Homer Dog Training

Here’s a tip for teaching your hunting dog “Line”. Taking a line to a downed bird is started in the Water Dog DVD. With a young dog you want the “blind” easy to see. The point of the lining drills is to get your dog to charge out to the “blind” at full speed. This can only be accomplished if the dog can clearly see the dummy. The dog needs to see where he is going to charge out to it. If you start hiding the blind too soon the dog will wander off line and lolly-gag around confused until he picks up scent.

A couple months ago I started using 3’ wood stakes painted white to help Homer take and hold a line at long distances. The stakes are highly visible and give Homer a spot to run to. I started very short with a pile of dummies around the stake 10 yards out. Homer learned very quickly the stake marked the pile. After that I simply started adding distance. Once I got the distance out to around 200 yards I started changing the angle to the stake by sending him from different places to the stake. Once Homer showed confidence I started removing the stakes to see if he really “GOT IT”

I’ve been doing this mainly in open areas, this has really improved Homer’s line. At this point in his hunting dog training Homer no longer needs the stakes. He now consistently runs nice straight lines at full speed. In my next post I’ll tell you how I got him to run straight lines through bushes and heavy cover.

Joe Dynarski

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