by Chad Love

A question recently popped up on the Field & Stream "Answers" section about a young dog, a Brittany, who wasn't showing much interest in birds.

Here's the question in its entirety, posed by reader Turkeyhunter39:
I could really use some advice. I have a 5 month old Brittany that I am starting to train. Let me state that this is my first attempt at training a hunting dog. We have been working on basic obedience. I have introduced him to water and he loves to swim. He has been showing interest in birds and absolutely loves playing with feathers. So, I got him some live quail and have been throwing him some lock winged quail.

By Chad Love

Many of you are probably familiar with the books and stories of Jim Fergus. Although primarily a novelist these days, Fergus was at one point an active hook-and-bullet freelancer (in fact, he recently wrote a piece for F&S). He also penned two very good non-fiction books: "A Hunter's Road" and "The Sporting Road." "A Hunter's Road" is his chronicle of a season spent bird hunting across the country, and "The Sporting Road" is mostly a collection and expansion of some of his better magazine pieces. Both are, I believe, out of print, but can be easily found online and well worth your time.
 
Anyway, Fergus wrote a screamingly funny piece in "The Sporting Road" I think we can all relate to in some way. Its title? "A Close Call With The Dog Cops," in which Fergus is walking his lab, Sweetzer, off-lead but at heel and in control at a city park when he's confronted by, of course, the dog police. Papers and identification for both dog and man are demanded, dog and man are threatened with incarceration, dog and man make a run for it, escape in comical manner, and all ends well.

By Chad Love

While perusing the submissions for the next reader training tip knife giveaway, I came across a question sent in by reader Jesse Brenwall. Jesse was dealing with a frustrating and not-uncommon problem: a dog who still refuses to swim despite your best efforts.

Jesse writes: After reading some of the current tips for training the Cheetos to help with water I figured you may be able to help me with a problem I am having with my dog. I do however feel as though I have wrecked him. I rescued a lab golden when he was about 7 months and let him run into chilly deep water in April and now is almost a year and he hasn't been the same since. I have tried getting him to swim with the pack and he just stands on the shore and chases them on the bank.

I have also tried throwing his retrieving toys out and he waits for them to float back in if at all normally loses interest. I have tried bringing him out and he swims back to shore just fine. I have recently got him to standing in the water and running around in it by having him chase food around but I have hit another wall with him not leaving anything deeper than just touching his chest. So if you could show me where I can find any tips that would get him to actually leave shore and swim that would be greatly appreciated or maybe ask and see if someone has also over come this problem.