How many of you do "real" hunting with your dogs, as opposed to hunt tests and field trials? Do you do just waterfowl or upland hunting also? Do you shoot or just handle the dog?
What prompted this discussion is a recent NAHRA started test that I participated in. The handler and dog stood in front of a blind at the line. Some distance back, but directly behind us, was the winger. The judge actually shot the popper gun. The bird came up from behind us and dropped in front of us. It was the first time I had seen this kind of setup, and I was struck as to how realistic it was to a real hunting experience.
I do upland hunting and have done goose hunting in a corn field, but I'm still looking for someone to go hunting with on the water. I have handled both the gun and the dog, but I'm not that good of a shot so I do better just handling the dog and letting my associate(s) take both of our limits.
I have taken my dogs duck hunting. One of my bitches has her JH title, the other has her Master title. Both perform really well in a real hunting situation. When I have gone hunting I have gone with my husband and son or husband and his friends. They do the shooting and I handle the dogs. I don't like to shoot, so this arrangement suits me fine.
I think my Master girl's real-life hunting experiences last year helped us tremendously in the Master tests. If something came up that was a little unusual, such as a judge shooting from the line (which I did see at a test last year) my dog handled it with no problem. After all, it was pretty much the way we had hunted - me and my dog in between a couple of guns. At that particular test there were many dogs that went out because of judges shooting from the line - obviously it is not something that most of the people running that day had ever seen or trained for.
I also think real hunting taught my dog to work more independently of me, especially on marking. In a hunt test situation dogs can become very dependent on your body positioning to help them mark - whereas in a real hunting situation the birds can come from anywhere.
My husband hunts with all of our dogs. He hunts upland birds, ducks, geese and my incredible little Regal Air son has even retrieved rabbits and squirrels! I've gone a few times but the hunting is his domain. I do a lot of the training, but don't really go hunting.
