Fly away

Tomorrow we will return to Circle W for some practice with quail and chukar.  We will practice fly aways. 

A fly away occurs when the dog flushes the bird and the gunner either misses the shot or does not get a shot off at all - - a very common occurrence in hunting.  You do not want the dog to chase a fly-away to the ends of the earth and disturbing all of the birds and wildlife between you and the horizon.  For a dog that is not steady at the flush (i.e., does not sit when he flushes a bird), the next best thing is to call the dog off the fly-away and return him to his line where he can start working the ground close to, and within gun range, of you. 

Larsen will chase a fly-away forever, confident (and well-founded confidence) that he can track down the bird wherever it lands, grab it, and bring it back.  It's remarkable to watch, of course, but this long-range solo performance is not the type of hunting that the upland hunter ordered up when he grabbed his gun.  Our goal, therefore, will be to break Larsen off of the chase and return him to the field.

What we will do is let him find a quail or chukar and let it get up and shoot with the intention of missing.  Bird and dog will take off.  There will be a point of inflexion where dog slows from his insane dash to a more measured run.  At that point, I will hit the whistle and wave a clip-wing quail over my head.  If need be, I will release the bird and let it flutter about.  Anything to grab his attention and get him to head back to me.

The AKC Hunt Test permits a Junior dog to chase for a bit, provided he comes back.  This is at odds with some of the British-style training books such as Kenneth Roebuck's Gun Dog Training Spaniels and Retrievers  which counsels that the dog should be steady to wing and shot early on.  We've followed the AKC approach, and so are beginning the steadying process with our fly-away work.