As we excitedly usher in the 2025/2026 British shooting season, now is an ideal time to introduce your puppy or young gundog to game if you haven’t done so previously.
Equally, if this is your dog’s first shooting season, you might have unexpectedly, and perhaps disappointingly, encountered some issues with your dog picking up or running over game.
While there is a great deal more to gundog training than rushing to introduce your dog to hunt and retrieve game, it is one of the fundamental ingredients needed if you’re looking for a reliable working dog.
Hundreds of gundog owners who train with Teach Your Gundog have no set intention of working with their pet gundogs and will never need them to flush or pick a bird.
That said, for many of our clients, field sports are a fond pastime. Nothing is more enjoyable than being out in the beating line, or picking up, with our dogs by our side, watching all the hard work we’ve done in training pay off.
For those of you who wish to work your retriever, spaniel, or HPR on a commercial shoot, small syndicate, or rough shooting, you must introduce your gundog to game carefully.
In this blog, we’ll briefly cover what you can do to get started with your puppy or young dog, as well as how to progress with a mature, more experienced dog.
A basic introduction to live game
It always pays off to provide puppies and young dogs with very early and positive introductions to birds.
If you’re fortunate enough to have access to live game, or are lucky to know a friendly gamekeeper who will give you permission to access a pen, possibly in exchange for some free labour, then this is a great opportunity to introduce a puppy.
Take your puppy or young dog to the pen when you go to fill up the water bowls and feeders for the birds. Let them take in the scent, and don’t worry if they flush at this early stage, as you want them to make the connection between the scent and the quarry.
While it might be tempting, it’s important to avoid too much control at this stage. In the same way we allow our puppies to run in on a retrieve and do not expect them to be steady from day one, we do not want to sacrifice any hunting ability or desire around game.
And we certainly do not want to create a gundog that’s reluctant to approach or get close to birds.
That said, we also do not want to encourage chasing, capturing or complete over-arousal. If you are worried about them losing their head and being unable to recall them or grab their attention, you could use a long line to maintain some connection.
What you’re looking for is a dog that’s relaxed and given the chance to use their instinct and learn for themselves.
Over time, these positive exposures will ensure that being around live game is not an over-exciting novelty for your puppy or young dog but is instead something they approach with their thinking-brain fully switched on.
Why delivery to hand is vital when retrieving game
In the UK, gamekeeping, land management, and conservation linked to shooting sports enhance our landscape and allow wildlife to thrive.
From an economic perspective, according to BASC, over a million people are involved in British shooting, which makes a substantial contribution to the rural economy, valued at £2 billion annually to the UK.
However, it is not without its opponents. So, it is paramount that anyone involved adheres to high standards, impeccable etiquette, and ethics.
Whatever your role, whether with or without your gundog, in the beating line or on a peg, to protect the future of shooting, you should always aim to act as a good ambassador for the sport. This can be done by learning and following The Code of Good Shooting Practice. (https://www.gwct.org.uk/media/768987/CodeGoodSHootingPractice.pdf)
At a minimum, from a gundog handler's point of view, one of the Code’s ‘golden rules’ is that game is food and must always be treated as such. We must ensure that “adequate provision” is made to retrieve all shot game - “dogs are an essential part of this process” and “respect for quarry is paramount”.
The quintessence of gundog work lies in retrieving. We want all game, whether that is a bird, hare or rabbit, to be delivered tenderly to hand so that it can later be prepared and cooked for the table.
From an ethical point of view too, if your dog has a poor delivery, it could allow any injured or wounded game to escape. You must work on this first, as the birds’ welfare and ensuring injured birds can be humanely dispatched are always our priority.
The retrieve chain and, more specifically, the delivery to hand aspect is one of the most stressful training challenges I see gundog owners facing. If you do not yet have a reliable retrieve and hand delivery with your dog, you should avoid introducing them to game in any form, as any bad habits transferred to the real thing can be incredibly hard to undo.
