Training a Gun dog Isn't Hard - Lesson 8, Hunting Your Ground - What You Are Aiming For

By Ken Devonald

It is considered a sin in gun dog circles

If a dog misses game, for example running past a hidden rabbit or pheasant. Realistically it happens, but is best avoided especially if you are intending to run in field trials. To minimize the risk of this happening, it is necessary for the dog to concentrate on air scent rather than foot scent. If a dog is allowed to put it's nose down to foot scent regularly, it is unlikely to use air scent as readily, and it is likely to follow the trail rather than covering the ground methodically.

Foot scent has its' uses, specifically in the retrieve, but for hunting, discourage it gently but firmly.

So, what are you hoping to achieve?

Imagine you are out working your HPR (or Spaniel) looking for rabbits, the ground you are covering is fairly open, with patches of thistles or nettles. The Sun is up and it is shaping up to be a pleasant morning. The field I have in mind is maybe 500 to 600 yards long, 100 yards wide. We enter from behind a willow bed, planted to clean the outflow from the septic tanks which handle the waste from the half dozen houses 100 yards up the hill. There is a reed bed first, and the whole tank area is surrounded by plants that were a lot more common 50 years ago. Plenty of rabbits in there, but I never fancy eating them for some reason.

You intend getting some rabbits (for a pie; there is no better way to eat them that I have found; except maybe pan fried; but that is another discussion!), so you have you gun over your arm, or your Harris Hawk on your fist. The dog is walking quietly but alertly (maybe a little impatient, but she is not whining!) at heel. Before you open the gate (you could climb over, but the gun would like as not clang against the gate) you check the field for cattle; Jim has had the bull in with the newly calved cows, and you are well aware that the dogs will upset the cattle and you will both have to leave at speed if they are down by the river that bounds the far end of the field.

To the left is a wood that runs for two hundred yards, holds a few rabbits and a rookery. After the first two hundred yards it gives way to a double fenced drainage ditch running down to the river; the water maybe 4 or 5 feet across, six inches to a foot deep, with a rough grass bank either side varying from a yard to 4 wide. The ditch holds the occasional duck or two; the grass holds the very occasional snipe or woodcock and the more common rabbit, with sometimes a pheasant coming across from neighbouring shoots. To the right a drystone dyke (wall) runs all the way down to the river, holding some rabbits.

After the first hundred yards, the thistles and nettles give out, and from there on the field is virtually bare grass until the last 50 yards before the river, when the thistles reappear. There is a large marshy area between the fenced end of the field and the river; a large bend in the river moves it away from the end of the field and leaves a boggy patch that holds odds and sods.

As in any dream scenario, the wind is blowing from across the river along the length of the field straight towards you. With the HPR you intend working the field up to the end of the woods by walking straight up the middle; then moving back to the start of the woods and working the close cover there before working the ditch down to the river. With a spaniel, you intend working the thistle area first, in two passes; then the wood; then the ditch.

No cattle; so you are safe continuing. You send the dog off to the right and she runs straight along the fence; one or two momentary checks as she picks up some scent, but then she runs on to the fence, turns into the wind and moves on ten or fifteen yards before turning back across the field, passing across in front of you and heading towards the woods; she intends going on into the woods, you can tell by the way she is gathering herself so you give a double peep on the whistle to turn her back towards you.

Meanwhile you have started to walk forward slowly, and she moves upwind to keep in front of you, crossing five yards further into the field than you are; She has barely passed in front of you when she slams to a halt; head turned at right angles almost, and staring intently towards a patch of thistles. You move quietly towards her, approaching from the same angle that she has; and when you are slightly behind her you give her the command to flush; she slams into the thistles and starts bunny hopping; bouncing on her back legs and head spinning to locate the flushed rabbit; the rabbit runs upwind, the dog stops to watch and you bowl it over with a single shot; the rabbit is stone dead in the open, and the dog is now looking at you, wondering if she is going to be sent for the retrieve. Since it is so simple, you pick it up yourself, squeeze out the bladder to empty the urine and put it in your bag.

You then cast the dog on in the direction she was heading. After a few more passes she comes on point again; gentler than the last time because she has picked up the scent from further away; she takes a pace or two towards the cover the rabbit is in and then stops. Again you move into position and give the command to flush; this time the rabbit runs away in line with the dog; best not to shoot over her so you wait until the rabbit turns and heads towards the wall on the right; unfortunately you hit the rabbit but misjudge it slightly and the rabbit continues into the cover of a large clump of thistles. The dog is watching you and glancing back at the spot the rabbit disappeared; waiting for ten seconds (even when urgent you do not want the dog to pre-empt your command) you then send the dog. She streaks out towards where the rabbit disappeared, ignoring a rabbit that she disturbs on the way; this is a retrieve and she knows that it is more important than hunting. When she gets to the point where you hit the rabbit her head goes down and she follows the foot trail into the thistles; another rabbit is flushed but she ignores that; then she reappears with the wounded rabbit; being carried gently (it's head is still held up), she comes directly back to you; sitting squarely in front of you with her head up she lets you take hold and with the command 'leave' she lets you take it and you dispatch it.

Now to the wood...

In the next discussion we will cover some of the techniques to let you get to the stage described.

Ken Devonald has two German Short haired Pointers and has previously trained spaniels. He lives and works in the Scottish Borders, where he has plenty of opportunities to train his dogs to work rabbits. He is currently developing a Gun dog Training Site, which you can visit here!