WATERFOWLER'S HEAVEN WITH JOHN E. PHILLIPS
Why Clark Doesn’t Use A Dog
Editor’s Note: Ducks and geese rained from the
sky like a giant black cloud. Although making an exact
count was difficult, the cloud appeared to have 300
to 400 ducks in it, a flight of 20 speckle-bellied (white-fronted)
geese and about 50 Canada geese. I waited in my Ameristep
bale blind for Bob (Rip) Clark of Edmonton in Alberta,
Canada, to call the shot. When I finally heard him say
the words I’d been waiting for, “Take ‘em,”
the Canada geese had dropped down through the swarm
of ducks and were right in front of my layout blind.
I noticed when we hunted from the bale blind out in
the fields that Clark kept his yellow Labrador retriever,
Winchester, in a crate in the back of his truck until
after the hunt was over, instead of putting the dog
in the blind with him and his hunter. Clark explained
that, “The bale blinds are difficult for the dog
to get
in and out of, and the dog can’t really see what’s
going on through the bale blind. So, often he’ll
get a little fidgety. Too, I don’t bring the dog
into the bale blind because he’ll stay out in
the field until he finds all the birds that are down.
Many days we’ll have flight after flight of ducks
and geese coming in right behind each other. If the
dog is out in the field looking around for downed birds,
he’ll spook the flights trying to come into the
decoys. I’ve found that I’m more efficient
in the fields running around and picking up the birds
after the hunters have shot rather than to have the
dog out in the field. If I see a flight coming in to
the decoys, I can just lay down flat and let the flight
come in, or if I’m close enough to the blind,
I can get into the blind before the flight reaches the
hunters. But when a dog looks for downed birds, it’s
not looking up for incoming flights. But, I do bring
the dog on the hunt to pick up birds that have fallen
a long way from the spread or that may become lost if
we don’t have the dog with us.”
Clark explains that some of the hunters bring their
dogs with them when they come to hunt at Dog ‘N
Duck,
and he’s quick to say, “I’ve seen
some pretty bad dogs on these hunts before. Most of
the dogs the hunters bring are house pets and totally
out of control, which creates a problem. But from what
I’ve seen, the problems aren’t really the
dog’s problem. The hunter usually is the problem
because he either hasn’t trained the dog properly
or he doesn’t handle the dog properly in the blind
or in the field. All the guides at Dog ‘n Duck
use Labrador retrievers. These dogs have good dispositions,
and they are strong enough to break through the ice
at the end of the season to make retrieves across frozen
ponds and lakes. We not only need a dog that’s
steady, but we have to have a dog that will make a blind
retrieve, because many times the birds will fall where
the dogs can’t see them. The dog has to be able
to run out from the blind, stop and turn around and
look at you when you blow a whistle and be able to take
hand signals so you can direct him to the downed bird.
The better the dog is, the better your hunt will be,
because if you can direct your dog to the birds, it
will be out and back in a hurry and won’t flare
ducks and geese that want to work to the decoys.”
Clark remembers a hunter who brought a rowdy dog into
the blind with him. “The hunter couldn’t
control the dog, so he tied the
dog to his seat,” Clark said. “We were hunting
from blinds that were made of aluminum frames, and we
had covered the front of the blinds with weeds and straw.
When the first flight of ducks came in, the very second
the hunter came up to shoot, the dog lurched forward,
broke through the blind and went running out into the
field, still tied to the rope and dragging the hunter’s
chair. The dog did pick up the duck that the hunter
had shot and proudly brought the duck back to the blind
dragging the chair behind him. Although the hunter was
ready to shoot his dog, the dog hadn’t really
created the problem. The hunter had just failed to train
the dog to sit steady for the shot.” Clark laughs
when he talks about hunters and their dogs. “Dogs
don’t have a huge vocabulary. They function best
with one-word commands. I’ve seen hunters talk
to their dogs when the dogs were out in the field like
they would talk to a person. For instance, I’ve
seen hunters say things to their dogs like, ‘Rover,
don’t go over there. You should be over here on
the other side of the blind.’ You can see the
dog looking at the hunter and cocking his head to the
left and right as if to say, ‘What do you really
want me to do?’ Dogs don’t have the ability
to reason when they hear a sentence like humans do.
If you want to train a dog to hunt waterfowl, use one-word
commands to let your dog know what to do.”
To learn more about Dog ‘N Duck, call (780) 913-1337
or (780) 416-3825, e-mail clarkrd@shaw.ca,
or visit www.dognduck.ca.
TOMORROW: SKY CARP
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