The easiest way to prepare a dog to ignore a floating decoy is to condition the dog before the hunt to leave decoys alone. For starters, take the dog out after you have set out a small spread of decoys – let’s say five to seven – on the lawn and walk the dog through them. Let the dog know you don’t want him to pick up these decoys. They are taboo.
After we make the dog comfortable around the decoys to the point that he’s not picking them up, we can start throwing the training dummy into the decoys and have him retrieve the dummy out of the decoys until he’s very comfortable with the concept. You must also be careful that you don’t make the dog afraid of the decoys (for example, by applying collar stimulation when you shouldn’t). You want to make sure the dog is comfortable moving around amid the decoys and not trying to retrieve them for you.
If you know you’re hunting out of a particular boat, be sure to load the dog in and out of the boat a few times so he’s comfortable with it. If you can work it out, take the boat to a lake or pond and let the dog make some short retrieves so he knows where he’s supposed to sit and his entry and exit points. After you have done some of that initial work, it’s time to take the dog out to a pond. Spread out six or seven floating decoys and make sure the dog will retrieve through the decoys.
Always make sure when you put your decoys out that you keep the anchor strings as short as possible or the dog will get tangled in your decoy spread and start dragging them around. A young dog can become afraid of a floating decoy if he has become tangled in the anchor string and the decoys bumps him a few times. We don’t want that.
Many dogs don’t hear a duck or goose call until the first time they hunt. When they do, they can’t identify the noise and it causes excitement and confusion. You need to condition your dogs to the call. Use the call while you’re training them.
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