(EP:30) Bird Dog Etiquette & Hunting With Friends Dogs That Are Not Trained To The Same Level.

Full transcript for Episode 30: (EP:30) Bird Dog Etiquette & Hunting With Friends Dogs That Are Not Trained To The Same Level..

Tyce

Hey everyone, welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Tyce. I got a great question from a listener named Jared on Instagram. He asked about dog owner etiquette when you're hunting with buddies whose dogs aren't trained to the same level. This comes up a lot. Here's how I think about it.

The foundation of all of this is communication. Most problems in hunting partnerships — dog-related or not — come down to people not being on the same page before they get into the field. So the first step is just having the honest conversation before you ever go hunting together. That's easier said than done because a dog is close to a person's heart — it's almost like telling someone their kid is unruly. You have to do it with tact. But the conversation is better before the hunt than after a ruined morning.

Here are the scenarios and what I'd actually do:

Scenario one: your buddy's dog is going to blow up your hunt. Birds coming in, his dog is running around the setup, yours is sitting perfectly steady, and his dog is flaring birds and bumping into yours. This is legitimately going to ruin the hunt — and possibly damage your dog's training. In this case, I'd suggest training together outside of hunting before you combine dogs in the field. Take both dogs out to a field or pond, set up like a hunt, and work on it. If he can see the problem in training — his dog breaks, birds get flared, your dog looks great — he's going to be more receptive to the feedback. And you're getting both dogs ready for the same experience at the same time. Work on honoring: your dog holds while his goes, his holds while yours goes. If you can get that working in training, you've got a chance at a clean hunt.

Scenario two: you've tried that, or you don't have time, and both dogs still aren't at the same level. Run them separately. Hunt with your dog in the morning, hunt with his dog in the evening. Or take turns on retrieves. Most guys, if they feel respected and included, will be fine with this arrangement. The key is framing it right: "Our friendship matters more than either dog, so let's figure out how to make this work." If you come at it from that angle, most buddies are going to be reasonable.

Scenario three: you just don't hunt with that buddy and their dog. This isn't the end of the friendship — it's just recognizing that hunting together with dogs at very different levels is going to frustrate both of you and potentially damage your training. Hunt with dogs trained at similar levels, and invite your buddy to get some training done so you can hunt together down the road.

The larger point: train for the hunt. Most breakdowns in the field happen because dogs haven't been prepared for that environment. Get dogs around each other in training before you hunt together. Work on honoring, work on steadiness around distractions, work on the chaos of a real setup. That preparation is what lets you show up on a good morning and have everything run clean. I've hunted with as many as six Labs at a time out of a river blind — all steady, all sent one at a time on their names, all making clean retrieves. It's one of the best things about this sport when it works. But that doesn't happen by accident. It happens because people train for it. Thanks for listening.