Pre quartering work

Ok how many of you have seen this. A hunting parnter asks you join him on a hunt. he states “I have a bird dog”. You get to the field and most of the time the dog walks behind His owner. Well it was good being out in the field but your buddy Quickly decides his dog is just a pet and is not cut out for hunting. What should have the owner done to avoid this problem? What can he do now to correct it?
For you guys with the new pups keep this in mind. It is just as important to get your dog going away from you as it is to have them come back. We will talk about that at a later time or you can refer back to my collar training and obedience posts. For now lets talk about the quartering and pre-quartering work. This works for all ages of dogs and is taken from the Richard Wolters training method.
First off when we are talking field work with varying thickness of grass, the dog is going to chose the path of least resistance. Thats why a young dog or one with little experience will walk behind you. To get the dog out quartering, here is what I do. First off the pre-quartering phase. Start in light cover, grass that is about 6 inches to a foot tall. A cut hay field works great. When doing these sessions the key is to never have your back to the dog. If you start walking and the dog tries to fall in behind you, simply turn around so you are facing him. If he walks off in any direction thats great just follow him. You may end up walking in circles but thats ok, the key thing is that the dog is always in front of you. As he gets bolder you then can start zig-zagging. When he is off to your left, veer off to your right. The dog will check back and turn to head your direction. When he is off to your right side, veer to you left. Soon you will be able to walk a fairly straight line and your dog will be quartering in front of you.
This little drill will prepare your dog for quartering and help him on his way to being a great hunting companion.

One thing that I did with my dog is use a ball field and a check cord. I also use a D ring style of collor. I first started out have my dog about 20 feet out. I would walk down the field zigging and zagging. When the dog got to the end of the cord I would start walking the other way. Has we did it more and more I would let more of the check cord out. The d ring collor helps here because as you zig and zag the collor moves on his neck and ques the dog to go the other way. After we had use the ball field we then found some feilds with shorter grass.

I also think that taking your pup to new places helps more then we think here. The more new places the pup goes the bolder they become. The bolder they become the more willing they are to walk out in front of you. So realy I think That quartering starts when they are very young. Plus it fun to show off your pup to people. For those guys that got there dogs when they were older the same thing goes here. Take them to as my new places as you can and let them play or take them on a walks. They will be come more bolder and will want to be in front of you.

My dog loves hunting up the birds and bringing them back proudly, but this step is still giving us trouble. She still doesn’t want to go through the tall stuff. After talking to Don briefly, I’ve been following her around in circles for the past six months. But as soon as it gets thick, she’s on my heels again. What’s the next step, time to call in a pro? (Admittedly my skills are very limited).

Have you tried using a bird or two? Have a friend or two help you with this. As you are walking threw the thick cover have a friend with a dead bird wave it call the dog. Them drop it so the dog can find it. Them after at you do it and if you can get someone on the other side of you have them do it too. Hopful the dead birds will get him pumped up and he will start looking for more birds on his own. There is a good pice writtin on this in this months issue of Gun Dog Magain.

I know my own dog does not work a fare out in thicker cover then he does in the open grass. In the thicker cover(cattails) he may only go about 20 yards or so. To me that is ok because the brids will hold tight in there and I’m working slower. Hope this help and try to read the that pice in the Gun Dog Magazin it will help you out a lot on quartering.

Good point Don. Got a couple more NAHRA hunts then to the feild for more upland training.

For the next step I like using live birds. The first couple of times you can just toss the birds to the side when the dog is quartering the other direction. It doesn’t take long for the dog to figure out that you have the birds in your vest though. I then will switch to planting the birds. What I do is plant birds on the edge so when the dog quarters, it finds a bird. Plant the birds where you would want the dog to turn when out hunting. I use birds with the flight feathers pulled. The birds will de able to flap away but the dog will still be able to catch em. You can also plant a flyer or two. Anothe r good thing to do in your case would be to plant the birds in thick patches. Find a field that is fairly easy to walk through but has thicker patches of weeds.

Thanks guys! I haven’t tried live birds during our training (though it seems pretty obvious I should). I’ve planted a few wings around the field when working, and she’ll dive in and find them. She’s getting close, and I probably don’t give her enough credit. I’ll see if I can get a hold of some live birds to get her to that next level.

VIDEO

VIDEO This is a short clip of the next session. Now when he comes back, instead of stopping or trying to go behind- he turns and heads right back out. Next, I will plant birds on the edge and start quartering.

Great explanation and direction Don.