To prepare a dog for hunting season there are a few hunting dog training tips that are important to go over.  Whether you’re working with a new puppy or an older dog, even one that’s more experienced with which you just want to refresh the skills, these hunting dog training tips are going to be extremely helpful.  One of the best tips is to make sure that your dog has all the basic obedience training mastered.  Every dog needs to know how to heel, sit, stay, and whistle.

A lot of owners forget to work on these skills outside of hunting season, which is crucial.  If you neglect your dog’s training, they may end up forgetting what they’ve learned and you’re going to have to start back at square one.  Using marking drills is also important and these teach the dog to improve their skills of pinpointing the location of a fall.  If you’re going to be working on marking drills with your dog, the best place to do so is in the woodlands.

Hunting Dog training Tips

This will make it more challenging for the dog and let you know whether or not they have this skill down pat.  You also need to work on your dog’s lining skills to get them prepared for hunting season.  One of the best hunting dog training tips for teaching lining skills is to teach the dog to run through barriers rather than around them.  The longer line the better when you’re practicing these sorts of drills, and by using a fence you can teach the dog not to bow out.

Teaching entrance and exit skills to a boat is important for any hunting dog.  Dogs need to get used to the water and learn not to be afraid of diving in off the boat.  Start in shallow water and you probably want to even stay out of the boat until after you have made some progress with the dog.  Boat entrance and exit is crucial and especially so if you have a smaller watercraft because you don’t want it tipping over.

Using decoys is one of the best ways to teach your dog how to capture the prey and return it to you.  This is another of the most important hunting dog training tips to remember.  Decoys help because they offer the closest, most realistic type of training for dogs and prepare them for real life hunting.  It’s important to work hard and have patience when training dogs to hunt.

Hunting Dog training Tips