An invitation to hunt over another hunter’s dog is a privilege. You get to watch a creature born and bred for the task as it flushes, points, chases, and/or retrieves. If all goes well, you will experience a classic hunt that just might leave you dreaming about a hunting dog of your own. All that’s asked of you is a little hunting etiquette. Here’s a rundown of the dos and don’ts.
1. Don’t give the dog commands. A hunting dog is taught to look to its owner. If you try to direct the dog, you are going to confuse or distract it and possibly irritate the owner. Leave the directions to the person who bought, bonded with, and trained the dog. They know the hand signals and commands the dog knows. They understand the dog’s temperament, the way it thinks, its abilities, and body language. Plus, it’s just plain good manners.
2. Abide by the owner’s requests. If the owner asks that you only shoot at flushed or pointed birds or refrain from shooting wounded birds when a dog is in the middle of a retrieve, that’s what you ought to do. These requests are generally made to ensure the dog’s safety or to teach it good habits. Respect that.
3. Be patient. Few hunting dogs are perfect. During a hunt, a dog might miss flushing an obvious bird, make a less than a textbook retrieve, or bust birds too far out. Accept that. Sometime during that same hunt, that dog will likely prove its worth.
4. Respect the retrieve. A dog doesn’t retrieve a bird to the person who shot it. It retrieves to its handler. Don’t get in the way of that. It creates confusion and could possibly introduce bad habits to the dog. Let the retrieve play. Don’t worry, you’ll get your bird.
5. Don’t feed or spoil the dog. Feeding is distracting and can be unhealthy at the time. And fawning over it is best saved till the hunt’s end.
6. Shoot safely. Don’t shoot at low birds when a dog is near them. There’s too much risk. Let a flushed bird get up and away before pulling the trigger.
7. Before the hunt, ask the owner how they want you to handle birds that are not flushed or pointed by the dog. Some handlers prefer you not to shoot at them. Others are OK with it.
8. Keep unsolicited dog handling advice to yourself. There’s nothing more annoying than someone telling you how to handle your dog. If the handler wants your input, they’ll ask.
9. Don’t complain about the dog work. If it’s not going right, no one is more aware of it than the dog’s owner. They don’t need reminding.
10. Don’t rush the hunt. Sometimes dogs take a bit of time to unravel the scent of the game bird or animal it’s after. If you rush through the area the dog is working, you might distract it from that job.
Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Ontario OUT of DOORS
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