Improve Your Dog Work by Hunting for a Different Species

If I were to look back on me bird hunting life, the overwhelming amount of me days in the field were spent chasing Ruffed grouse and woodcock. The focus of me attention has been in New England and Canada, and if I were to drill down even more New Hampshire gets most of me time. I own covert dogs, shoot small bores with open chokes, and wear out tin cloth chaps and brush pants on a regular basis. Me dogs and I have the scars to prove it.

A number of years ago, cross training became popular among uni and professional athletes. I reckoned then and reckon now it's a top idea. I applied that level of thinking to my bird dogs, and it meant exposing them to different regions which had different conditions and different birds. The quality of my dogs improved, and cross training has paid big dividends.

This past autumn I noticed that my dogs had become routine oriented. I'd put them down in the grouse and woodcock bush and they went about their business. Two of my setters had a knack for remembering where they found birds. They'd high grade the scrub and make a beeline to where they remembered they had found birds before. Most of the time they were right, but they'd bypass a lot of huntable areas in favour of cutting to the chase. I didn't like that approach, and if I were a betting man I'd wager you wouldn't, either.

To fix up that problem, I moved them onto a massive paddock of corn and millet that had a few pheasants about. These new spots were huge, they were soft, and they had big, running birds. My dogs perked up, and they looked to me for guidance. They paid more attention, covered the ground better, and got outsmarted by some of the birds. It was a learning curve that fired them up, and we all got on great. When we went back to our usual spots the next trip, they were better than ever. They worked thoroughly and with purpose, and it was a real treat to watch.

Since that discovery a long time ago we've taken our show on the road. When our season winds down at home we'll search out different areas with different conditions. The most popular hunts are in the Southeast for quail and also for migratory woodcock in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. Cross training dogs on different birds and environments is a good idea because it makes both of us better. We're learning as we go, just the way it always should be.

Tom Keer is an award-winning writer, columnist and blogger who lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He is a columnist for Covey Rise magazine, the Upland Almanac, and a Contributing Editor for both Fly Rod and Reel and Fly Fish America. He’s also a national spokesman for the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation’s Take Me Fishing program, and writes regularly for over a dozen outdoor magazines. When they are not fishing, Keer and his family hunt upland birds over their three English setters. His first book, a Fly Fishers Guide to the New England Coast was released in January 2011. Visit him at www.tomkeer.com or at www.thekeergroup.com.