Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

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bdneale
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Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by bdneale » Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:34 pm

Thoughts and opinions on running two spaniels at the same time? Me and a buddy both have young English Cockers and have talked about hunting them together. I can see this being a disaster when it comes to the retrieval. Anyone have any experience?

Thanks

fishvik
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by fishvik » Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:46 pm

I hunt two, some times three, dogs at a time. There is usually a mass charge to make the retrieve. I let them all search, but when one has made the retrieve I call the others off, Sometimes with younger dogs a little simulation with a e collar helps. Never had any problems with it breaking any drive to retrieve. The other way of course is to have them obey hup to flush and shot and send a specific dog to retrieve. But I've seen a lot of cripples lost that way with young dogs.

polmaise
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by polmaise » Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:20 pm

bdneale wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:34 pm
Thoughts and opinions on running two spaniels at the same time? Me and a buddy both have young English Cockers and have talked about hunting them together. I can see this being a disaster when it comes to the retrieval. Anyone have any experience?

Thanks
It would be ..if nether is trained to be steady to flush/shot/fall .
Add in honor whilst the other is handled .
As for one handler hunting two or multiple , then that's a different ball game and is also achievable.

bdneale
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by bdneale » Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:47 pm

polmaise wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:20 pm

It would be ..if nether is trained to be steady to flush/shot/fall .
Add in honor whilst the other is handled.

Neither dog is steady to flush/shot/fall.
My pup is real young only about 10 months.
How old do you start steadiness training? I’m worried if I start too soon I could affect his drive.

polmaise
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by polmaise » Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:22 am

" I think a lot of the questions fielded on this forum are from folks who are too focused on the result instead of process to get there. " quote Garrison.
Posted by Sharon on another thread. All too often ! and not enough.

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Sharon
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by Sharon » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:10 pm

bdneale wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:47 pm
polmaise wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:20 pm

It would be ..if nether is trained to be steady to flush/shot/fall .
Add in honor whilst the other is handled.

Neither dog is steady to flush/shot/fall.
My pup is real young only about 10 months.
How old do you start steadiness training? I’m worried if I start too soon I could affect his drive.
THis member is still waiting for an answer to his above question. Imo 10 months is certainly time to start steadiness training, but I don't know spaniels. Any help for him.
" We are more than our gender, skin color, class, sexuality or age; we are unlimited potential, and can not be defined by one label." quote A. Bartlett

Steve007
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by Steve007 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:26 pm

Sharon wrote:
Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:10 pm
THis member is still waiting for an answer to his above question. Imo 10 months is certainly time to start steadiness training, but I don't know spaniels. Any help for him.
The problem is similar to getting a pointing dog steady to wing, shot and fall. You need to train the dogs separately, and if a young dog is in the early stages of steady but hunting with a dog that is not, you are likely to be out of luck or forced to get more harsh with him than you would prefer. If you are serious about having a well broke dog, you'd be better off hunting the dog separately for a long while. If you dog puts in a full season of hunting alone (or with a well-trained dog) until he is solidly steady, you can hunt him with an unbroke dog and see what happens. But look for him to take several steps back in his training the point that you have to get rid of the whole idea. Two less than ideally trained dogs hunting together is not likely to be beneficial.

polmaise
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by polmaise » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:47 pm

Sharon wrote:
Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:10 pm
bdneale wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:47 pm
polmaise wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:20 pm

It would be ..if nether is trained to be steady to flush/shot/fall .
Add in honor whilst the other is handled.

Neither dog is steady to flush/shot/fall.
My pup is real young only about 10 months.
How old do you start steadiness training? I’m worried if I start too soon I could affect his drive.
THis member is still waiting for an answer to his above question. Imo 10 months is certainly time to start steadiness training, but I don't know spaniels. Any help for him.
This member answered with a question. After dismissing the process. 5 month is old enough for steadiness training ,if that's what you want . the age is not the constraint ,neither is it the motivator.

oregon woodsmoke
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by oregon woodsmoke » Wed Oct 27, 2021 4:31 pm

They are flushing spaniels and you can take a spaniel out into the field with barely any training at all, and he will put up some birds for you, locate what you've shot, and more than likely fetch the bird back to somewhere in your vicinity, although no guarantee about the fetch or that your dog won't eat the bird. It's nothing like taking an untrained pointer out, who is going to flush birds too far away from you to even see what kind of bird it is, and maybe not come back to you when you are ready to leave the field.

Here's the problem with hunting an untrained spaniel: he is going to be right on top of the birds he flushes and if the bird flies low (which many of them do) and the dog immediately gives chase, the dog is at risk of being shot by an excited hunter.

To keep your dog safe, the dog is trained to sit at the flush and to stay put until his name is called, releasing him to go and fetch. Only the dog called should go after the bird.

If you take two untrained spaniels out to hunt together, they are going to egg each other on and compete and your dog is going to learn to do things in an unsafe manner. Spaniels most likely won't get into a fight over a downed bird, but it isn't going to be any sort of a controlled fetch.

Maybe take a couple of safe crates and work the dogs one at a time.

If these are both well trained dogs, you most certainly can work them at the same time. They should both sit at the flush and wait until one of them is released to go and fetch. No problem at all. I've seen hunters out with six spaniels all at the same time. But, well trained spaniels, not dogs still learning..

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birdshot
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by birdshot » Fri Oct 29, 2021 3:08 pm

I hunted these three together, the one with the bad hair could not be trusted but the other two were steady. I don't recall taking much time to teach steady, but I spent a lot of time teaching hup to whistle, shot, hand signals. By the time I introduced real birds, the two I could trust, would have sat in a fire. The wild dog, was very soft, so she had a lot of wing clips, I never got her completely steady but we did scratch out a third place during a very windy trial where all of her retrieves fell behind me and she had to look past me to her bird.
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Sharon
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by Sharon » Fri Oct 29, 2021 3:23 pm

What a great picture!
" We are more than our gender, skin color, class, sexuality or age; we are unlimited potential, and can not be defined by one label." quote A. Bartlett

mnaj_springer
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Re: Hunting two spaniels at the same time?

Post by mnaj_springer » Wed Nov 10, 2021 10:25 am

bdneale wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:47 pm
polmaise wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:20 pm

It would be ..if nether is trained to be steady to flush/shot/fall .
Add in honor whilst the other is handled.

Neither dog is steady to flush/shot/fall.
My pup is real young only about 10 months.
How old do you start steadiness training? I’m worried if I start too soon I could affect his drive.
Here's what I'd tell you and others may disagree. This is probably this pup's first season so you could take him out and have fun hunting and even with another spaniel out there.

Just keep your distance so the dogs aren't necessarily working the same bird(s). Before doing this brush up on your recall and your "hup" commands. You need to be able to get him back and get his butt on the ground to control him. If you want to next summer, that's when you can start on steadiness. Start with getting him line steady and then move on to steadiness to flush. Keep in mind, MANY if not MOST people hunting with flushing dogs in the US do not steady their dogs and they still have fun, productive hunts with their dogs.

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