Winter can sometimes feel about as far removed from hunting seasons as any time of year. The warmth of spring and summer invites dog work, but a commitment to working your dog in the winter can separate the good and great dogs. With a small amount of time set aside for training each week, a dog can stay sharp or if it needs some work, make considerable progress. Jake Kline, owner and operator of JK Pine Creek Kennels, has some great suggestions for hunting dog owners looking to put their dogs to work with winter drills and sound reminders for upholding consistent dog performance.
“Your dog always has to have the basics,” Kline said. “They have to understand and know unfailingly that heal means come back to our side. Obviously, if the dog doesn’t understand the come command or the heal command without something in its mouth, it’s never going to want to come back to you when it’s got its reward in its mouth. Maintaining a good recall is very, very important, not only for the hunting aspect, but the safety of the animal. You need that dog to understand when you say heal, it needs to stop and get back to you. Your dog needs a super strong foundation and it all begins with basic obedience.”
If a few months have passed since your last hunt, you might consider some hunting simulation.
“If you’ve got a place you can shoot a gun, doing so is the best you can do to keep your dog sharp,” Kline said. “Waterfowl hunters should make their dog go into a sit command and you don’t even have to be throwing anything when you fire the gun. It’s more for the gun to remind the dog that just because you hear the gun doesn’t mean go. Doing steadiness work, where you’re just walking in a circle, shooting the gun in the air, simulating a hunt, talking like you would in the blind, ‘get down, get down, take him, take him’ and just trying to mimic a hunt a little bit without the dog having to focus on the retrieve right now is a great training exercise. Get the dog thinking, ‘hey, I’ve got to stay here, I’ve got to wait until he tells me I can move.’ If your dog is good at kennel or a place command, put them in place and work steadiness.”
If your dog’s steadiness is good, Kline says, the next thing to drill is memory. Kline recommends throwing double bumpers and working the dog’s memory as part of handling drills. Send one bumper in one location, a second in another, and make the dog remember placement so they are sharp for dropped birds.
Kline recommends upland hunting dog owners keep their dogs in shape. “Dogs are just like people,” he said. “It’s cold outside and people don’t want to get out and get some exercise. If you take that approach and all the sudden the season is here and the dog is 10 pounds overweight, it shouldn’t be a surprise when the dog is tired after five minutes of running. You have to keep the dog at or near their ideal weight and keep their endurance up.” A daily walk and some exercise is good for dogs and dog owners, and making that time on a regular basis will keep the dog sharp and close to its hunting weight.
Kline noted that hunting dogs can also be kept sharp by providing a few challenges to their noses. Drag bird wings or dead birds through the weeds before hiding then out of sight, or throw retrieves into cover where the dog has to use it’s nose. The more repetitions a dog gets, Kline says, the more that animal learns to trust its nose to find birds.
Many hunters are starting puppies this time of year to get a solid 6 month or better lead on the 2025 hunting season. It’s never too early to begin training your puppy to mold it into a trusted hunting partner and an obedient pet family member. “You’ve got to show that puppy the world’s a big, big place, not just your backyard or the neighborhood. Socialization is really important for a young dog, so that’s by far the most important thing in my book, is getting that dog out to new places, in new people’s hands, letting little kids hang out with it, bringing it to elderly folks’ homes or to schools or wherever you can, just where there’s big masses of people, and really let that young pup interact. It’s so good for that pup down the road, and it’s going to help you a ton for building other good behaviors.”
The next important step after socialization is getting that pup around bird smell. As soon as you get that puppy home, Kline says, get a pigeon or quail or a pheasant wing and throw it around to build that predator instinct. “When you are getting that dog, it is a sponge taking in its environment and the window is wide open for learning,” explained Kline. “Take advantage of that, because the longer you wait to introduce some of that stuff, the more the window closes and the harder it is to open that window up as that pup gets older.”
Kline also cautions hunters training young dogs that more isn’t always better. Doing two or three tosses and then putting away the bumper can be ideal. A simple ten-minute session, Kline says, really is short and sweet and keeps the young dog engaged and wanting more.
“Make sure you are putting that wing away with the dog wanting more instead of being forced to put it away because your pup is bored,” Jake advised. “When those dogs are little and sweet and follow you around everywhere, as soon as you can, get them used to dragging a little piece of rope around. It may only be 3 foot or 6 foot, but whatever length it is, they are learning what a little resistance from that leash feels like. As that pup gets older, it’s going to get more confident and it’s going to start getting more possessive with its retrieving. Being conditioned to a check cord is going to allow you to correct that behavior when you do go to the full 30-foot-long leash and ensure that pup returns with a wing, bird, or bumper.”
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