There’s something breathtaking about a high-powered hunting dog doing its job. Speed, athleticism, drive—it’s all personified in that moment, and it’s a beautiful thing. It takes a dog with a lot of courage, endurance, and enthusiasm to do the job of hunting well, but those qualities can also be counterproductive.
I suspect most of us have hunted behind a dog that is all gas and no brakes (of course, it was a friend’s dog, not one that you own!). Often, those dogs resist the partnership of the hunt. They hate to come in close enough to make eye contact, get leashed, or hop in their kennel. Instead, many of them would prefer to hunt independently, and often out of our control. This can lead to problems. In order for a hunt to be successful and enjoyable for all involved, there has to be a balance between drive and teamwork, and between enthusiasm and focus.
Many years ago, I took my first Spaniel on her first hunt. She was a little firecracker with limitless energy, and while her training was suspect, her enthusiasm was high. I quickly realized that we lacked teamwork in this exciting environment. She would stay in my vicinity while we hunted, but if I tried to call her in to take a breather, she wouldn’t come within ten feet of me.
At the end of the hunt, when she should have been exhausted and ready to head home, she instead decided she wasn’t done yet. She would not let me catch her to put her in the vehicle. After pleading with her, scolding her, trying to catch her, etc. (I’m so glad there was no one recording at the time!), I finally got in my vehicle and started slowly driving down the lane without her. This successfully called her bluff. When she saw me “leaving,” she ran after me and was eager to hop in the vehicle when I opened the door.
This was not one of my finer moments (or the pup’s either, for that matter), but it did underscore a very important concept—teamwork and focus on the owner are very important behaviors for a hunting dog.
Reward the Behavior You Want
It’s really easy to fall into the trap of having our training sessions be all about the high-energy activities: retrieving, quartering, casting drills, bird-finding, etc. While those things are important, my training sessions now frequently concentrate on building teamwork and focus on me more than anything else. Why? Because I know that if a dog calmly makes eye contact with me, it is much more likely to want to work with me when we head out to the field, and it will be a more enjoyable dog to be around after the hunt is over.
Getting this kind of focus and teamwork doesn’t start in the field, though; it starts when you first bring the pup home, before you even start to think about heading to the field for training. I like to make sure from the very beginning that I only reward a pup for working with me, never for being obnoxious or self-gratifying.
This kind of training starts with the little things. For example, if a puppy wants to go through a door or gate, I wait for them to look at me before opening the door. When it’s feeding time, the food isn’t given until the pup calmly makes eye contact with me. When the puppy wants me to pet it, I wait for it to calmly look at me first. All of these little moments start to build toward the bigger picture of the pup focusing on me when it wants something. This intentionally creates a relationship that is centered on a calm and focused interaction, rather than on chaos and independence.
As the pup gets older, this foundation of eye contact and focus is crucial. When I start to see a dog getting overly excited and losing focus, I make sure to slow the session down to get the focus I want before I proceed. An example of this would be a training session I did the other night with an exceptionally enthusiastic adult dog.
I took her to the field, sat her down, and removed her leash, planning to cast her off and quarter through a field. She immediately started quivering, bouncing around, and showing excessive excitement. This is pretty normal behavior for a driven dog—they just want to go! Although it would have been easy to reward the behavior by letting her go, that would only have caused the behavior to get worse the next time.
Instead, I stood there for several minutes, waiting for her to settle down and willingly make eye contact with me. When she finally did that, I then cast her off and proceeded down the field. By taking an extra couple of minutes to get her to calm down and focus on me, I ensured that the session didn’t contribute to future control issues, and we were still able to accomplish the original goal of working together in the field.
A Piece of the Puzzle
Dog training is full of many intricacies, evolving scenarios, challenges, and problem-solving. While getting your dog to focus on you likely isn’t going to be the end-all to the behavior issues you may be experiencing with your dog, I can guarantee you that it’s a significant piece of the puzzle.
The next time you interact with your dog, give this some thought. Are you encouraging your dog to focus on you and show calmness, or are you accidentally rewarding it for showing impatience, detachment, and self-gratification? Slow your sessions down, make eye contact and focus a priority, and I suspect that the teamwork and enjoyment you experience with your pup will increase. Good luck and enjoy the process!
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