If you’re struggling with your delivery to hand, you might find this blog useful: https://www.teachyourgundog.co.uk/blogs/news/why-won-t-my-dog-fetch-the-dummy-and-bring-it-back
Building up to retrieving with cold game
If your gundog does have a reliable retrieve pattern and delivery to hand, then they’re ready to be introduced to the real thing. Many handlers get nervous at this stage, but if you have trained the retrieve well, you shouldn’t be.
The best way to approach it is first to get your dog used to picking up a variety of different dummies.
We are very fortunate in the UK to have access to a wide range of gundog training equipment suppliers who design, manufacture and sell an enormous range of training dummies that incrementally look, feel and behave more realistically to our dogs.
Begin by introducing some different weights and ensure they can retrieve dummies with toggles and streamers. These may not sound very bird-like to us, but you would be surprised at how many dogs lose their heads, and their ability to deliver to hand with it, all over a few plastic streamers!
Then move on to try using bird-shaped dummies, which typically have floppy necks and wings that will flap and move as the dog runs while carrying it.
You can then move on to dummies covered in fur or feather. You may want to buy new ones, or if you already have a good selection of dummies, you can purchase some pheasant pelts or rabbit skins and simply attach them with elastic bands or cable ties.
It does not necessarily matter which order you do this in. The idea is that we are generalising your gundog’s ability to pick up an item and bring it back to you without playing keep away or trying to destroy it.
Each article is designed to help the dog gradually transition from something that bears no resemblance to game to the real thing. When you then move on to cold game, it won’t be a massive jump from a boring green 1 lb canvas dummy.
Introducing cold game into your retrieve chain
A dummy will never smell, feel or behave like a bird.
Before we take our dog on a shoot, we can introduce cold game into the retrieve chain to allow our dogs to get used to the feathers, weight, and scent of a bird without the pressure or risks of testing them on freshly shot game.
By “cold game” we usually mean shot game birds that are frozen after shooting, then thawed and used for training. Getting cold game for training might seem a bit daunting but most professional trainers will be able to help you. Once the shoot season is underway, it is also worth asking your local gamekeeper or shoot captain if you can purchase a brace of birds for your training.
When using cold game, make sure that it’s as clean as possible. Any blood or visible flesh could encourage young dogs to lick, bite or play with the bird instead of bringing it straight back.
If your dog isn’t interested in picking the bird or looks nervous about it, you could either go back to generalising your retrieve pattern to feather-covered dummies, or you could place the cold game in a sock so it still smells but doesn’t look intimidating.
There are disadvantages to using cold game. Firstly, whether laying a trail or putting out marks, memories, or blinds, is the scent left by your feet and hands, the inexperienced dog can start to hunt for your tracks instead of the game scent. The other is that cold game that is more than a few hours old (or defrosted) smells very different to a freshly shot bird so it can be off-putting for many dogs. Its main advantage is to get your dog used to picking an actual bird in shape, size, and weight.
Troubleshooting game-related problems
Whether your retriever is reluctant to pick game, or your spaniel is over-aroused by even the slightest whiff of game scent, it’s vital to address unwanted behaviours before they become lasting habits that are hard to fix.
While the human instinct might be to keep trying until the dog gets it right, repetition over time can only cause more harm. Too much desperation to get a dog to pick game can lead to the dog being even more wary and reluctant. Too much time spent over threshold around game can lead to a dog that becomes frantic and impossible to communicate with.
If you’re experiencing game-related challenges in your training, then it might be time to book a 121 gundog training session. Working one to one means we can look closely at what’s happening with your gundog, identify where things are going wrong, and put together practical exercises that build confidence and solid behaviours around game at the right pace for you both.
If you would like to book a one-to-one gundog training session with Jules Morgan at Teach Your Gundog, please click here to view her diary https://www.teachyourgundog.co.uk/products/in-person-121-with-jules
All photographs credit Alice Loder Photography