Season is over, working your dog in the closed season

Hopefully you will all have had an excellent shooting season. I do hope you and your dog enjoyed the time spent out shooting.
Now time to think of the dogs, you cannot just expect them to be like a machine and be ready for the next season. Don’t be kennel or dog blind, what faults did your dog have? Now is the time to work on those faults during the off season.

I often hear people say my dog wont stop on the whistle at fifty yards or so out, I ask does your dog stop on the whistle ten feet away, 99% of the time the answer is no. It’s the same with recall, I hear all too often my dog will not come back to me when it has its nose down on game, often enough I will find the recall is missing on general walks.

If your dog constantly breaks, you need to work on this as guaranteed, this habit will be there next time and the time after.

Go back to basics with your dog, heel, sit stay, recall, work on the dogs faults, make this fun but don’t just expect your dog to be ready if you aren’t going to do anything with him until next time he hunts.