I've never thought much about keeping a dog steady to wing and shot until recently. My new pup is at a stage right now where I could start this training.

Some will voice pros and cons, just like anything else.


Is this standard procedure for you and your dogs?
Ever done it?
Thoughts?

Did it for my last two pointers. They got over it soon after I started shooting birds over them. Only way to keep them steady is to have a gunner.

Meat dogs when I was young did not matter. It seemed to be safer for the dogs if they at least stood until shot though. Trial dogs were different. Wing, shot, and until released was the goal.

Pretty old argument but everyone would be proud of their pointing dogs if they came that way. It's beautiful to see one turn only its head and watch the bird fly away.

Not fair for yours to be steady, and your hunting buddies not.

Robby

I want my dogs to break at the gun. Hunting desert quail you will many birds if you dont

I hunt a versatile that Works as a retriever for waterfowl as well as to point upland birds. He is steady to wing shot and fall. Working him at times as a dedicated retriever makes maintaining a steady standard a lot easier. As mentioned earlier, I agree it is safer for the dog on low flushing birds. These are my thoughts and how I like to run my dogs. In no way am I casting stones at the way another man runs his dog. The tangible benefits I like from a steady to wing shot and fall dog are:
-A steady dog will do a much better job marking multiple birds.
-The ability to send the dog after the bird of choice first. Especially in the case of a cripple.
-Lining the dog up for the initial send on a blind retrieve where the dog does not have the mark.

I don’t put much stock in my dog needing to break on shot. I believe if my dog can’t reliably and quickly track a running cripple, I have a bigger problem than whether it breaks or not.

I like my dogs to break on the shot. When hunting blues the problem is not the dogs being able to track a cripple. The problem is those cripples running down a rat hole, and they all try to find a hole. Sometimes a dog can dig them out and sometimes they can’t. Either way your still standing around watching a dog dig itself out of sight not knowing what else is in that hole with him. The quicker a dog gets on a dead bird the better in my opinion.

The utility of training your dog to hunt the way that best fits what you do with it can not be overstated.

Smokey Bear -

So the question arises concerning hunting your steady dog with others that are not.

Do you hunt solo or deal with the fact that other dogs will break at shot?

I mostly hunt him with a gsp that is steady to wsf as well so it’s usually not an issue. When I hunt him with a dog that is not, he just honors. I will send him when there are multiples and that works well. In that scenario he will often be the only dog that has the secondary marks. So very seldom do I need to tell him to hunt dead.

Excellent points.

Thank you