From our November/December 2025 Issue
Bill and I cantered through the piney woods, and when we came to the clearing, I reined my walking horse to a stop.
“You see him?” Bill asked.
“Nope, but he’s over there,” I said, pointing. “Three hundred and fifty yards and down by the creek.”
Bill laughed. “Technology sure is a great thing.”
Dang if dog-training methods and gear haven’t changed a lot in the past half-century. And some savvy handlers can tell you just how much.
Steve Smith first noticed a dramatic shift in gundog training in the late 1970s. He saw it in the magazines he launched or edited, including Gun Dog, Shooting Sportsman, Pointing Dog Journal and Retriever Journal. “Compulsion training has always been a common dog training method,” Smith said, “but many handlers took it to an extreme. Dogs that broke point, busted birds or were generally disobedient were beaten with a fist, a two-by-four or a crack from a flushing whip. The theory was that punishment corrected problems, and negative reinforcement gave dogs something to remember. The worst offenders were ‘dusted off.’ Dusting off a dog meant he was shot with a .410 load of No. 9s in the butt. Fortunately, I haven’t heard of any trainer doing that in a very long time.
“E-collars revolutionized the way we train dogs, for they really are a check cord with up to a mile-long reach. The first e-collars were big, heavy to carry and delivered a tremendous voltage in one, single blast. Tri-Tronics—now Garmin-Tri-Tronics—was a game changer and launched affordable, lighter and more usable models in the late ’70s through the early ’80s. The collars have been improved so much that these days they offer multiple levels of stimulation. Many also have features that handlers like that are easier on the dog, with tone and vibration being two of them. Those improvements are probably why we describe them now as ‘e-collars’ instead of ‘shock collars.’ The former description is far more accurate.
“Another change is that current handlers seem far more interested in understanding dog psychology. The bond between owners/handlers and dogs is critical. And it goes both ways, meaning that it’s just as important for a dog to be man’s best friend as it is for a man to be a dog’s best friend. That goes for women, too, for there are a lot more women trainers than there were 50 years ago.”
Randall Moore of Cracklin’ Tail Kennels, in Beckley, West Virginia, has been training bird dogs for about four decades. While Moore has had a number of excellent dogs, like Cracklin Tail Doc, Hedi, Blue and Diesel, he might be best known for 6xCH Cracklin Tail Speed.
“I got into bird dogs by training pleasure horses,” Moore said. “Training a horse is all about the timing, and that’s similar to dogs. You’ve got to correct the mistake at the time. If there is any delay, the animal has no idea why he’s being corrected. Some handlers yell to try and get a dog back on track; but the louder you yell or the harder you hit, the more scared you make the dog. Yelling and hitting might make the handler believe he’s doing something constructive when he’s not. If the timing of your correction is right, then your voice can be quiet. In fact, I believe timing is a big difference between pro and amateur handlers.
“In the past I used barrels and chains to steady up dogs. I don’t fool with them anymore, because there are a lot of other shortcuts that can be used. It’s the same when training all animals. A ring in a bull’s nose makes him cooperate just as a bit in a horse’s mouth makes him come around. E-collars, when used correctly, are the ring and bit for dogs.
“A long time ago we’d use whoa posts and spiked pinch collars with check cords. Nowadays an e-collar around the neck and a belly band are easier. Garmin-Tri-Tronics transitioned the collars from the original Dobbs versions that we used to call ‘trash breakers.’ Add a check cord with a half-hitch around their waist to keep them from spinning, and you’re good for training the two most important commands: recall and ‘Whoa.’ E-collars have made a lot of the training gear we used to use obsolete.”
For 40 years South Carolina’s Mark Fulmer has developed pups and dogs at his Sarahsetter Kennels. The pro trainer is credited with introducing clickers and positive training methods for bird dogs, both of which came from a personal experience. “Back in 1978 I had a dog that wouldn’t listen,” Fulmer said. “At the time I was running a 180 Hot Collar, but then Garmin-Tri-Tronics came out with some new features with variable intensities and the new tones, and they worked. I started working with the dog with clickers and treats. One time I was on horseback and he was a few hundred yards away. I called him back, hit the clicker and he came running. No screaming, no yelling, no shocking, nothing. That’s when I realized the power of clickers and positive training methods, and it made me shift all of my training over time.
“Positive reinforcement is a progressive system of rewards for good behavior. Praise comes at the completion of the task. Clicker training is conditioned reinforcement, just like what I saw on the dog hundreds of yards away. Dogs equate the sound of the click with a desired behavior and a treat coming as the reward for that behavior. It’s a proactive approach to training that rewards good behavior instead of punishing bad behavior. That’s a big change in training for me, for when it’s done correctly, there aren’t a lot of mistakes that need to be corrected.”
Pennsylvania’s Bob Watts, a co-owner of Cover Dog Setters with Dick Brenneman and Thor Kain, has produced some of the top-performing cover-dog setters in history. Cover Dog Setters dogs are the only bird dogs to have won the “big four” of cover-dog field trials: the Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic, the Grand National Grouse Futurity, the Grand National Grouse Championship and the Grand National Grouse & Woodcock Invitational. Watts has always focused on puppy development, so while some techniques may have changed, his overall approach has not.
According to Watts: “Over the decades, the training and development of pups for grouse and quail trials have changed; so that has led us to change our methods. Today a competitive bird dog is expected to point with a straight 12 o’clock tail, show great intensity and maintain that intense composure through the flight of the bird and shot. Decades back, quail trials didn’t emphasize composure after the flush. Today it’s essential. So now in developing pups for quail trials we start pups on the bench or barrel and teach them to stand tall and motionless. Most pups like to do this almost daily starting between six and eight weeks of age. They like the time with the trainer, and the trainer gets his hands on the pup, building the relationship and confidence the pup will benefit from throughout his training and life. Some are more natural at doing this than others.”
Running patterns are different too. “Grouse dogs run a different pattern than quail dogs,” Watts said. “Some describe a ‘Figure 8’ pattern, so some trainers put their pups on a 20-foot lead and get them to swing from side to side out in front. We do not use this method, as it is a bit mechanical. Instead, we prefer to let the pups range to the front in a pattern that’s more natural and objective focused. Planting birds in specific places teaches pups where birds can be found. In contrast, quail dogs ned an edge-running pattern. They need to be able to take an edge while looking for quail that have come to the field edge to feed. The dogs run big, which makes using ATVs and UTVs necessary too. [These vehicles] weren’t around when we got started back in the 1960s.”
There is always a lot of new gear for training, and these days some kennels are impeccably state-of-the-art. Just as dog genetics have improved, so have training methods. Keep a winning game-plan; change a losing game-plan. And these handlers always focus on doing what’s right by their dogs.
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