Duck hunting is an exciting sport that you can enjoy with your dog. Young dogs are easier to teach because they aren’t as set in their ways as older dogs. However, can you teach an old dog to retrieve ducks when you go duck hunting?
You can teach an old dog to retrieve ducks with enough motivation, but not all older dogs will want to hunt. Teaching an old dog to retrieve ducks is possible if they’re comfortable swimming and loud noises. It may recuire a lot of patience at first, because an older dog may be set in their ways.
Having your older dog duck hunting with you can be an excellent experience for you and your dog. We will discuss various ways to teach an old dog to retrieve ducks and share tips for helping your dog become comfortable retrieving ducks.
Teaching An Old Dog To Retrieve Ducks
Teaching an older dog to retrieve ducks is much the same as teaching a young dog. However, you’ll need more patience when training an older dog, as they might take a bit longer to understand what you want them to do.
To start, you need the right type of dog as not all dog breeds are suitable for retrieving ducks. Labrador retrievers, English Setters, and English Springer Spaniels are excellent at duck retrieving. However, you can teach almost any dog to retrieve ducks with enough patience.
Next, ensure your dog is comfortable swimming and doesn’t get scared around loud noises like shotguns. You will also need a good environment to teach your dog to retrieve ducks. An open field with tall grassy sections is ideal for training your dog. In addition, a pool or pond is necessary for teaching your dog to swim after a duck once shot.
Once you have established these things, you can train your dog to retrieve ducks. You can use three main methods to teach your dog to retrieve a duck. We will discuss each technique to help you consider which will work best. You can also combine these methods to give your dog fully rounded training in duck retrieval.
Method 1: Obedience Commands Method
The first stage of teaching your older dog to successfully retrieve a duck is to ensure it will listen to your commands. Some basic commands to teach your dog is “down” and “stay.” The dog should know to go down when you are stalking the ducks.
In addition, the dog should sit when you shoot the duck and only go to retrieve one when you command it to. Then, use a decoy duck to teach your dog how to retrieve the duck and bring it to you. Finally, use treats to reward your dog whenever the dog brings you a duck.
One advantage of teaching an older dog to retrieve ducks is that it’s more loyal to your orders and won’t get distracted as easily as a younger dog. Therefore, an older dog shouldn’t have trouble learning to obey your commands.
When your dog listens to your every command and is used to the loud noises of the shotgun, you can take it on a real duck hunt. When you’re on an actual hunt, you should also bring plenty of treats to reward your dog for retrieving the ducks.
Method 2: Decoy Training Method
Teaching your dog to swim comfortably is a great way to improve its confidence and ensure it is safe in the water. Therefore, you must ensure your dog is a comfortable swimmer before training the dog to retrieve ducks.
Once your dog is comfortable swimming and listens to your commands when it’s in the water, you can introduce the decoy duck. First, spray a toy duck with duck scent and toss it in the water. Then, have your dog retrieve the duck and bring it to you.
At first, swimming in the pond with your dog might be necessary to show them what you want them to do. Then, as your dog starts realizing what you require, you can begin to wait outside the pond and wait for your dog to bring you the duck.
Give your dog treats and encouragement when it successfully brings you the duck. Then, after you have trained the dog to bring you the decoy ducks each time, you can start taking it with you on a real duck hunt. Keep giving your dog treats and practice patience with your older dog when training it to retrieve ducks.
Method 3: Rope And Anchor Method
The final training method is to teach your dog to go after diving ducks. Ducks often dive when they are injured. Therefore, teaching your dog how to dive after a duck when retrieving it is essential. This is potentially more dangerous as your dog can become stressed when diving after the duck.
You will need a decoy duck, a rope, and an anchor to teach your dog how to dive after a duck. Tie the rope to the decoy duck and pull it through the anchor. Hold the other end of the rope. When your dog swims out to retrieve the duck, pull on the rope so the duck disappears beneath the water.
Encourage the dog to dive under the water to retrieve the duck. Once again, give your dog a treat when it successfully retrieves the decoy duck. When teaching your dog to retrieve diving ducks, you should also teach it to search for ducks that fled to the tall grass at the pond’s edge.
This is another common thing ducks do when they are injured. In this case, your dog won’t be led by sight as it will not see the duck fall from the sky. Instead, the dog will rely on its sense of smell to find the injured duck. Therefore, honing your dog’s sense of smell will help it retrieve the ducks much easier.
Is It More Difficult To Teach An Old Dog To Retrieve Ducks?
It’s more challenging to teach an old dog to retrieve ducks to a certain extent. You will need more patience to teach an older dog to retrieve ducks. However, an older dog will be more obedient and trained to listen to your commands.
Although teaching an old dog to retrieve ducks might take more work initially, your older dog will have no problems retrieving ducks once trained. Treats and positive encouragement are great motivators to help ensure your dog is trained and willing to learn.
Conclusion
It’s possible to train an old dog to retrieve ducks. We discussed three methods of training a dog how to retrieve ducks. There isn’t a significant difference between teaching this to a young or old dog. However, training an older dog will require more time and patience.
Use treats to reward them when they successfully retrieve a decoy or real duck and ensure your dog is comfortable swimming and diving after ducks. Also, ensure your dog is used to the loud shotgun noises. Then, your older dog should have no problem retrieving ducks just as well as any young dog.
References
https://homesteading.com/train-a-hunting-dog-to-retrieve/
https://www.themeateater.com/hunt/waterfowl/how-to-train-your-dog-to-retrieve-100-of-crippled-ducks
