| Q16: Hi. I have a five year old dog that is pretty smart. I have worked with him a little and I really want him ready for the upcoming dove season. I have worked with live pigeons he will retrieve them and bring it back but I have never worked with him in the field or around a gun going off and he isnt really consistent with bringing the birds back. It's like he gets bored or un focused. I've also noticed that he chews on the bird. Do you have anything that can help me? A: Considering that opening dove season (the time limit you have set for yourself) is less than 2 weeks away, I'm afraid you've left it a bit late for this year. I'd never say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but if your dog has never even had a gun fired around him and he is 5 years old, you may have a real problem on opening day with the thousands of shotgun blasts you'll probably be around if you're dove hunting in a southern state. Sounds to me as if you need to teach your dog the forced retrieve. No special equipment is really needed, but there are any number of good books or articles out there dealing with the subject. For starters try a search on Google for "force fetch training" or "forced retrieve" and see what you get. The entire process of training this takes about 6 weeks, on average. Probably too late for this year's dove season, but you may be done in time for late season quail or pheasant if you start now. Some people really don't like to do this type of training themselves, and there are many trainers out there that specialize in exactly this, if you find yourself in that category. In the long run, it may be cheaper and easier to start over with either a well bred gun dog pup with a strong natural retrieving instinct, or to invest in a dog that's already been trained. Good luck.
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