You can get a lot of hunting training done sitting in a lawn chair in the back yard drinking a beer. In the summertime I have a couple misters running and nearly every afternoon I spend an hour of two listening to music, drinking a couple cold ones and "training my dog". I have pups on the same stake out I use hunting and give an occasional treat and later pet for being calm and patient. If they lay down and go to sleep, even better. When I get up they learn to stay put. Later I'll throw a bumper or more, and usually pick them up myself to supplement their field training. If they were to break on the stake out they wouldn't be successful, but they seldom do break if you do the set up right and develop the good habits.. I don't say anything if they do, but really brag on them for being calm and patient. The way they are bred I am more interested in training patience and putting in an off switch. We let the genetics take care of their desire. This is Listo at 8 months on his first hunt. Not much different than us in the back yard.

I dove hunt with my dogs but a field dove hunt with multiple hunters is probably the absolute worst way to introduce a dog to hunting.

I’m not saying you should never do it but you should be aware of a few things.


Dove in general encourage a dog to chomp birds and eat birds due to their size and how their feathers are. A dog should be introduced to birds in a controlled environment and have established good mouth habits before taking them hunting. I just recently had a pup from my litter spend 1.5 months with me to teach proper mouth habits because the owner against my advice took his dog dove hunting as a young pup last year before he was properly trained and he ate the dove on his way back from retrieves.

Dove hunting can also be a recipe for creating gun shyness and breaking. With a ton of action and lots of guns going off. No matter what type of hunting the dog needs to be introduced to gun fire properly and be steady.

When dove hunting in Texas the heat is always something you need to be aware of. Lots of water and shade. Wet down your dogs paws, ears and belly but don’t ever dunk them in ice water. It can cause the peripheral blood vessels to constrict, shunting all that hot fluid to the brain causing heat stroke.


So dove hunting is not ideal for a pups first hunt but if you have a good foundation of obedience, established good bird handling, proper intro to gun fire, steadiness and take precautions for the heat you can safely take a new dog dove hunting without problems..

Depends- If it’s World War III -a bunch of guns NO

If it’s a gun or two leave yours at home and handle your dog

This was 9-1-2015 when I got home from opening day. Saved a bird for Buster. He was 3 months old. He went the next year after working with a frozen bird all year.

He's Ready!