasant that’s as cold as an ice-lolly to be a real turn-on – it won’t be! And resist the temptation to keep re-using birds from the freezer.

Yes, there will be plenty of times in a dog’s career when it’s expected to retrieve game that is mud-splattered, bloody, badly shot or damaged, but provided those early days of work on cold game have given the dog a positive and pleasant experience, it will be ready to cope with whatever we ask of it on a shoot day.

Jeremy Hunt
Fenway Labradors
jeremy@fenwaylabradors.co.uk
07798 826179

Jeremy is the owner of Fenway Labradors has been breeding Labradors for over 25 years and is based in Lancashire, England.

Jeremy runs gundog training days offering individual or small group training sessions, by the hour, half day or full day.