Working Tests for Retrieving / Waterfowl Hunting

[Alex Withers]

Dear forum,

I am relatively new to the retrieving world but am getting more involved through training my Springers for a future in hunting. I have recently become involved with an interesting project.

After several colleagues attended an organised duck hunting event with their gundogs much interest was generated in the community about them and their contribution to ethical hunting practice. Many hunters or shoots not having access to a suitably trained dog for various reasons and many handlers not necessarily wanting or able to shoot. The concept of providing a voluntary picking up service to duck hunters at organised shoots was tabled to assist in promoting best practice / ethical hunting practice during such shoots.

Our focus moving forwards was to provide suitably trained dogs that could fulfil the role of a voluntary pick up dog for hunters working to a good standard. We also identified that most hunters with dogs don't have the interest in or time for trialling but want to focus their limited time and energy on hunting and more interested in having an effective working dog over a trialling dog.

Hunter's and the development of their dogs was seen as a huge gap that is not necessarliy filled within the trialling community / format. Likewise member in my group like me with a hunting focus wanted / needed a simple defined process and benchmarks to assess if our dogs are at a level to be an effective hunting team. We all know how frustrating an uncontrolled or improperly trained dog at a shoot can be. The gundog as an asset to the hunter was our core philosophy.

In reviewing standards in Australia I found that our focus is on trialling and a working dog test with a minimum benchmark of performance is not an established thing here. In my research I keep coming across the ACK and similar working tests in the US

My questions to the forum / hunting community are;
1- Are there working test implemented in Australia with a focus on developing an effective hunting dog over a competitive trialling dog?

2- If not then for the hunters in the forum what would you see as a suitable minimum standard for Gundogs involved in waterfowl hunting? What would a working test look like for you to be happy that a team can be effective in the field? What essential elements would that test need?

I feel it is very important to engage with the average hunter and also to establish a meaningful and achievable defined standard for the average hunting dog. This would enable us to engage with the hunting community and promote effectively trained Gundogs as both an asset for hunters and an essential tool for ethical hunting practices.

The ability to promote ethical hunting practice through the use of properly trained gundogs being essential to the future of our sport and our hunting culture.

Cheers

Alex
South Australia

[Alex Withers]

Ok I was hoping for a little response to my post. Maybe I am in the wrong forum for this.

I would appreciate any recommendations on other people / groups I could get in contact with in regards to waterfowl hunting.

Cheers

Alex

[Jessie Hughes]

Hi Alex

I have just copied your text into an email to a working Springer man, I don't know if he reads this site, or even if he can help you, however good luck.

Retrieving And Field Trials Club Of SA Inc (RAFTCOSA) generally conducts a couple of days retrieving trial training early in the season (March/April) if that is any help to you. Due to the hot weather and the abundance of snakes, activities and retrieving trials are not held til then. RAFTCOSA website https://raftcosa.weebly.com/ We have not run field trials for years unfortunately.

Jessie Hughes (Weimaraners)

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi Alex,

Come on over to Retrieving Australia group on Facebook and you will get a lot more engagement and discussion around your question. In my opinion, Australian retrieving and/or field trials DO create dogs that would be successful hunting companions. A quiet, composed, steady dog that marks the fall of game and obediently takes direction to select fallen game or to be handled to game that the dog has not seen fall, is as valued in “real life” as it is in competition. There’s nothing in competition that would negatively impact a hunting dog, although there’s plenty in hunting environments that COULD erode a dog’s competition finesse.

In Australia there are two groups that run competitions: Dogs Australia and the Working Gundog Association of Australia (WGAA which operates under the Sporting Shooters umbrella). The competitions are very similar and I would argue that being successful in either of these would translate into a pretty handy hunting companion. Acknowledging, of course, that being truly hunt savvy can only be achieved through many days in the duck blind

See you over on FB where cleverer people than me will have an opinion

Cheers
Kirsty