Question: I have a Standard Poodle that my son would like to try to use for hunting. She's now four years old. She runs in the field on a regular basis, and isn't bothered by shotgun fire. She's caught and killed several different furry animals, but she hasn't encountered any game birds. What can we do to get her ready to hunt ducks and pheasant?
Chris H., Whitmore Lake.
Answer: So far so good. Now you need to buy five or six birds to release in front of her while encouraging her to chase and catch them. I would recommend using Chuckar Partridge because they aren't native to Michigan and they have fewer regulations. It sounds like the dog has some predatory instincts that you may be able to transfer to birds. I'd release the Chuckars one at a time and spin the first one to get it dizzy before dropping it in front of the dog.
If the dog grabs the first bird before it has time to recover and fly, praise her and call her to you. Do not grab for the bird. If she wants to run with it, be patient. If she won't come to you with the bird, do not chase her. Better to call her into your house or have her load into your vehicle then take the bird, all the while praising her. If she doesn't grab the first bird, dizzy and drop the second. Hopefully she'll have chased one of the two birds as they recovered and flew off.
Now, with bird three, cut (with scissors) the seven primary wing feathers on one side. Don't dizzy this bird bird before releasing. If the dog refuses to catch this bird, release the fourth bird without dizzying or wing-clipping it. Shoot is on the flush. Repeat this again with the fifth bird. If this demonstration doesn't entice your dog to pursue, catch, and carry the birds, we'll need to approach her from a different angle.
For the uninformed, Standard Poodles were originally bred to retrieve waterfowl. The cut you see on the show dogs is an exaggeration of the old style, whose main purpose was buoyancy. Their tight-knit hair, like many of the water spaniels, gave them good protection from the cold water. There is a resurgence in interest in the Poodle as a retriever and we're starting to see them entered in some of the retriever tests and competitions. What we need now are more people breeding for hunting, rather than the current dog show focus.
Now for that different angle. There are two motivations for a retriever to hunt. One is game and the other is retrieving. I have seen some very nice waterfowling dogs who weren't worth their weight in dog crap when it came to upland hunting at a young age. These dogs were all about retrieving and they had very little interest in birds. But, once they were able to connect the shooting of a bird with retrieving, their upland hunting picked up. I was having trouble working a pointing Lab one time and was conferring with the owner on why I couldn't get the dog to show interest in birds. He then referred me to the breeder who referred me to her trainer. This fellow lived on the west coast and had trained some highly-titled Labs of both flushing and pointing types. He explained to me that you need to first do the retrieving work, then force-break the dog. Next, you switch to dead birds and finally live birds. I told him that every good dog I've ever trained had desire for birds prior to it's first birthday. This dog was eighteen months old and the owner had done extensive retrieving work prior to coming to me. I sent the dog home and told the owner that his money would be better spent on a new puppy.
The point here is to peal the dog's desire for retrieving by playing with a tennis ball or a flying saucer toy, and then try to transfer that desire over to birds. The pitfall of trying to get a Standard Poodle for hunting is finding a person that breeds for hunting. A dog from show lines may not have any hunting instincts, and therefore not feel compelled to pursue game. This is true with many breeds in the show lines. Parents from hunting backgrounds tend to throw pups that hunt and are a better barometer to gauge working abilities then even the bloodlines. If you're interested in finding working bloodlines of Poodles, contact me.
Charlie Linblade
Mighigan Wing Shooters Hunt Club
Michigan Pheasant Hunting
Michigan Bird Dog Training
